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What Ina Garten Really Thinks About Canned Soup

One of Ina Garten's most iconic lines, as loyal fans will know, is "store-bought is fine." While the culinary icon is no stranger to whipping up homemade creations of her own, she strives to be approachable with her recipes and often uses store-bought ingredients in her recipes. (Like Rao's jarred marinara sauce, for example.) The swaps save her time before hosting, and she often encourages her viewers to do the same. (As long as the switch doesn't sacrifice flavor.)

As Garten shared with TODAY, however, there is one store-bought item she claims she would never buy, and that is canned soup. Similar to her aversion to aerosol whipped cream, The Barefoot Contessa doesn't seem to find these commercially made products reliable. For starters, it can be difficult to determine just how long they've been languishing on the shelf. Even if the best-by date on canned soup is years away, the ingredients within inevitably wither with time, taking on mushy textures and losing essential flavors. To keep those vegetables fresh, these soups are typically high in sodium, too; if they haven't gone bland, they could be overly salty instead. So, even if these meals are convenient in a pinch, these tradeoffs mean even lovers of store-bought items like Garten steer clear. 

Garten has one rule for store-bought ingredients

While Ina Garten is a champion of store-bought ingredients beyond canned soup, she won't reach for just anything on the shelf. (She is a professional, after all.) As the culinarian shared with The New York Times, if you can find a quality ingredient in a store or bakery, there's absolutely nothing wrong with adding it to the cart to save yourself some time in the kitchen. Quality food is quality, no matter if you grabbed it from the freezer aisle or spent hours laboring over it at home. 

Still, there are some corners The Barefoot Contessa won't cut. She swears by using fresh herbs instead of dried ones, for example, and also claims you'll never find grated Parmesan in her fridge. (So if you want to impress Garten at a dinner party, stick to the fresh cheese and fragrant herbs.) 

While you do have the TV host and author's permission to elevate store-bought mashed potatoes or buy puff pastry from the freezer aisle, don't think about adding canned soup to the cart. Instead, you can follow Garten's lead by adding a flavorful kick to homemade butternut squash soup. It's a lot easier to assemble than you might think, and the extra time is worth it.

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