Make this Friendship Soup Mix in a Jar for an Easy Gift

If you’re looking for an easy hostess gift or want to share just a little something this holiday season, you can hardly go wrong with this friendship soup mix in a jar. It’s a perfect way to give a chef the night off after a busy time of year.

Be sure to try our favorite sausage lentil soup recipe, too!

JAR full of dry lentils and rice for soup.

Homemade Soup Mix in a Jar

When it comes to making homemade gifts, sometimes simpler is better. I mean, if it’s easy to do, you’ll get it done, right??

This layered soup in a jar is as easy as that. In fact, this is one of those gifts that kids can make, since it’s basically just a matter of pouring ingredients into a jar in the proper order. A canning funnel makes this even easier, my friends.

Give them as teacher gifts or hostess gifts or leave a jar in the mailbox for the mail carrier. They’ll appreciate the gesture.

individual ingredients for soup in a jar in glass dishes.

Ingredients

Dried Legumes Split peas and lentils add protein to the mix. You can use green split peas and brown lentils, as shown here, or opt for yellow split peas and pink lentils. 

Dried Grains Barley and rice add heartiness and more fiber to the recipe. 

Pasta Choose a small pasta like Ditalini or elbow macaroni. 

Beef Granules Many commercial bouillon options include MSG in the ingredient list. Be sure to check the ingredient list if you’d like to avoid this. Simple Girl brand dry bouillon is both sodium and gluten free. 

Seasonings Italian seasoning, dried minced onions, and bay leaves round out the flavors of this ready-to-use soup mix.

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Hot tip: Check your local natural food store to purchase the dry grains and legumes in bulk.

Filling the Jar

There’s really not a lot to making this soup mix in a jar, but do note that it’s best to layer the ingredients in the proper order. This prevents the seasonings from getting all jumbled up with the other dry ingredients, making the jar look messy.

The pasta should go on top of everything, as it’s added to the soup at a different time. I suggest cutting a piece of paperboard to fit in the jar and setting it on top of the ingredients before measuring in the pasta. This will make it easier for your gift recipient to separate it when cooking.

Download this free printable label for gift giving. 

instruction label for making friendship soup with ready-to-use soup mix.

Need more easy gift ideas? 

JAR full of dry lentils and rice for soup.

★ Did you make this soup mix in a jar? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below! ★

JAR full of dry lentils and rice for soup.

Friendship Soup Mix in a Jar

Yield: 1 quart jar
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

This layered dry mix is perfect for gift giving. Just print out and tie on instructions for using it!

Ingredients

To make the gift jar

  • ¼ cup dried minced onion
  • 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
  • ⅓ cup beef granules
  • 1 cup dried split peas
  • 1 cup dried lentils
  • ½ cup pearl barley
  • ¼ cup uncooked white rice
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ½ cup uncooked small pasta, like Ditalini

For Making the soup

  • 1 pound ground beef, browned
  • 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 15 ounces tomato sauce
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Layer the dry friendship soup ingredients in the jar in this order to prevent the seasonings from sifting through the dried legumes and grains: onion, Italian seasoning, beef granules, ½ cup split peas, rice, ½ cup lentils, ½ cup split peas, barley, and ½ cup lentils.
  2. Cut a piece of card stock to fit inside the jar and set it on top of the ingredients before adding the pasta. This will make it easy to set the pasta aside as required when cooking the soup.
  3. Seal and attach gift tag with instructions for making soup.

Notes

Once you have the ingredients out, assembling a number of these soup in a jar gifts at once won’t take much longer than doing a single one! Might as well do several. Line up jars and measure ingredients in assembly-line style.

Nutrition information is based on soup as served.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 2 cups
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 152Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 8mgSodium: 7mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 5gSugar: 2gProtein: 9g

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About the author: Kris Bordessa is an award-winning National Geographic author and a certified Master Food Preserver. Read more about Kris and how she got started with this site here. If you want to send Kris a quick message, you can get in touch here.

25 comments… add one
  • barb Dec 18, 2023 @ 4:38

    How much water?
    3 quarts???

    • AttainableSustainable Dec 21, 2023 @ 7:46

      Yep, 3 quarts of water to make the soup!

  • Kim Nov 16, 2023 @ 7:38

    Hello,
    What size of Mason jar, 32 oz?

    • Kris Bordessa, National Geographic author/certified master food preserver Nov 20, 2023 @ 7:21

      yield: 1 QUART JAR

  • Diana Nov 8, 2023 @ 10:59

    Do you think this would work and still look nice in a cone bag or would the spices have to much wiggle room? Has anyone tried?

    • AttainableSustainable Nov 9, 2023 @ 8:04

      I haven’t tried that, sorry!

  • Pam Aug 1, 2023 @ 10:24

    Where did you get the beautiful label?

    • AttainableSustainable Sep 14, 2023 @ 10:17

      I made it!

  • NATALIE K Dec 23, 2022 @ 3:56

    Please for all us Celiac out here that we all can’t have Gluten!! Don’t put Barley in our soup mix!!! It will make us deathly ill!!! We can have all different types of beans though!!!

    • AttainableSustainable Dec 29, 2022 @ 12:00

      Thank you for the heads up about barley, noted!

  • Tammie Dec 10, 2022 @ 9:08

    Does this make 2 jars? Recipe calls for 1 cup peas, lentils etc but only mentions layering “1/2 cup”? Are the layers repeated?

    • AttainableSustainable Dec 15, 2022 @ 13:37

      The 1/2 cup peas and lentils are both layered in the jar twice, as it says in the instructions. Happy making! 🙂

  • Christine Mar 26, 2022 @ 15:37

    Sorry are beef granules beef bouillon?

    • AttainableSustainable Mar 29, 2022 @ 7:45

      Yes, in dry powdered form.

  • CS Dec 5, 2021 @ 14:18

    Where does the bay leaf go in the order of layering the ingredients? Before or after the past?

    • AttainableSustainable Dec 7, 2021 @ 12:15

      They could either go at the bottom or right below the pasta. As long as it makes it into the soup pot you are good to go!

  • Jeronimama Nov 3, 2021 @ 10:38

    Can you substitute beans? We cannot do lentils and peas.
    Any suggestions?

    • AttainableSustainable Nov 4, 2021 @ 5:12

      The main issue with substituting beans is that dried beans need to be soaked, and would have different cooking times/instructions than the rest of the ingredients.

      • Carol L Nov 20, 2021 @ 14:55

        As to that, just how DO you soak these before cooking? No instructions to separate and soak first, just cook without soaking.

        • Kris Bordessa Nov 20, 2021 @ 17:17

          Lentils and peas don’t require the soaking time that dried beans do.

  • Lisa Dec 3, 2020 @ 1:34

    How many servings for this soup recipe?

  • Kaitlin Dec 18, 2019 @ 5:40

    What size jar do you use?

    • Kris Bordessa Dec 18, 2019 @ 12:13

      Quart – sorry! It shows up in the backend but for some reason isn’t showing in the actual recipe. I’ll see if I can figure out why!

  • Carol Oct 27, 2019 @ 3:53

    Can you substitute barley for something gluten free?

    • Kris Bordessa Oct 31, 2019 @ 20:02

      If it were me, I’d try brown rice. Similar cooking times and textures.

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