Winter Gift Idea: Soup in a Jar

December 23, 2015

Instead of cookies, mix up your edible hostess gifts this year and try this homemade soup mix in a jar. It’s easy to make and budget-friendly, too. Your giftee will love how easy it is to make the soup. Just add water, chicken, and the contents of the jar to the slow cooker, and you’re all set.

Soup in a Jar for Neighbor Christmas Gifts

Every year around the holidays I receive a lot of sweets from neighbors. Don’t get me wrong, I love sweets, but when the new year rolls around, it’s fun to give and get something other than cookies and candies. This homemade soup mix in a jar is really easy to put together and can be made whenever they want (it’s not perishable). It is so tasty…and healthy! My family loves it.

You’ll just need a few ingredients and a jar to get started. Some of these ingredients you may want to purchase in the bulk bins of your grocery store. Others you may already have on hand!

To make this soup in a jar I used dried onion, chicken bouillon, pearl barley, lentils, split peas, wild rice, bay leaf, basil, thyme, salt and pepper. I layered the ingredients in a pint-size mason jar, added a red ribbon, and bada-bing bada boom… it’s done!

You’ll definitely want to leave instructions on how to make the soup with the jar. Make a hand-written note, create something cute on your computer, or use the label below. It’s up to you.

To use this label on the top of your mason jar lid just right click on the image and press “copy image.” Paste the image into a Word document and resize to the size or your jar lid. Print the label and cut out. Paste on top of the jar lid.

Karen Petersen is a cookbook author and food blogger at 365 Days of Slow Cooking. Mostly she writes about the new foods and recipes she's been making at her home for her husband and two children. She loves easy recipes that are full of flavor. She is a crockpot connoisseur and has created over 1000 slow cooker recipes in the past 5 1/2 years. She loves dessert more than anything else in the whole world and likes to plan it, make it, eat it, talk about it while eating it and then review it after it's gone. You can also visit Karen on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest.