The judges of 'Chopped' reveal how to make frozen and canned foods taste more fresh

"I always try to get low-sodium soups, and then add in spices and salt to bring them back to life," Sánchez said. "Many canned soups are very salty, so adding herbs or acid from citrus is a good idea to make it a bit more balanced."

Much like with Freitag's croutons, Sánchez also tries to find ways to add new textures to canned soups.

"If it's just a plain tomato soup, for instance, I would add fresh chopped tomatoes so that it has some depth," he said. "Texture wakes up your palette, and is also just more interesting."

• Read more:
• 16 surprising things you probably didn't know about 'Chopped'
• A 'Chopped' judge taught me how to make bread rolls for free online, but it was harder than I thought
• Padma Lakshmi is giving fans advice on how to stock up their pantries during the coronavirus pandemic
• Chefs reveal the 6 best and 6 worst foods to buy canned

"I always find that when you're making croutons with day-old bread, it's in need of some fat," she said. "I put a really good amount of olive oil or butter, and I typically put some parmesan cheese. I usually just end up eating the croutons!"

"Croutons are a fun way to garnish a canned soup because it's the same texture throughout," she added. "Croutons elevate it, and those are staples you'll already have around the house."

When it comes to canned chicken noodle soup, Conant recommmends adding some frozen vegetables that you already have in your freezer. You could also throw in roast chicken, or even some homemade broth.

"Now it's something completely different," he said. "By using some fresh product and some frozen product, you're taking a lot of that chemical flavor that the canned product has and you're freshening it up. And, it makes more soup!"

If you don't have easy access to fresh ingredients, Freitag recommends sautéing some garlic and onions in a pan and then cooking the canned soup over them to give it that extra oomph.

"Sometimes our contestants will get a pre-prepared product or a canned product and it's really brutal for them," she said. "As we always say, add something fresh to that!"

"If you have a can of mushroom soup, sauté up some fresh mushrooms. I know it seems counterintuitive but, if you do that, it really helps."

"Some hot sauces have a lot of vinegar, and vinegar is what chefs use to brighten things up," Freitag said.

"A splash will brighten those flavors."

"All the flavors get tampered in frozen meals, so you need to add something with acid or brine just to give it a pop," she said. "Just a little something that's different."

"I have some canned olives and I think they're such a great way to change the flavor profile of something."

"Add some fresh tomato, some fresh mozzarella, even if you have leftover tomato sauce or yesterday's meatballs," he said.

"The key for processed food is you really need to personalize it to make it fresh."

"Even just some basil or cilantro, or anything you can get your hands on like citrus, garlic, onions," Sánchez told Insider.

"Anything new and fresh you can add will elevate a frozen or pre-prepared item and breathe life into a dish."

Freitag told Insider that she always recommends stocking up on frozen vegetables in times like these.

"A lot of vegetables that are frozen are frozen at their prime," she said. "Frozen vegetables, to me, can always be treated like fresh vegetables."

Freitag sautés her frozen veggies in garlic and olive oil to add even more flavor, and never skips out on using peas.

"A lot of chefs actually use frozen peas, because those are the best peas!" she said. "They're the sweetest."

They're also incredibly versatile. Freitag recommends adding them to pasta, rice, or salmon.

"Peas to me evoke spring, and it's nice to have that fresh, bright green flavor when you're stuck inside and don't have any more fresh produce," she said.