Canned Soup Gets An Instant Upgrade With One Unexpected Ingredient

Whether you're craving a bowl of chicken noodle soup, hankering for a bowl of tomato soup, or you've got your mind on minestrone; a bowl of canned soup seems to hit the spot every time — even if the name on the Campbell's soup can has changed. But if you're growing tired of less-than-flavorful or flat-tasting canned soup, a healthy dash of salad dressing can give your soup the extra flavor you've been craving.

Salad dressing, that pervasive household ingredient, is the secret to making anything delicious: from pizza (assuming you use ranch) to marinades to salads. It's surprisingly good with canned soups, which can lose flavor after they've been canned and reheated. Salad dressings are acidic and acidic foods like dressings can lift the flavor of an otherwise boring soup.

With a splash of one of your favorite dressings, you can add plenty of richness and depth to any soup. Many dressings are packed with herbs, aromatics, fat, and plenty of other good stuff to instantly turn your can of soup into the ideal entrée. All you have to do is add in however much dressing you want as you heat it up, stir, and enjoy!

Before you dismiss the idea of adding salad dressing as being too far out there, consider this: You've probably already got a bottle of dressing or two in your pantry or fridge, so you don't have to run out and get anything. Convenience has always been a good selling point. You can also experiment with different flavors before fully committing to them by adding a drop of dressing to a spoonful of soup to see how you like it.

If you're still not sure, the best thing to do is stick with conventional soup and salad dressing pairings. A zesty garlic parmesan might be too much for a bowl of chicken noodle soup, but Italian dressing would go perfectly with tomato soup because it's packed with basil, garlic, oregano, and other ingredients that balance out the acidity of the soup. Likewise, ranch can be added to potato soups (like a liquid twist on dipping fries into ranch sauce).

While you may debate whether soup counts as a meal, the possibilities to mix soup with salad dressing are endless and you don't need much to get the job done. A splash of thousand island, a dash of Italian, or a spritz of vinaigrette can be the magic elixir that ensures you never have to eat boring canned soup ever again.