Make Your Soups More Satisfying With This Affordable, Low-Effort Shortcut

As the seasons change from summer to fall, you're probably starting to ramp up your soup rotation. If you want to beef up the soups themselves, you can do so with the help of frozen hash browns. Not only are they pre-peeled, sliced, and cooked, but they're also an affordable way to bulk up your soup and make it more filling.

Potatoes are a hearty starch that you'll find in many stews and soups already, but hashbrowns take the prep work out of any recipe. Plus, hashbrowns are versatile enough to be used as the base of a soup, a flavor booster, thickening agent, or even just a crispy garnish. Potatoes are earthy and savory, providing a delicious flavorful foundation for all kinds of veggies, meat, and fish. Potatoes also contain a wealth of starches to release into the broth of your soup, effectively thickening it. 

Hashbrowns, whether shredded or cubed, are small enough to cook quickly, so you can make a hearty and satisfying soup in less than 30 minutes. If you're looking for a quality hash-brown brand, Ore-Ida is our all-time favorite. Plus, you can buy various different types of hashbrowns under the Ore-Ida brand name for various textures and creative uses.

The most obvious way to incorporate hashbrowns into soup is by making them the star of the show. Throw a bag of frozen hash browns into a crock pot or soup pot with some spices, aromatics, broth, and cream to simmer before blending into a rich and hearty potato soup. We have a whopping 14 potato soup recipes for you to try the frozen hashbrown short cut on. 

You can also use hashbrowns to bring some heft and creaminess to a creamy vegetable soup like cauliflower potato soup or cheesy cauliflower cheddar soup. They'd also help thicken a broccoli cheddar soup. Of course, you can keep hashbrowns whole to add texture and heft to a brothy vegetable soup like this old-fashioned cabbage soup or a roasted veggie and tomato lentil soup.

If you're making a chicken soup, hash browns are a great addition; you can add them into a simmering pot of chicken carcass soup toward the end of the cooking time instead of using raw potatoes. If you're looking for a gluten-free chicken noodle soup, swap the noodles for hashbrowned potatoes. Fry shredded frozen hashbrowns to top a bowl of beef chili or beer cheese soup. Cut a frozen hashbrown patty in half instead of a crouton over a bowl of French onion soup.