Your Favorite Canned Food Recipes

[Jade]

I rarely use canned food anymore, excluding things I use for cooking like canned fruits like pineapple or tomatoes. I'm specifically pertaining to canned food that make up the dish itself - namely - corned beef, tuna, or Spam, etc. Recently, I used to love eating these as a kid, and I even first learned to cook by making spam fried rice.

Nowadays, however, I eat a lot less of them, as I am becoming more conscious about processed food. Still, I eat them from time to time, and I mainly just try to limit my intake. I still make spam fried rice to this day,.and it never fails to bring me back to my earliest memories of cooking whenever I do.

How about you guys, do you cook with canned food? Do you just cook them as is, or do you try to spruce them up or include them in recipes?

 

[Lostvalleyguy]

Canned meats are just to unhealthy in my mind to cook with. They tend to be very high in salt and preservatives. I have used canned peaches and pears for a few desert type items. Peaches are fresh for such a short period of time, making canned a good alternative. The only other canned food that I use on a regular basis is canned beans (not pork and beans type beans though). I am too impatient to soak the dried ones properly so canned are a good alternative for me. For vegetables that I can't get fresh, I go for frozen.

 

[crimsonghost747]

I always have some canned food around the house though I rarely use it. It's just nice to have around since I can store it anywhere and it will stay good for a long time. It's mainly for those situations when I need something really fast or just haven't been to the grocery store yet. Kind of a backup store if you know what I mean.

Though maybe the only thing that I usually buy canned is fish. Either tuna (most common) or sardines etc. I really don't enjoy fish that much (except for salmon) so I can't be bothered to cook it, but I do want to have some in my diet so a can of tuna seems like an easy choice.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

We usually don't eat canned foods only occasionally for health reasons. We knew some of them contains too much sodium, artificial flavorings and chemical preservatives which are not good for our bodies. We usually eat them in case of emergency only when we are in a hurry and we have no time to cook. Corned beef, Luncheon meat, Spanish sardines and Tuna are the ones we like to eat. Sometimes we just cook corned beef with onion rings, luncheon meat omelette, and saute sardines and tuna with garlic, onion and tomatoes. Only simple and easy cooking dishes for these canned foods.

 

[janineaa]

We have a lot of canned food at home because that is what my younget siblings prefer. They usually eat different flavors of Spam and corned beef. It is so unhealthy though because the sodium is so high and there are a lot of preservatives. When I have to eat canned food, I try to eat only a little bit. I liked canned spicy tuna. It's very easy to prepare and it tastes good as well!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We tend to only have a few items of tinned food in the house, namely baked beans, kidney beans, chopped tomatoes and coconut milk and just very occasionally sweetcorn.

 

[Chris_A]

When I`m forced to eat canned food, I always try to spice them up a bit. I really enjoy eating canned Sardines, but I always have them with lemon juice sprinkled over and fresh, chopped red onions.

 

[firelily99]

I eat tuna from a can and if I am in a hurry I will have some soup. I do use the pasta ready tomatoes when in a hurry but other than that I just can't stomach canned food at all. It doesn't take a long time to make a meal, I specialize in twenty minutes or less cooking. I love sardines so that's one more on the canned list.

 

[OhioTom76]

At first I was going to say that I almost never eat canned food, then I forgot, duh, canned crushed tomatoes - I use them like crazy. But beyond that, the only other canned foods I will sometimes use are certain types of beans (black beans, kidney beans, canellini brans, but no green beans - those are awful canned) and sometimes beets.

Pasta sauce is kind of self explanatory - I either go with olive oil, fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, diced onion, sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, a pinch of sugar and some dried and fresh herbs, or I will go the Marcella Hazan route and just put a stick of butter and half a peeled onion in a pan with a large can of crushed tomatoes and let it simmer for an hour. Either way, it's cheap, home made and easy.

Black beans I used a lot of different ways, but there aren't any complicated recipes I use them in. The most complicated would be the copycat recipe of TGI Fridays Black Bean Soup (which can be found all over the place online). Otherwise I often just toss them with a little salsa and warm them up to use as a filling in burritos or I will throw them in a blender with some canola oil, salsa, cumin and chili powder to make a black bean dip.

Beets I actually kind of prefer canned since fresh beets take forever to cook and they make a mess of everything. I will just make a simple dressing with cider vinegar, canola oil, honey and sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to dress the beets. Then I will top them with some walnuts and goat cheese.