11 Inexpensive Ways To Upgrade Aldi Premade Meals

With plans to open 180 new locations in the U.S. during 2026, the German-owned grocery store chain Aldi has become increasingly popular in America as rising food prices have moved a growing number of consumers to frequent the discount grocery brand.

Aldi's premade meals are fast, easy, inexpensive, and each is tasty in its own right, but that doesn't mean they can't be upgraded. Whether you're looking to make simple frozen meals, prepared entrees, or prefabricated pizzas taste fresher, or just different from day to day, there are countless ways to do it. However, when already working with a light wallet, it's just as important to find ways to up your flavors without blowing your budget.

Prepared meals help you get dinner on the table fast, no matter where you get them from, but there's always a tradeoff. Premade meals are designed to appeal to as many consumers as possible. That means that flavor-wise they often have to play it safe. Leaning on satisfying but salty flavors, simple but crowd-pleasing textures, and heavy but delicious sauces, many prepared foods can begin to taste similar if they're in your cart week after week. 

Thankfully, whether it's one of Aldi's signature Park Street Deli Heat & Serve meals, one of Mama Cozzi's Take & Bake pizzas, or a bagged Bremer Frozen Skillet entrée there are a variety of ways to upgrade them on a budget.

One of the most effective ways to brighten an Aldi prepared meal is by simply finishing it off with some fresh herbs right as it finishes cooking. 

Many frozen or refrigerated meals are already fully cooked and seasoned to survive storage and freezing. This means that the natural flavors that were present when they were first prepared have mellowed and become less noticeable. Fresh herbs solve this problem instantly. 

Thankfully, along with its premade meal selections, Aldi carries a rotating but reliable selection of fresh herbs you can use to upgrade your already budget-friendly meal with almost no effort. A great idea is to start your shopping trip by checking what fresh herbs are available and picking out your premade meals to go along with the flavors you have to work with. 

Fresh thyme, basil, or even green onions can help make your refrigerated Priano Italian Sausage Ravioli feel like it came hand-made from an Italian kitchen with nothing more than a little butter and a splash of cream to finish it off. Or, a little sage can go a long way in turning your frozen Bremer Potato & Cheddar Pierogis into something completely different than they were the first time you cooked them up.

As we've said, a common issue with prepared meals, especially the affordable ones that don't put a strain on your wallet, is that they tend to be heavy on the salt. With half as much salt as a comparable meal from competitors, it's easy to see the discount chain's focus on quality and health isn't all talk, but even when it comes to health, a certain amount of salt is necessary.

However, balancing salt in a premade entrée and adding a bright and exciting twist of flavor can be done simply by adding a squeeze of lemon juice, a splash of vinegar, or even some balsamic glaze.

Acid is a great way to offset salty flavors, but when it comes to upgrading your prepared meal you'll also find it's a great way to cut through rich cheesy or creamy sauces. For example, a splash of lemon juice in your Bremer Garlic Chicken Skillet will brighten the flavor and cut the rich buttery sauce, while making you forget it was in your freezer just 20 minutes before.

When it comes to acidic meal upgrades, Aldi offers plenty of options. Fresh lemons, a splash of Tuscan Garden Balsamic Vinaigrette, or Priano Red Wine Vinegar, are all great ways to add an acidic touch of balance while upgrading your packaged meals.

Aldi sells many inexpensive ways to boost flavor and upgrade your premade meals, but few are as versatile as pesto. Packed full of herbaceous flavors, pesto adds a boost of flavor to deviled eggs and brings a fresh new dimension to chicken parmesan. What you may not realize is just how powerful it can be in upgrading premade store-bought meals.

Whether the classic basil-based Genovese pesto or a Rosso pesto made from a base of sun-dried tomatoes, Aldi's Priano brand can be counted on to pack this simple but amazing sauce with flavor. That flavor is an easy way to completely upgrade the more bland base flavors of any prepared food you may pick out.

While adding a scoop to your frozen meals is a must, one of the most interesting and transformative ways to upgrade your dinner is by spreading a little pesto across your bake-at-home pizzas.

Though its convenient, frozen pizza can feel repetitive and one-note. However, adding a few splashes of this densely flavored sauce around the top of your pizza before baking is a true game changer. With its high fat content, usually from olive oil, the high temperature of your oven as the pizza bakes will allow the oil to melt and spread outwards carrying your upgraded flavors into the cheese and sauce beneath, giving every bite of your pizza a fresh and completely new flavor you're sure to want again and again.

When it comes to making your Aldi premade meal feel new, another simple idea is to borrow flavors from other cuisines. Aldi's selection of sauces makes this especially easy to do by offering a rotating cast of condiments inspired by foods all over the globe, and you can be sure any flavor you choose is budget-friendly thanks to the brand's focus on providing cheap but quality products.

With a freezer full of ready-to-heat breakfast products all made of egg, meat, or carbs (if not all three), a culinary twist to start of your day can be a welcome addition. The morning's microwaved sausage, egg, and cheese croissant can go from boring to mind blowing with the addition of a little harissa paste. This simple Tunisian condiment combines smoke, spice, garlic, and umami in a way that will make your frozen sandwich more memorable than any fast food offering. 

Next time you're shopping the frozen section at Aldi and see the already tasty Fusia Asian Inspirations Chicken Fried Rice, grab a bag before picking up a bottle of Burman's Sweet & Spicy Thai Chili sauce to not only upgrade the flavor of your rice, but completely transform it into a fusion of Asian flavor that will make you think you ordered it at a restaurant.

One thing many Aldi shoppers quickly come to love is its amazing selection of fresh cheeses. Cheese is already a common ingredient in prepared foods, but adding just the right cheese to your meal can take it from just another dinner to a dinner you remember.

Creamy pasta dishes like the Bremer Chicken Alfredo Skillet gain a new tang  with the simple addition of some crumbled feta. Smoked gouda will add a depth of flavor and welcome richness to your Park Street Deli Artichoke and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Even a small handful of grated Parmesan can drastically improve the texture and balance of your prepared foods by adding something new to a dish prepared, frozen, and stored for weeks or longer before you brought it home.

The key is choosing cheeses with strong flavors. Their flavor stands up against your prepared food's established seasoning, and stronger flavors mean you don't need as much. Which is something your wallet won't be complaining about.

Younger cheeses bring contrast to your dish. Smoked or aged cheeses add depth of flavor and nutty notes. However, both are simple upgrades to the flavor of any meal that make it taste more like it was made today. Just be sure to add your cheese after you're done cooking and the heat has been turned off so that it softens but doesn't fully melt. This will make sure you can taste it alongside, but separately from, the built-in flavors.

Umami is what makes food taste more deeply savory or meaty, a quality that many prepared foods lack. Luckily though, Aldi sells a variety of inexpensive additions to your pantry that can help you to up your umami game.

Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, anchovy paste, mushrooms, bouillon, and tomato paste are all classic umami-strengthening ingredients, and all of them can help you elevate your prepared foods into something more without putting a dent in your wallet.

Aldi's Specially Selected brand makes a creamy mushroom and herb bisque that can completely change the flavor of your refrigerated mashed potatoes in a way that will make you forget they were premade. The rich umami quality of the mushrooms practically sings while the actual mushroom flavor is barely noticeable over the strong and welcome flavor of fluffy mashed potatoes.

Though it may make an Italian grandmother cry, adding a little soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce to your Specially Selected brand mussels in tomato garlic sauce will help to refresh and strengthen the already umami-heavy ingredients that have lost some of their punch while frozen.

Kimchi, a traditional Korean dish of fermented and seasoned pickled cabbage, has become a common way to add flavor to many different dishes, and your Aldi prepared foods can benefit from it too.

Whether you're trying to take your potato latkes to the next level, make a classic grilled cheese sandwich into something new, or find a new and interesting way to add a pickled component to your next burger, kimchi is a versatile ingredient for adding bright and unexpected flavor to a variety of foods.

Packed with acid, umami, heat, and crunch, this bold ingredient can provide an affordable and versatile way to upgrade the flavor of your prepared meals and add some texture at the same time. Fried rice bowls, breakfast sandwiches, or even prepared chicken salad can be given fresh flavor in a way that doesn't just upgrade, but makes them an entirely new food.

Kimchi's strong flavor profile is great for taking traditionally rich or sweet foods and turning them around. A simple sandwich of pre-made BBQ pulled pork on a brioche bun is nearly unrecognizable when you add a little kimchi on top of your meat.

Due to its nature as a fermented and pickled product, kimchi has a long fridge life. That means you can buy this already inexpensive ingredient to upgrade your meals without having to worry about using it up quickly, so it can continue upgrading meals for weeks to come.

It's no secret that hot honey has become a popular ingredient. Despite its simplicity, it has become a common event to see it listed on restaurant menus among the options for pizza toppings or as a sauce option for chicken wings. Even chain restaurants like Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Dunkin' have joined in on the trend at one point or another, and for good reason too.

This sweet and spicy condiment, at its core, is simply honey that's been infused with chilis. Yet, somehow the end product is something more than simply the sum of its parts despite its simple nature. Drizzled on a store-bought frozen pizza, adding it to your store-bought pasta sauce for premade ravioli, or adding a sweet and spicy twist to Aldi's prepared Thai-inspired coconut chicken, hot honey can be used to upgrade almost anything.

Sweetness is a great way to balance salt in a prepared meal, and the spiciness of the chilis has a way of balancing out rich and creamy sauces. However, you should keep in mind that a small amount of hot honey can go a long way. It's important to remember to add your hot honey at the end of the cooking process so its flavor remains bold rather than simply mixing into the already homogenous flavors of your frozen or refrigerated meal.

Adding a home-cooked ingredient to prepared or frozen food is a great way to take an expected and unexciting flavor and upgrade it. Whether soft boiled, sunny side up, or over easy with lightly crisped edges, a simple egg is one of the best ways to cheaply add a freshly cooked ingredient to your store-bought meal.

A runny yolk adds creates an instant sauce, or can add creamy texture to an existing sauce, helping to make your entire meal taste more cohesive. Not only will the creamy and rich yolk make for a delicious sauce on your premade pasta when added to nothing more than some shaved Parmesan or Asiago, but you can even crack a few eggs right onto the top of your frozen pizza at about 10 to 12 minutes before it's finished cooking to add a protein-packed topping that creates its own sauce while adding umami.

Fresh eggs are also a great way to make fried rice bowls taste like they're homemade rather than purchased from the frozen aisle. All you have to do is prepare some freshly made scrambled eggs while your Aldi fried rice cooks according to the instructions. Top your fried rice with your eggs and forget that half of your dinner was previously frozen, because that premade fried rice is now an ingredient in your homemade dinner.

The best qualities of premade meals tend to be the low price, promise of convenience, and the expectation that they are generally seasoned well, though not strongly. However, prepared meals often feel like they lack both nutrition and substance. Due to this, one of the best ways to upgrade them is by adding a little more ... well, meal.

Fresh veggies and proteins give you a chance to add substance, flavor, and nutritional content to your premade meals without having to drastically increase the price. In fact, in many cases it can still be less expensive to add a small chicken breast and steamed broccoli to a prepared meal than it is to buy and cook all the ingredients from scratch.

One of the easiest ways is to sauté some fresh chicken breast to add to a prepared salad mix. What started as a simple $3-4 side salad can quickly become a filling meal for two once a few dollars of freshly cooked chicken is added on top. Or, perhaps putting some of Aldi's Park Street Deli brand proteins, like pork burnt ends or chicken fajita filling over freshly steamed cauliflower for a low-carb high-protein dinner is more your style.

Either way you look at it, both your wallet and stomach will be happy with this incredibly simple and effective method of upgrading your prepared Aldi meals into something even better.

While we generally know what to expect texture-wise from freshly cooked foods, frozen meals often fall short in that department. Though freezing technology has improved dramatically, texture is still one of the most recognizable ways to tell when a meal was frozen and reheated.

As ice crystals form, they break through the cell walls of the foods we eat, which can compromise the food's basic structure. For foods containing less water this isn't as much of a problem, but since water turns to ice and takes up more room when frozen, high-moisture foods like vegetables often have a noticeable textural change when reheated after being frozen.

Since so many of Aldi's frozen meals rely on being frozen before coming to the store, knowing how to combat that quality of frozen foods is important when it comes to successfully upgrading them.

That's why one of the least expensive and most effective ways to upgrade a premade meal from Aldi is to add some contrast. Introducing a crunchy or crisp ingredient completely changes the dining experience. Topping your prepared meal with some crispy fried onions, your favorite potato chips, a bit of chili crisp, or toasted breadcrumbs can elevate your dish and maybe even add a touch of flavor depending on what you choose.