13 Canned Fruits You Should Have In Your Pantry

Inexpensive and undeniably convenient, canned fruits are a fantastic food item to keep in your pantry. Whether you're in need of a quick snack or want to turn up the flavor in numerous recipes, they're more than ready to help fill in the gaps — but only if you keep them stocked. This isn't very hard to do, luckily: Canned fruit is not perishable like fresh fruit, so there's no need to use it straight away. You can simply put the cans in your pantry and leave them there until you find you need or want to use them. What's not to love?

To determine which canned fruits are best to keep stocked in your pantry I first thought of all the different ways I like to use them, of which there are many. I also researched popular recipes that contain fruit, which fruits are available canned, and whether or not using a canned version would diminish, benefit, or maintain a recipe's quality. The 13 canned fruits that made the cut are what you'll find below. Keep reading to find out what they are and how keeping them stocked can save you lots of time and effort when making many different recipes.

Canned peaches are super handy to use in an abundance of dishes. From salads to cocktails to desserts and everything in between, they're as versatile as they are delicious. Grilling them is an especially excellent idea: Once they get warm and develop beautiful grill marks, they can be used in a myriad of ways. To start, grilled peaches make a yummy side dish all by themselves or with a drizzle of balsamic reduction. They also taste fantastic on pizza with hot honey, basil, and ricotta cheese. For something a bit greener, try adding them to a salad with burrata and champagne vinaigrette.

Canned peaches are also a welcome addition to desserts, especially in the winter when peaches aren't in season. They taste amazing on top of ice cream or made into a pie or tart. Sweeter breakfast items like pancakes and smoothies also benefit from canned peaches, and when mixed in, it becomes difficult to tell if they're canned or fresh. Finally, the juice that canned peaches come in is the best of friends with drinks. It can easily be poured into champagne to make a bellini, or added to non-alcoholic favorites like iced tea, lemonade, and soda water.

Canned mandarin oranges are just as delicious as fresh ones. In fact, some might say they taste better, thanks to the fact that you almost never get a surprisingly bitter bite. Regardless of whether or not you agree, keeping canned mandarin oranges in your pantry is an excellent idea. Even if mandarin oranges aren't a food you typically enjoy, chances are good you'll find yourself using them in new, exciting ways.

Thanks to the small size of mandarin oranges, their canned slices make a super cute cocktail garnish on drinks like margaritas, screwdrivers, mimosas, and more. They also add a wonderful citrus flavor to smoothies, and even complement green shakes. Mandarin oranges are similarly perfect for summer salads. They add a burst of flavor and a light, sweet element that easily balances out dark leafy greens. You can make a bright, juicy coleslaw featuring mandarin oranges that might win over the slaw skeptics in your life. Lastly, If you have any interest in recreating quirky 1950s foods, a Jell-O salad could be just the thing. Of course, it's not really a salad, but it's definitely a unique old-school dessert sure to surprise anyone you share it with.

Sweet and juicy, canned pears won't ever let you down. They never get brown spots, which always seems to happen so quickly with fresh ones, and you can eat them straight out of the can as a snack or side dish. Plus, they're soaked in sweet, syrupy pear juice, which is essentially nectar of the gods when it comes to mixing up amazing cocktails. Try adding it to a vodka soda or a glass of champagne and you won't be disappointed. I know I never am.

Aside from gobbling canned pears right out of the can (or from a bowl), you can blend them into smoothies with ease — and that goes for the syrup and the actual pears. Both make wonderful toppings for ice cream or pancakes too. If you decide to go that route, it's probably best to use diced pears, or maybe chop up halves yourself, but it's definitely not required. Finally, canned pears are the perfect ingredient for making sweet breakfast toasts or fruit tarts. Placing them on top of something with a bit of crunch, like a well-browned crust, adds a sumptuous layer of texture few can resist.

When ripe, pineapples are deliciously sweet and juicy. However, choosing the right pineapple and knowing when it's ready to eat isn't that straightforward. Plus, cutting a fresh pineapple can be somewhat tricky, especially if you want rings and don't have a special coring tool. Don't worry, though: Canned pineapple eliminates all the guesswork, and there's no need for nifty knife skills. In addition, canned pineapple tastes pretty close to its fresh counterpart and can be used in all the same yummy recipes.

Grilled pineapple rings are delicious by themselves, but they also make a wonderful addition to meats and desserts. That's two totally different ends of the culinary spectrum, but canned pineapple is just that versatile. While it may sound a bit strange, you can even pair pineapple with cheese — hello Hawaiian pizza, or, my favorite, pizza with pineapple and jalapeno. The canned stuff is great for things like this because you get beautifully uniform pieces every time. The same can be said for baking, particularly with a pineapple upside down cake, where the placement and size of your cut pineapple is on full display.

Of course, canned pineapple is also a great way to turn up your drink-making skills. It makes a beautiful garnish on just about any tropical libation and can be mixed into a smoothie, pina colada, and more. If you want to try something unique, a smoky pineapple margarita made with mezcal will definitely turn heads.

One of the best things about using canned cherries over fresh is that they're already pitted, making them much easier to eat, add to recipes, and otherwise enjoy. There are a couple of brands that sell cherries in a can, though take note, I'm not just talking about cherry pie filling. It may be easier to track down preserved cherries in a glass jar than the canned stuff. Either way, they're quite useful in the kitchen and if you stock a bar in your home, you'll definitely want some for there too.

There are several classic cocktails that feature cherries and they are almost never fresh. I should know — I worked in the food service industry for 20 years. Using them to garnish a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned is downright iconic. Canned cherries also add a beautiful finishing touch to ice cream sundaes and milkshakes. They bring in a little wow factor with virtually no effort at all. If you're ready to take on a more involved dessert, you can also make pies and tarts with canned cherries, though that's a case where canned cherry pie filling might actually be the better bet.

As someone with family in Maine, I take blueberries very seriously. However, when they're not in season, canned blueberries can be quite handy. That is of course, if you can find them. There are several options if you're looking for blueberry pie filling in a thick, sugary sauce, but straight up canned options are not as prevalent. Still, they exist, and both types of canned good can be used several ways in your cooking. That's right — they're not just for pies and tarts.

Both styles of canned blueberries make a wonderful topping for ice cream and sponge or vanilla cake. They also look and taste great when drizzled over French toast or pancakes. Add a touch of whipped cream to the mix and you'll be in heaven. If you manage to snag a can of blueberries in juice, you have even more options. They taste wonderful in a mimosa or muddled in a mojito. They're also utterly perfect for smoothies. Canned blueberries can also be used in baked goods like muffins. You'll want to make sure you drain them properly though — otherwise, the excess liquid can affect the final results, and not in a good way.

Native to Southeast Asia, Lychee isn't nearly as popular in the United States as it is in other parts of the world, but I wish it was. It's deliciously sweet with a hint of acidity and underlying floral notes that I can't get enough of. While it's often difficult to find fresh lychee at the grocery store (some specialty stores have it, but not reliably), canned lychee is much more accessible. So, if you like the flavor and want to eat more of it, canned may be your best bet. However, the canned stuff isn't always easy to track down in grocery stores either, so if you find it, I recommend stocking up.

My favorite way to enjoy lychee is in cocktails. I like to muddle them and add the mash to margaritas, martinis (gin or vodka), Moscow mules, and more. Tequila and soda with muddled lychee is another favorite at my house. Lychee is also packed with vitamin C, so why not turn your cocktails into a tasty immune booster?

In addition to drinks, canned lychee can be eaten all by itself. Or you can use it like you would any other fruit: Toss it in a smoothie, bake it into a cobbler, or use it as a unique ice cream topping.

Fresh mangoes tend to ripen and spoil quickly, at least in my kitchen. The best way for me to keep mangoes around without the potential of throwing them out (something I can't stand) is to buy them canned. That way, I don't feel like I'm on a super tight time constraint and am able to use them any time a craving for this delectable fruit hits.

Just like many other canned fruits, mangoes are delicious when used as a topping for ice cream or pancakes. They also blend into smoothies and tropical drinks like mango daiquiris effortlessly. Mango chicken curry is another perfect candidate for canned mangoes; they add lots of sweetness and balance to this otherwise spicy, savory dish. Whipping up a sweet mango sago (a yummy mango coconut tapioca pudding) with a canned version of the fruit is another stellar idea. Not only does it save you lots of prep time, when it's mixed with the other elements, you probably won't even be able to tell the mangoes came from a can. The same goes for curry.

Most canned fruits are ideal for sweet recipes, but jackfruit is much more versatile than that. Sure, ripe yellow jackfruit is perfect for sweet dishes; it tastes like a mix of mango, banana, and apple. However, it's also common to eat young, green jackfruit, which isn't sweet at all. In fact, green jackfruit has a neutral flavor that doesn't stand out much. As a result, it's become quite popular as a meat substitute. It absorbs other flavors beautifully, similarly to tofu. Plus, it is often shredded, so it mimics the texture of pork or chicken prepared in the same way.

Buying and using jackfruit at the appropriate time can be challenging. That's okay though: The frozen and canned stuff is super easy to use and is becoming easier to find at grocery stores. I really like Trader Joe's canned jackfruit, as it's inexpensive and excellent in a myriad of plant-based recipes. One of my favorite ways to eat it is to smother it with BBQ sauce and put it on a burger bun, like a pulled pork sandwich. I also enjoy seasoning it with Mexican spices and enjoying it in a taco or burrito. While I haven't tried it yet, I bet it's yummy in stir fry as well. Truly, canned jackfruit is wonderful as a meat substitute in just about any vegetarian or vegan recipe.

In the fall months, pumpkin-flavored foods pop up in startling numbers. You can find just about anything infused with pumpkin — but the rest of the year it becomes sparse. Luckily, there's a way to easily infuse a number of dishes with pumpkin flavor any time you want. All you have to do is keep a can of pumpkin puree in your pantry.

Obviously, dishes like pumpkin pie are fantastic ways to use canned pumpkin, but there are lots of other ways you can make it a part of your life as well. For example, you can whip up your own pumpkin latte by simply adding a spoonful of canned puree. You can also make an extra creamy grilled cheese by slathering a layer of pumpkin puree underneath the cheese. It tastes great mixed into a milkshake or smoothie too.

Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin-flavored foods. Even so, I always keep canned pumpkin in my pantry. Why? Pumpkin is good for dogs. It's a kind of superfood for them and also has stomach-soothing abilities. I give it to my pup every time she has an upset stomach and I'm always amazed at how quickly she turns around. Plus, she loves it, so it's a wonderful treat.

Olives are probably far from the first thing you think of when you hear the term canned fruit, but they are, in fact, a fruit. They grow on a flowering plant — in this case, a tree — and contain a seed, both of which lead to its botanical classification as a fruit. Regardless of how you think of olives, these tiny fruits are incredibly handy to keep around. You can easily find black and green olives in a can, both sliced and whole. However, if you branch out to glass jars, the different olive varieties available to you are never ending.

Olives and Italian food go together famously. Not only do they lend a salty, savory hand to pizza, they also taste phenomenal in salads, antipasto platters, pasta, and meat dishes. Even if you don't use Italian flavors throughout, olives are also one of the canned ingredients that upgrade chicken in a flash. Canned olives are also great for making tapenades for spreading on bread or using as a simple sandwich or wrap ingredient. They're also a key element in muffuletta sandwiches. Lastly, if you're a lover of classic gin and vodka martinis, keeping canned green olives on hand is a no-brainer.

Like olives, tomatoes are often thought of as a vegetable, even though they're actually a fruit. Thanks to its botanical classification, you can go ahead and add tomatoes to your list of canned fruits to keep stocked in your pantry. I probably don't have to tell you this, but tomatoes are super versatile. They are featured in cuisines from around the world, are the perfect base for stews and sauces, and go well in a nearly limitless number of recipes.

Canned tomatoes are especially good at bulking up almost any type of savory dish. From Hispanic to Asian to Indian to Southwestern cuisines and everything in between, canned tomatoes add a little more heft  and tons of bright flavor. And let's not forget Italian food — it wouldn't be the same without tomatoes. Marinara is the ultimate pasta sauce and base for pizza, and you can easily make a batch of it starting with canned tomatoes. I do it all the time and it's always a big hit. Starting with canned tomatoes makes the process a whole lot easier too, because you don't have to remove the tomato skins.

Canned fruit salad, also known as fruit cocktail, typically contains a mix of peaches, pears, pineapple, cherries, and grapes, but there are several variations. Regardless, it is a delicious snack or side dish right out of the can. There's no need to change it in any way; just pop off the top of your can and savor every bite. In my home, fruit cocktail never makes it further than my mouth once the can is opened. However, it's also tasty in smoothies, tarts, and pancakes (either in the batter or as a topping). Another yummy option is to pour it over a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Basically, anything that goes well with a fruit medley is a perfect candidate for canned fruit cocktail.

The sugary syrup inside cans of fruit cocktail can also be used to make ice cubes for fruit punch or cocktails. While subtle, fruit cocktail ice cubes add a nice flavor and boost fruitiness. They are perfect for margaritas, iced mimosas (with any type of juice), tropical drinks, or even plain old vodka soda. Or, if you don't have time to freeze the syrup, go ahead and add it straight to your drinks.