There are times when it’s nice to bless others with the gift of food. Maybe it’s a new mom, or perhaps someone who’s going through a difficult time. But too often it’s the case that even though we want to do this, it’s easy to let the busyness of our own lives stop us, or the thought that we don’t really know what to cook or make for someone else. So today I’m sharing a quick idea for a DIY food gift idea where you can cheat a little bit and simply give the recipient the components of a super easy meal that only requires them to open a few cans, but their result will be a tasty pot of “homemade” soup.

The recipe we’re going to use for this food gift is 7 Can Taco Soup, a recipe I’ve written about once before and a recipe that we continue to make at our house on a regular basis. Because preparing this meal only requires opening cans and dumping them into a pot to heat on the stove for a few minutes, it comes together very quickly and easily. You can give the ingredients as a gift and know that the person who will eventually make the soup can do it with very little effort whenever they might need it.

How To Give 7 Can Taco Soup As A Gift

To make this gift, you’ll need to just gather together the supplies needed. Here’s a quick list, with more specifics on the sizes in the printable recipe at the end of this post.

• Black Beans
• Diced Tomatoes
• Corn
• Green Enchilada Sauce
• Cream of Chicken Soup
• Chicken Broth
• Canned Chicken
• + a packet of Taco Seasoning

There’s also some flexibility with these ingredients too – let’s take a look:

The Seasoning:  The recipe calls for a packet of taco seasoning to be included for flavoring the soup. Sometimes I find the premade packets too salty, and I make my own seasoning blend packet instead. (A note about this is also included in the printable recipe tag below).

Can sizes:  There can be slight variances between the sizes of cans for these ingredients that you might find at the store. For instance sometimes a brand of beans will be in a 14 oz can. Other times it’s only a 15 oz can that you can find. As long as you are pretty close to the suggested size, it’ll work!

Vegetarian option:  If you would like to give a meatless version of this soup, simply omit the canned chicken, substitute cream of celery (or other vegetable cream soup) for the cream of chicken soup, and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth. However you can’t usually find vegetable broth in the 14.5 oz can size, but you can include a larger carton with instructions to just use 1-¾ cups. (A note about this is also included in the printable recipe tag below).

And finally, you can include something for the recipient to eat with the soup once it’s made too such as a sleeve of crackers, a loaf of bread from the bakery, or a bag of tortilla chips.

Packaging Your 7 Can Soup Food Gift

Once you have all your supplies gathered together, you’ll discover that cans are kind of heavy! That’s why it’s helpful to have some kind of basket to hold your ingredients. Dollar stores or thrift stores can be great places to look for an inexpensive container to use for this purpose.

For wrapping a basket, I usually buy the large plastic bags from the dollar store that are sold by the gift wrapping supplies and are intended for shrink wrapping around a basket (but I don’t bother to shrink wrap). Instead I just gather the bag around it and tie everything together at the top. Many times a bow comes included with the bags from the dollar store too!

It’s good to include the instructions when giving this food gift too. I’ve created a free printable recipe tag for you that can either be tucked inside the basket or used as a tag on the outside of any wrapping you decide to use around your basket.

You can print the tag here – – > 7 Can Taco Soup Recipe Tag

The next time you’re feeling too busy to make someone a meal, perhaps this can be an idea that can work instead. It’s easy for the Gift Giver to put together and it’s easy for the Gift Receiver to make for a meal. Winner-Winner, Soup’s for Dinner!

And here’s the printable recipe if you would just like to make this for yourself too. 🙂