Cooking looks difficult on a day squeezed between lectures and work. Set up correctly, a cupboard of cans brings the job down to fifteen minutes.
What do cans actually do?
The real advantage of canned food is not time; it is the elimination of the preparation stage.
Soaking chickpeas takes eight hours and boiling them an hour.
Canned chickpeas skip both steps.
The same applies to beans, lentils and sweetcorn.
Canned tuna and chicken provide cooked protein.
Canned tomatoes give a ready base for sauces.
Nutritionally, canned vegetables come close to fresh; heat treatment reduces part of the vitamin C but fibre, minerals and protein remain.
The lycopene in canned tomatoes is more available than in fresh ones.
Canned food is not a compromise; it is a different tool.
What should the basic cupboard hold?
Eight products cover most recipes.
Canned chickpeas and canned beans.
Canned tuna.
Chopped tomatoes and tomato paste.
Canned sweetcorn.
Olive oil.
Pasta and rice.
Three fresh items go with them: onions, garlic and lemons.
Those three keep a long time and appear in nearly every recipe.
Oregano, chilli flakes, cumin and black pepper suffice as spices.
Yoghurt or cheese is worth keeping too.
That list provides around a week of varied meals.
| Product | Shelf life | After opening | Meals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chickpeas 400 g | 2-3 years | 3 days (in a container) | 2 |
| Tuna 160 g | 3-5 years | 1 day | 1 |
| Chopped tomatoes 400 g | 2 years | 4 days | 2-3 |
| Sweetcorn 300 g | 2-3 years | 3 days | 2 |
| Beans 400 g | 2-3 years | 3 days | 2 |
What is the balanced plate equation?
Three components are needed: protein, carbohydrate, vegetable.
Canned pulses supply protein and fibre.
Pasta, rice or bread supplies carbohydrate.
Tomatoes, sweetcorn or a fresh vegetable completes the third leg.
The plate balances once those three are in place.
Fat should go in too; olive oil provides flavour and helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins.
An acidic element enlivens the plate; a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar suffices.
That equation applies to every recipe.
Where a component is missing it gets added; a handful of rocket or canned sweetcorn goes into tuna pasta.
How do five recipes work?
The first is chickpea pasta. While the pasta boils, olive oil, garlic and chilli flakes heat in a pan.
Drained chickpeas go in and cook for five minutes.
Two spoonfuls of the pasta water go in and get stirred through.
The total time is twelve minutes.
The second is a tuna and bean salad. Canned beans are drained and topped with tuna, chopped onion, parsley, lemon and olive oil.
No cooking; five minutes.
The third is chickpeas in tomato sauce. Onion is softened, tomato paste added, then chopped tomatoes and chickpeas.
Oregano and cumin go in and it simmers ten minutes.
It is served with bread or rice.
The fourth is a sweetcorn and tuna salad. Sweetcorn, tuna, yoghurt, lemon and black pepper get stirred together.
It works between slices of toast too.
The fifth is a one-pot rice with beans. Rice, canned beans and tomatoes cook together for fifteen minutes.
How is salt managed?
The most criticised aspect of canned food is its salt.
A can of chickpeas can carry 400 to 600 milligrams of sodium.
But most of that sits in the liquid.
Draining removes 30 to 40 percent of the sodium.
Draining and rinsing takes it to 40 or 50.
That is a simple, effective step.
Reduced-salt versions exist too; look for "no added salt" or "reduced salt" on the label.
The dish should be tasted before extra salt goes in; the can already brings salt.
Spices reduce the need for salt.
Cumin, oregano and lemon juice partly stand in for it.
In canned tuna the version in water carries fewer calories than the one in oil, while the oil version tastes better; tuna in olive oil is a good middle path.
How does the cost work out?
Cans look expensive, but the calculation per portion comes out differently.
A can of chickpeas gives two portions.
Dried chickpeas cost less per gram but require energy and time for soaking and boiling.
In student conditions time is a cost too.
Dried pulses also come out in large quantities and the unused part can end up thrown away.
A mixed strategy is the most efficient: dried pulses boiled and portioned at the weekend and put in the freezer.
Cans get used during the week.
Large cans should not be preferred; they need eating quickly once opened.
Four-hundred-gram cans are the best size for a single-person household.
Stocking up during offers makes sense; the shelf life is long.
How are they stored once opened?
That is the most neglected subject.
An opened can is not a storage container.
The contents should be transferred to another container.
Food left in a metal can absorbs tin and iron; the taste turns metallic.
That is a quality problem more than a health risk.
But the transfer happens faster in acidic products such as tomatoes.
The transferred product goes into a covered container in the fridge.
Pulses keep three days, tomato products four and fish products one.
The remainder can be frozen; pulses and tomato sauce freeze without problems.
Tomato sauce portioned in ice cube trays is very practical; a single meal's worth gets taken.
Unopened cans should be kept somewhere cool and dry.
Swollen, rusted or dented cans should not be used; swelling can indicate microbial activity.
That rule is not negotiable; a suspect can goes in the bin unopened.
