Soup swap labels
Below is a sheet of six soup jar labels with made-up soups and cooks. Every label has room for the soup, the cook's nickname, the day it was made, a keep cold or freeze by line, a reheat line and diet stickers. Pick your paper size and print the sheet to check the fit, then write your own soup on each label by hand.
Roasted tomato and basil
- Cook:
- Maple
- Made on:
- Jan 14
- Storage:
- Fridge: eat by ____ (check your food-safety agency)
- Reheat:
- Warm gently on the stove. Stir in a spoon of cream if you like.
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Spiced red lentil
- Cook:
- Nutmeg
- Made on:
- Jan 14
- Storage:
- Freeze by Jan 16
- Reheat:
- Thaw overnight in the fridge, then heat. Add lemon at the end.
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
Chicken and white bean
- Cook:
- Pepper
- Made on:
- Jan 15
- Storage:
- Fridge: eat by ____ (check your food-safety agency)
- Reheat:
- Simmer on the stove until steaming hot.
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
Cream of mushroom
- Cook:
- Clover
- Made on:
- Jan 15
- Storage:
- Freeze by Jan 16
- Reheat:
- Thaw first. Heat low and stir often so it stays smooth.
- Vegetarian
Butternut squash with pecans
- Cook:
- Poppy
- Made on:
- Jan 13
- Storage:
- Freeze by Jan 15
- Reheat:
- Heat from frozen in a pot with a splash of water. Pecans are in the jar lid.
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
- Contains nuts
Smoky black bean
- Cook:
- Juniper
- Made on:
- Jan 14
- Storage:
- Fridge: eat by ____ (check your food-safety agency)
- Reheat:
- Heat in a pot or the microwave. Top with lime and cilantro.
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
The five diet stickers
The sheet uses vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free and contains nuts. Tick only what you are sure of. A stock cube or a can of beans can carry milk or wheat, so check the packets before you put "dairy-free" on a jar.
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
- Contains nuts
What to put on a soup label
The host guide at Perdue says "each soup should be labeled," and adds that the soups "should be refrigerated or frozen to make it home safely." It doesn't list label fields. Here is my suggestion, in order of how much a person at the table needs it:
- Soup name and cook. The name is how people find it again in the fridge, and the nickname tells them who to ask about it.
- Diet stickers and nuts. This is what lets a guest skip a jar without opening it.
- Date made. Without it nobody knows how old the soup is by the time it gets eaten.
- Keep cold or freeze by. Jars get eaten days later, so a date on the lid beats memory. The storage times on the sample labels are made up. I don't give storage times here, so take yours from your national food safety agency.
- Reheat line. One sentence, plus any topping that travels separately, such as croutons or herbs.
For allergens, the FDA's food allergy page names sesame as the ninth major food allergen in the United States, effective in 2023. The five stickers here cover only some of them. If a guest has an allergy, ask them to talk to the cook, and add the ingredient to the label when you know it.
Simple Bites suggests guests bring a recipe printout. That is a good backup for anything the label can't hold.
Printing tips
The sheet prints in black and white, two labels across. Use plain paper and cut along the dashed lines, or print on sticker paper. Tape a label to the lid rather than the jar side, since jars often go into a sink. If the print dialog shows another paper size, change it there. The buttons only set the default.
More guides
- How many cookies to bring to a cookie exchange (table by guest count)
- How to host a cookie exchange (invites, labels, containers, timeline)
- Cookie exchange invitation wording (email, chat and card texts to copy)
- Printable cookie swap sign up sheet (blank, print at home)
- Cookie exchange labels (sample sheet to print)
- Soup swap rules: how much soup to bring (quarts by guest count)
- How to host a soup swap (timeline, tasting setup, take-home round)
- Soup swap labels (sample sheet for jars, Letter and A4)