GLASGOW chef and restauranteur Julie Lin is on a mission to banish the stigma around tinned foods.

The GaGa owner is travelling around the country, serving up free meals made almost entirely out of canned items in a bid to promote these unsung pantry 'heroes'.

On Wednesday, March 29, dozens queued up as she hosted the 'Julie's Can-teen' pop-up outside of the Science Centre from 12pm to 2pm.

Amid the cost-of-living crisis with food prices rising faster than inflation, tinned items can be a great way to both save money and provide the building blocks for tasty meals.

Glasgow Times:

Julie told the Glasgow Times: "The response has been amazing.

"It's my job to try and break that stigma of what people think about canned foods.

"And there's often quite a negative connotation towards it. But I think, especially in this cost-of-living crisis, it can be a real lifeline for so many people.

"And it really does reduce the cost of certain dishes."

The pop-up is part of a Zero Waste Scotland 'Can-paign' to tackle the twin crises of climate change and cost of living.

Visitors to the 'Can-teen' were offered three dishes: fish cakes, bao buns and chickpea curry.

To make the dishes, Julie used mostly canned items including salmon, mackerel, apricots, spam, pineapple, chickpeas, coconut milk, tomatoes and spinach.

She said: "For example, like the fishcakes we're doing, I've used tinned salmon and mackerel for that.

"And it just means you can have that in the cupboard and it tastes really, really good actually."

Using tinned foods means home cooks need not worry about produce or meat spoiling before they have a chance to use it up.

Julie added: "Rather than having that time factor, or using fresh fish and being like 'okay, I've only got a day and a half to use this', you have a bit more time to think about it.

"Overall it reduces food waste if we use more canned products in our cooking. 

"It's a good way to help us reduce food waste and keep costs low.

"That's the name of the game."

In partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, Julie has devised several recipes for 'tin spiration'.

To find out more, click here.