The One Food Ina Garten And Jeffrey Never Skip

Whether she's recipe testing for an upcoming cookbook or filming some type of content for her fans, Ina Garten is always in the kitchen whipping up something delicious. However, when just feeding herself, Garten has revealed that her day-to-day eating doesn't have as much variety as you might assume. She typically starts her day with toast slathered in French butter and shaved sea salt (a recent change from her long-time breakfast go-to that she ate every day for a decade, Irish oatmeal with salt) and sips tea with honey mid-morning. And, when it comes lunch time, there's one food that she and her husband Jeffrey never skip — a comforting bowl of soup.

During an appearance on Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast "Wiser Than Me," Garten revealed that she and Jeffrey always tuck into soup for lunch. While she doesn't specify whether they drink just one type of soup or mix it up within that category, on the day of the podcast, Italian wedding soup was on the Garten menu. According to Garten, the choice is largely due to practicality. As she told Louis-Dreyfus on the "Wiser Than Me" podcast, "I can make a lot of soup and leave it in the freezer," explaining how it is "so easy" as a lunch choice. Given her culinary ethos of simple dishes prepared with high-quality ingredients, soup seems like a fitting choice for her daily lunch ritual. And, if she's going with her own recipes, there's plenty of variety — throughout her many cookbooks she has at least about 50 soup recipes that could go into her freezer rotation.

Perhaps Ina Garten's lunch ritual has inspired you to start serving up more soups, but you're not sure how long soups will last in the freezer. Luckily, she has an answer for that as well — the majority of soups, as well as soup staples like chicken stock, will last about four to six months in the freezer. This means you could definitely prep a few different soups when you have more time and freeze them, giving you a variety of options (we've even got 12 great soup recipes for the chillier months as inspiration to get you started).

There are a few things to keep in mind for best results, though. First, keep the type of soup in mind. While you can theoretically freeze any soup, the texture of cream-based soups can be affected by the freezing process, while soup components like pasta or rice often become mushy and gummy in texture when reheating them from frozen. For these soups, consider a two-step process — freeze the soup in it's nearly complete form, and simply add in the tricky ingredients in question when reheating, such as tossing in a cup of cream or a scoop of cooked rice. And either way, make sure you're storing your soup in freezer-safe, airtight containers to prevent freezer burn. Finally, when you're portioning out your soup, leave a little bit of space in the container rather than filling it right to the top. The liquid in the soup can expand when it freezes, so it needs a bit of room.