The 25 Best Foods You Can Buy at Aldi

As a grocery fanatic and food writer, friends always ask where to shop and what groceries to buy. To their surprise, I advise them to start at Aldi. It’s unlike other grocery shopping experiences. If you’re a first-time visitor, come prepared with a quarter to deposit for a shopping cart, put away your brand loyalties, and don’t be shocked when you have to bag your own groceries. 

I have personally taste-tested hundreds of products across every aisle of Aldi, so when I recommend a product, you know that I’m speaking from the heart (er, the belly). I have narrowed down my favorite Aldi buys to just 25 items. These groceries are as good (or better) than the name brand despite being a fraction of the price.

I taste tested every bottle of olive oil that Aldi sells and this bottle of Specially Selected Extra Virgin Olive Oil was the best tasting and most versatile. This olive oil has a robust, slightly grassy flavor (a great quality when it comes to olive oil). It is packaged in an elegant, green glass bottle that appears much more expensive than its $9 price tag. The oil is mild enough to be used as an all-purpose cooking oil, but has just enough personality to step up to finishing-oil status. 

Aldi curates its grocery offerings, so customer choice is limited for many staples. That is, except for pasta sauces. I tested 16 of Aldi’s private-label pasta sauces and found one that could pass for homemade. The Specially Selected Premium Marinara sauce tastes of fresh tomato with depth of flavor from onions and garlic. Even though Aldi now carries another of Kitchn’s favorite pasta sauces, I often find myself reaching for this budget-friendly option instead. 

Pasta is the backbone of my pantry (and probably yours too). Luckily, Aldi sells high-quality bronze cut pasta for just $2 per one-pound package. This pasta is made from durum wheat semolina flour and made into a dough that’s pushed through bronze die. This manufacturing insight is of importance in the kitchen because pastas like these tend to have a slightly coarser texture, which helps sauces cling to them. Aldi sells fettucce, linguine, chitarra, conchiglie, rigatoni, and penne pasta shapes.

Aldi is my go-to destination for high-quality chocolates at an affordable price. The award-winning German chocolates are smooth and rich with the perfect level of sweetness. Available all year round, shoppers can choose from chocolate varieties including dark, milk, mint, and orange-infused.

There’s no better jar of fruit preserves to buy at Aldi than the Specially Selected Premium Blackberry Fruit Spread. Its flavor rivals the small batch jars of imported jams and jellies, at a fraction of the price. The blackberry fruit spread is made with 75 percent fruit for a well-balanced, not-too-sweet flavor. Stir it into a yogurt parfait, add to thumbprint cookies, and include it on a charcuterie spread.

With their subtle green hue, buttery flavor, and nutty crunch, pistachios are among the best nuts to buy. While shell-on pistachios are my pick for snacking, Aldi makes it easy to splurge on the shelled variety when it’s just $4 per package. With zero shelling involved, its easier to add pistachios to sheet pan dinners, make-ahead lentil salad lunches, and sweet smashed cookies.

There’s been no bigger shock in all my years of taste testing grocery products than when a $1 box of stuffing mix from Aldi took the top spot among 20 competitors. Beating out name brands and boxes from high-end grocers, Aldi’s stuffing mix tasted the most like homemade with natural variety in bread size and texture and a well-balanced herby flavor.

Why spend up to $6 at another grocery store when you can get the same (or better) quality garlic powder at Aldi for just $2.09. Aldi’s garlic powder is made from organic and non-GMO garlic cloves that are dried and ground into a fine powder. It’s ideal for adding to all-purpose seasoning blends, shaking over air-fryer roasted potatoes, and adding flavor to homemade snack mixes.

This block of aged white cheddar cheese is not only an Aldi fan-favorite, it’s been one of Kitchn’s favorite cheeses for years. It’s tangy enough to make it memorable, while still maintaining widespread appeal. With its creamy texture and classic cheddar flavor this is an obvious addition to any cheese board, cheese sauce, casserole, or sandwich. 

Egg prices have been one of the biggest food stories of 2023, but if you’re an Aldi shopper you may not have noticed. The stores carry caged, organic, cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised eggs all at different price points. My pick is the pack of pasture-raised eggs, which sells for $5 a dozen and has the bright orange yolks I love. These eggs are the star of dishes, like scrambled eggs and citrusy chess pie. 

Aldi aficionados know that they have to shop on Thursday if they want to serve Mama Cozzi’s Take-and-Bake Pizzas for Pizza Friday. Shoppers love this house brand of pizza so much that some locations sell out of the pizza before the weekend begins. I tried every one of these XL pizzas and was blown away by the quality, flavor, and value. My favorite of the bunch was the pepperoni pizza, though there is a wide variety if you prefer different toppings. 

Back in 2019, Kitchn editors embarked on a mission to taste every salad kit we could get our veggie-loving hands on. While our editors enjoyed every one of Aldi’s offerings, Little Salad Bar’s Southwest Chopped Salad Kit was the ultimate favorite.The ready-to-eat salad is a mix of green and red cabbages, romaine lettuce, kale, carrots, and green onions (yum!), to be topped with tortilla strips, a four-cheese blend, and Greek yogurt jalapeño dressing. This taco salad-style mix won our hearts back then and hasn’t let go since.

My favorite from the entirety of Aldi’s offerings is the Friendly Farms Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. I reach for it every morning — my coffee simply doesn’t taste as good with other brands of almond milk. Even if you don’t take almond milk in your cup of joe, almond milk is still a great buy. It comes both sweetened and unsweetened, and in plain, vanilla, and chocolate varieties, so you can choose the carton that best suits your recipe. I reach for almond milk when I’m making oatmeal, chia pudding, vegan mac and cheese, pancakes, and smoothies.

I purchased Aldi’s Specially Selected Indulgent Greek Honey Vanilla Yogurt on a whim and only had one regret. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to buy this fan-favorite! This Greek-style yogurt is decadent, thick, and creamy. Its tangy flavor is balanced with the sweetness of honey and vanilla. Use it to build granola parfaits for breakfast or dessert, blend into smoothies, freeze into popsicles, or garnish a cake.

I taste tested every single bottle of salad dressing that Aldi sells, and the Little Salad Bar Ginger Vinaigrette is the best one you can buy. This bottle dressing packs a punch with puréed ginger, carrots, savory tamari, and sweet apple juice.

If buying grass-fed or organic ground beef is usually out of your budget, it’s time to try Aldi. Aldi’s Simply Nature 100% grass-fed organic ground beef is sold in recipe-ready one-pound packages. Plus they come vacuum-sealed, so I always buy an extra for the freezer.

Just because it is a refrigerator staple doesn’t mean you have to settle for basic butter. Spring for the rich flavor of Aldi’s pure Irish butter for spreading on cinnamon-sugar apple muffins or turning into Cowboy butter for dipping.

Would you believe some of the best supermarket brioche comes from Aldi? The chain has turned this eggy, buttery bread into rolls, buns, and loaves. While it’s hard to choose a favorite, the Specially Selected Brioche Rolls are the most versatile in the bakery aisle. The simplest way to enjoy the buns is to serve them with soups and salads, but don’t sleep on serving them as breakfast sandwiches or with hamburgers and BBQ pulled pork. 

Look no further if you’ve been searching for a store-bought loaf that tastes just like homemade. This bread has a tender crumb and chewy crust, and has won a permanent place on my shopping list. Use it to make your next cinnamon toast or deli-style reuben sandwiches.

Not only are these Hawaiian sweet rolls among our favorite Aldi bakery buys, they’ve been rated a fan-favorite among the store’s devoted shoppers. The rolls are soft, sweet, and perfect for cheesy chicken sliders and side dishes.

These loaves of hearty sliced bread are a ringer for one of our favorite brand name breads. Simply Nature Organic Graintastic and Seedtastic bread are full of grains and seeds that add texture and flavor to every slice. This bread is a fraction of the price of the name brand, so I rarely leave Aldi without it.

Homemade whipped cream is a sweet and simple luxury, but that won’t stop me from keeping a container of Aldi’s Friendly Farms Whipped Topping in my freezer. This stabilized whipped topping keeps its fluff better than the homemade in fruity salads, icebox cakes, and towering strawberry trifles.

If you’re ever at a loss for workday lunches or a quick heat-and-eat dinner, let me recommend Aldi’s Whole & Simple Southwestern-Style Chicken Quinoa Bowl. You’ll find hearty bite-sized pieces of chicken breasts, chunks of sweet potatoes, black beans, corn, and bell peppers mixed with quinoa, brown rice, and a spicy chipotle sauce. It’s just like the bowl meals you make at home, except 100x easier.

No list of Aldi’s best groceries would be complete without mention of “Red Bag Chicken.” This bag of frozen breaded chicken breast fillets is so popular it even has its own Facebook group with over 25,000 members. We can confirm that it makes a great (and affordable) Chick-fil-A-style sandwich. Keep it in your fridge when you need a quick-fire solution to weeknight dinners.

Decadent ice cream bars coated in a thick layer of nutty milk chocolate have always been a favorite treat reserved for special occasions. Now that I know Aldi sells them for just $3.49, everyday is a special occasion.

Did your Aldi favorites make the list? Sound off in the comments below.