Freezing chicken noodle soup.

[Arkansas Granny]

We have found out that my ex has pancreatic cancer and starts chemo this week followed by radiation later on. My daughter wants to make a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup for him and freeze it in serving size bowls. Has anyone done this? Do the noodles (from scratch) deteriorate or do they do OK? Would it be better to freeze the noodles separately and then just cook and add them to the reheated soup? Would the thickness of the noodles have any bearing on how well it would freeze.

Any advice will be welcome. TIA.

[efhmc]

1. I have some lovely soup which I made yesterday. I can run a test.

I'll put some in the freezer and let you know how it turns out, but my suggestion it to make and add the needles when you thaw the soup or use rice. Good luck to your ex.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Thanks. My fear is that the noodles will turn to mush during the thawing and reheating.

I just want to make it convenient to serve with the fewest steps possible.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. Just undercook the noodles a little, and add extra broth cause the noodles may suck it up.

and then freeze in quart ziplock bags. (this is much easier with an extra person to hold the bag open) and make sure you squeeze all the air out. Freeze flat, then they can be stacked to save room.
Thaw and heat

FreedRadical is having a minor procedure done today, so yesterday I sent over a whole stack of chicken noodle and beef noodle soups for his recovery

edit: best noodle for this are regular dried wide egg noodles. Homemade noodles will get too mushy. when reheating don't stir too much.

[Warpy]

4. The suggestions above are good ones.

Also lay in a supply of nutritional shakes and keep them ice cold and available. Your ex is not going to want to eat anything but ice cold shakes can often stay down when nothing else will.

Diet shakes and nutritional shakes have the same formula so let his likes and dislikes in flavors guide you. Some people require the unflavored shakes and the hospital nutritionist can set him up with those if he needs them.

Soup freezes very well and undercooked noodles, the broad and thick ones, freeze well with it.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. Thanks. My daughter is very concerned that his current wife won't be able to follow

the dietary guidelines from the nutritionist due to her own health problems and cooking experience, so she's thinking of ideas that will help them both out. She is going with them to treatments, so maybe she could talk to the nutritionist on her own and get some advice. The prognosis is not good and she just wants to do something to help out.

[cbayer]

6. I would just freeze the broth, then cook noodles

in the broth when he is ready to eat it.

That way he can put in as much and whatever kind he wants.

And if he just wants broth, then he can have that.

I might also cut up some veggies and put those in separate, freezable bags. He can cook them in the broth as well.

I don't think freezing pasta works very well, but I'm kind of particular about my pasta.

[sir pball]

7. Definitely do it separately, or put raw pasta in the soup.

If you're using homemade fresh pasta, freeze it separately - it keeps great that way, but I can tell you firsthand it just disintegrates if you put it in the soup and freeze it, even without heat.

If you're using dried pasta, drop it in the cold soup then freeze, just let it cook while you reheat the soup. As long as it isn't rehydrated when it's frozen, everything will be fine.

[laundry_queen]

8. What I have found

Is when I freeze it, the noodles suck up a LOT of broth. I usually counter this by just adding some water or new broth when I heat it up. The noodles DO get a bit softer, but I never found it a huge problem (I've used storebought and homemade, thick and thin). It depends on your tastes though. I think separating them is too much work (for me) for the result but YMMV.

[Jenoch]

9. Your hunch is correct, the noodles turn to mush.

I would freeze the homemade noodles uncooked and tell the wife to cook them ij boiling salted water and then put some noodles in a bowl and pour over the reheated soup on the noodles. I never freeze soup with noodles. Barley, yes. Noodles, no.