There’s no denying that canned goods last a long time and help create quick, tasty, often money-saving meals. And while a diet relying wholly on processed foods isn’t good, canned foods tend to be healthier today than they were a generation ago. With canned products, a little creativity can yield delicious and sometimes surprising results. From soup to nuts — and every course in between — here are ways to get out of the drive-thru lane and back into the kitchen with cans.
Related: 25 Things to Buy at Costco and Sam’s for Emergencies (Besides Toilet Paper)
Bloody Mary
The classic brunch tipple relies on canned tomato juice as its main ingredient. Step up to the bar with “The Only Bloody Mary Recipe You’ll Ever Need.”
Recipe: Eater
Sweet Potato Pancakes
Save the trip to the diner. Cooks should be able to substitute canned sweet potatoes for fresh in any sweet potato pancake recipe, but this one takes out the guesswork. Combine with healthy cottage cheese, oats, and maple syrup.
Recipe: Cooking Light
Mango-Ginger Smoothie
With canned, diced mango and canned evaporated milk — plus ginger, honey, and ice — you can whip up a sweet, frothy smoothie in less than five minutes. If mango doesn’t sound good, use canned peaches instead.
Recipe: Cans Get You Cooking
Crabmeat Bites
Start any party off on a tasty note with an appetizer made from a small can of crabmeat. Combine it with cheese spread and butter, spread onto English muffins, and bake. Cut into quarters for finger food.
Recipe: How Sweet Eats
Candied Almonds
Everyone knows bars serve salty snacks to keep patrons ordering drinks. Since that’s hardly the goal at a house party, mix it up with a sweet snack. Any canned nut can substitute for the suggested almonds.
Recipe: Allrecipes
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Carrot Coconut Soup
You don’t have to go all the way to pre-made canned soups for a quick, delicious, and hearty soup from cans. This one uses canned carrots and canned coconut milk, enlivened with butter, thyme, curry powder, onion, and garlic.
Recipe: The Hungry Housewife
Minestrone
A hearty minestrone soup includes canned cannellini beans as well as bacon, carrots, onion, kale, and pasta. This 30-minute version can also be tailored to vegetarians.
Recipe: Stop & Shop’s Recipe Center
Chickpea-Brussels Sprout Salad With Parmesan and Walnuts
A 15-ounce can of chickpeas is the key to this earthy offering pitched as an alternative to those suddenly ubiquitous kale salads.
Recipe: Prevention
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Spicy Tuna Roll Bowl
Simulate a sushi restaurant experience in your home. A quick-to-make version of this popular dish features solid white albacore in water, veggies, and more, all smothered in sauce with a mayo-sriracha base that promises plenty of kick.
Recipe: Show Me the Yummy
Grilled Chicken and Apple Sandwich
For a tasty Saturday lunch — or a hot snack for the kids after school — try a creative sandwich. Expect a little crunch from the apple and another thrifty ingredient, celery.
Recipe: The Spruce
Easy Chili
Think canned beans and you probably think of homemade chili. Red kidney beans and diced tomatoes are key — just load the ingredients into a slow cooker for a carefree bowl of spicy goodness, maybe substituting ground turkey for the ground beef.
Recipe: Southern Living
Golden Sweet Cornbread
If you’re a cornbread novice — or have very little time — try a tasty recipe that takes just four ingredients (including two kinds of canned corn) and five minutes of prep. It can be baked into squares or muffins to serve alone or alongside chili or stews. Add cheese or bacon for a more complex taste.
Recipe: Del Monte
Tomato-Cream Sauce
Anyone can open a jar of prepared spaghetti sauce and call it a day. But take a can of Italian-style diced tomatoes and add spices, sugar, heavy cream, and butter and get credit for home cooking that dresses pasta in style.
Recipe: Allrecipes
Puttanesca Sauce
Pitted olives and canned plum tomatoes, capers, garlic, and a few other easy (and inexpensive) ingredients make a classic Italian sauce.
Recipe: Food.com
Pea Risotto
A no-fuss recipe uses canned chicken broth (or vegetable broth) and takes only 30 minutes in a microwave for a palate-pleasing risotto.
Recipe: Good Housekeeping
Pineapple-Baked Canned Ham
Turn a boring old canned ham into sweet and savory treat. Chili sauce, sliced canned pineapple, and brown sugar turn the everyday into something pretty darned tasty.
Recipe: The Spruce
Chicken Burrito Skillet
Enjoy one-pot-meal ease with a recipe that adds canned black beans and a diced tomatoes/green chilies combo to chicken, brown rice, and more for a zippy main course that can be on the table in a half-hour.
Recipe: Ready Set Eat
Pork Chops With Mushrooms
Canned mushroom soup and canned mushrooms add a double-dose of flavor to this quick skillet dish.
Recipe: The Spruce
Chickpea Curry
Coconut milk and canned chickpeas make this and other similar recipes a breeze to prepare. Because the coconut milk is so rich and flavorful, you can season the dish with powerful aromatics such as ginger and garlic without overwhelming its taste or having to rely on an expensive pre-made sauce.
Recipe: Woman’s Day
Sizzling Burgers With Sweet and Sour Sauce
Get ready to be the neighborhood barbecue star by grilling up juicy burgers with canned water chestnuts as a main ingredient.
Recipe: Ready Set Eat
Baked Artichoke Hearts
Stock up on canned artichoke hearts and anchovies next time they’re on sale and have the key ingredients ready to make a casserole that’s so quick and easy it was on TV’s “30 Minute Meals.”
Recipe: Rachael Ray
Enchiladas
Enchiladas can come together quickly when you have pre-made sauce and pre-cooked filling. This recipe calls for canned black beans, but rotisserie chicken or another cooked meat would also work well. Get the condiments together while the enchiladas are broiling.
Recipe: The Weary Chef
Orange Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce isn’t just for Thanksgiving. It’s a year-round accent that, with an orange for juice, adds zest to pork and chicken.
Recipe: Down Home with the Neelys
Creamed Spinach
With three ingredients and five minutes of prep, this casserole-style side dish could not be easier to make. It’s just canned spinach, sour cream, and fried onions — which also come in a can.
Recipe: Food.com
Brilliant Potatoes with Paprika and Caramelized Onions
In this potato dish, canned whole new potatoes are joined by Vidalia onions, butter, and plenty of spices in a dish that takes just 10 minutes to prep, then an hour in the oven.
Recipe: Allrecipes
Cherry Clafouti
Add a French accent to the dessert course with drained, canned Bing cherries — although this classic French dish is also often served for breakfast.
Recipe: What’s Cooking America
Jim’s Pineapple Cheese Pie
Canned crushed pineapple is the signature flavor in an easy, tasty no-bake fluffy delight. With a taste like pineapple cheesecake, it might be served mousse-style by skipping the ready-made pie shell.
Recipe: Allrecipes
Ambrosia Fruit Salad
It’s a tour-de-force of canned fruits: Combine canned fruit cocktail, Mandarin oranges, and pineapple chunks with shredded coconut, whipped cream, and marshmallows in a bowl and refrigerate.
Recipe: Allrecipes
Peach Cobbler
Trisha Yearwood may be known as a country singer, but she’s also made a name for herself on the culinary front. This dessert of hers uses two cans of sliced peaches in syrup as its starting point. Yearwood suggests serving it warm, with fresh whipped cream.
Recipe: Food Network
Cocoa Pumpkin Brownies
Canned pumpkin adds an unexpected dash of flavor and nutrition to brownies, substituting for half the butter in a recipe that takes just 15 minutes to prep and 16 minutes to cook.
Recipe: Nestlé
