The Classic Canned Food That Ina Garten Refuses To Buy

Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, has always been adamant about her love of cooking from scratch, and one of her all-time favorite foods is soup. However, she has a very different view on canned soup. In an interview with Today, the chef answered with a decisive "no" and a hearty laugh when asked if she would ever .

But just because Garten generally wouldn't buy store-bought soups doesn't mean you need to make it from scratch every time you're craving a comforting bowl. "I always make it myself, but there are a few places you can buy really good homemade soup," Garten told Today (via ). It turns out her ire is just for the canned variety.



These days, there are plenty of flavorful, premium soups made with higher quality ingredients than your average can – many come in cartons, glass jars, or deli containers in the refrigerated section. For example, Garten is a big fan of Rao's , so perhaps the line of soups from the same brand would be up to her standard. Soups from Kettle and Fire and Imagine Foods are of great quality, too.

Some delis, specialty markets, and supermarkets also make soups that are cooked with fresh meat and vegetables, which are a big step up from lots of canned varieties. Store-bought products Ina Garten would and would not buy Some store-bought stocks, jams, condiments, and more make Ina Garten's list of items that don't always have to be made from scratch. In fact, some of Garten's recipes openly call for store-bought products, like her tomato soup that uses canned crushed tomatoes and her tuna melt that calls for tuna packed in olive oil.

Other recipes, like her saffron risotto with butternut squash, list homemade chicken stock as the preference, but store-bought is still a good option. Her tip for home cooks is to go for a product that doesn't have too much salt. However, there is one canned food that Garten will absolutely not buy: canned beets.

Her dislike came from childhood memories of eating dinners packed with processed, canned foods. Garten has said that a typical dinner included boiled chicken and canned veggies like peas or beets, along with her father drilling Garten and her sibling about their school lessons over plates of bland food. Though Garten has made peace with beets as an adult, tinned beets and canned soup certainly are on the list of .

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