What to Make with Sardines? 15 Quick Recipes and Ideas

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Tinned sardines are probably the quickest way to eat really well, not just to eat fast. They're already cooked: nothing to boil, nothing to fry, and with a slice of bread and a wedge of lemon you have a proper meal on the table in five minutes.

Even so, there's one question we hear more often than any other: "So what do I do with them, apart from putting them on toast?" For the past two years we've worked exclusively with Portuguese tinned fish, and in that time we've cooked and tasted so much that the list has grown rather long. Here you'll find 10 recipes we make ourselves and 5 ideas that don't even need a recipe. The full recipes for the first ten dishes are waiting in the Recipes section of our blog.

In a hurry? Take a look at the table. Got a minute more? Further down, for every dish, we explain why it works and which sardines suit it best.

All 15 dishes at a glance

No.	Dish	Time	Difficulty	Best for	Which sardines
1	Scrambled eggs with sardines	15 min	🟢	Breakfast	In olive oil
2	Avocado toast with sardines	10 min	🟢	Breakfast, light lunch	With lemon
3	Portuguese sardine sandwich	10 min	🟢	Breakfast, snack	In olive oil
4	Spaghetti with sardines, lemon and capers	20 min	🟢	Dinner	In olive oil
5	Caesar salad with sardines	approx. 20 min	🟢	Lunch	Skinless and boneless
6	Sardine and pineapple toastie	approx. 15 min	🟢	Dinner, snack	In olive oil
7	Bruschetta with spicy sardines	approx. 15 min	🟢	Guests	With chilli
8	Sardine spread with cayenne pepper	approx. 10 min	🟢	Guests	In olive oil
9	Rye bread and sardine sandwich	approx. 10 min	🟢	Snack	In olive oil
10	Spicy sardine empanadas	approx. 1 hr	🟡	Weekends, guests	Spicy
11	Warm rice with sardines	5 min*	🟢	Quick dinner	In olive oil
12	Potatoes with dill and sardines	5 min*	🟢	Lunch	With lemon or pepper
13	Portuguese snack board	10 min	🟢	Guests	2–3 different flavours
14	Sardine bowl	10 min	🟢	Packed lunch	In tomato sauce
15	Focaccia with sardines and caperberries	20 min	🟢	Guests, dinner	In extra virgin olive oil

🟢 easy, 🟡 medium. *If the rice or potatoes are already cooked.

Breakfast with sardines: when mornings are rushed

In the morning, sardines have one big advantage: they're packed with protein, so they keep you full right through to lunch. And they take about as long to prepare as the kettle takes to boil.

1. Scrambled eggs with sardines (15 min)

If scrambled eggs turn up on your table every other morning, this version gives them a real lift. We fold the sardines in right at the end, while the eggs are still creamy, so the fish doesn't turn to mush. Red onion and toast do the rest.

Tip: cook the eggs in the oil from the tin instead of butter. You'll taste the difference straight away.

2. Avocado toast with sardines (10 min)

Avocado and sardines are a pairing that simply works: one is creamy, the other rich and slightly salty. We add very thinly sliced fennel and red onion for crunch, and the lemon brightens everything up. Sardines with lemon are perfect here, because the acidity is already in the tin.

3. Portuguese sardine sandwich (10 min)

Rye bread, avocado, cherry tomatoes, coriander and sardines. Simple, but with good bread this sandwich looks like something from a café.

Lunch and dinner with sardines

4. Spaghetti with sardines, lemon, capers and chilli (20 min)

If we could recommend only one recipe from the whole list, it would be this one. While the spaghetti cooks, warm the chilli and capers in the oil from the sardine tin, add the sardines and squeeze over a lemon. Done. Dinner in 20 minutes, and better than most of the pasta we make out of habit.

Any sardines in olive oil will do, but the better the oil in the tin, the better the sauce. Why sardines and capers get on so well is a story we've told in a separate article on our blog.

5. Caesar salad with sardines

A classic Caesar salad, only with sardines instead of chicken and toasted hazelnuts instead of croutons. The Parmesan and lemon stay. It sounds bold, but the sardines play almost the same role as the anchovies in a classic Caesar dressing, only milder. If your guests aren't keen on bones, choose skinless and boneless sardines.

6. Sardine and pineapple toastie

We'll admit it: the first time we saw this combination, we were sceptical. But sweet pineapple and salty fish work in a toastie much as they do on a Hawaiian pizza. A recipe for anyone who likes to try something new.

Snacks for guests

In Portugal, a tin of sardines on the table with a glass of wine is a perfectly normal snack, not a sign that the host couldn't be bothered. Elsewhere, tinned fish has become a favourite in wine bars in recent years, and it goes just as well with a cold pint. Here are a few ideas that look a little more impressive than an open tin.

7. Bruschetta with spicy sardines

The trick is simple: before toasting the bread, drizzle it with oil from the sardine tin. It picks up a light taste of the sea, and the sardines with chilli go on top. The heat is easy to adjust by choosing milder or hotter sardines with chilli.

8. Sardine spread with cayenne pepper

Unexpected guests and an almost empty fridge? One or two tins, a fork and some cayenne pepper, and ten minutes later you have a creamy, gently spicy spread. Serve it on toast, crackers or simply with vegetable sticks.

9. Rye bread and sardine sandwich

Mash the sardines with a little mayonnaise, hot pepper sauce and chives, then spread the mixture onto toasted rye bread. Rye bread is a staple across Northern Europe and the Baltics, and its slight sourness goes with sardines better than most people expect. It works brilliantly on Irish brown soda bread, too.

10. Spicy sardine empanadas

The only recipe on the list that needs a bit more time, because we make the pastry ourselves. But at the weekend, when you're expecting guests, it's worth it: crisp pastry, a spicy sardine filling, and the plate is empty before you've even had a chance to sit down.

5 ideas that don't need a recipe

These are dishes we make ourselves when we don't feel like thinking or doing much washing-up. Most of them don't need exact quantities.

11. Warm rice with sardines

Warm up yesterday's rice, tip in the whole tin, oil and all, and mix with a fork. Salt, pepper and, if you have some, a handful of parsley. The oil stops the rice from sticking together and takes the place of a sauce.

12. Potatoes with dill and sardines

This one reminds us of the herring-and-potatoes classic you'll find all around the Baltic Sea, only with sardines instead of herring. Warm potatoes, a splash of oil from the tin, dill and red onion. Sardines with lemon or with pepper are perfect here.

13. Portuguese snack board

In Portugal, small plates like these are called petiscos, a kind of Portuguese tapas. Open 2–3 tins with different flavours, say in olive oil, in tomato sauce and with chilli, and serve them straight in the tin. Add good bread, butter, olives and lemon wedges. Your guests taste and compare, and the conversation gets going by itself. For wine pairings, have a look at the Articles section of our blog.

14. Sardine bowl

Rice or bulgur wheat, cucumber, tomatoes, salad leaves, a hard-boiled egg and sardines in tomato sauce. The sauce from the tin doubles as the dressing. Handy as a packed lunch for work, just add the sardines right before you eat.

15. Focaccia with sardines and caperberries (20 min)

The SARDINELE team tried this idea out only recently, while we were writing this article, and it went straight onto our list of favourites. You need just a few things: a focaccia, two tins of sardines in extra virgin olive oil, an onion, caperberries and a lemon.

Our focaccia, ready to go into the oven.

Pour the oil from both tins over the bread, spread it across the whole surface with a spoon and leave it to soak in for 5 minutes. Then lay the sardines on top and break them up with a fork right on the bread, scatter over thinly sliced onion and the caperberries, squeeze over a lemon and finish with freshly ground black pepper. 7–10 minutes in an oven at 220 °C, and it's ready.

Our note after the first try: don't skimp on the oil from the tin, because that's where all the flavour comes from, so it pays to choose sardines in good oil. No need for salt, the sardines and caperberries are salty enough.

Which sardines should you choose for each recipe?

The most common mistake is to think all sardines are the same and only the label differs. In fact, what the sardines are packed in accounts for almost half the flavour of the dish, so choose it according to what you're cooking.

Packed in	Best for	Our note
Olive oil	Pasta, scrambled eggs, sandwiches	The most versatile choice, and the oil can be used for cooking
Tomato sauce	Rice, bowls, potatoes	The sauce is ready-made, no extra needed
With chilli	Bruschetta, empanadas, snacks	The heat varies a lot from producer to producer
With lemon	Toast, salads	Fresher, and perfect with avocado
Escabeche sauce	Snack board, potatoes	Marinated and tangy, best eaten straight from the tin
Grilled and smoked	Toasties	Bold flavour, so you need fewer extras

If you're trying them for the first time and don't know where to start, go for simple sardines in olive oil. You can make most of the dishes on this list with them, and they also happen to be our own favourites. You'll find every flavour, producer and size in the Sardines category of our shop.

What to do with the oil from the tin?

Don't pour it away. The oil has matured in the tin together with the fish, which makes it perhaps the tastiest ingredient of all.

• Fry in it: eggs, onions or garlic for a pasta sauce.
• Drizzle it over bread before toasting or baking, as with the bruschetta or the focaccia.
• Whisk it with lemon juice and you have a salad dressing in 30 seconds.
• Stir it into rice or potatoes, as in ideas 11 and 12.

The same goes for tomato sauce from the tin: it's a ready-made base for pasta or rice.

Frequently asked questions

Do tinned sardines need to be cooked or heated?

No. They're already cooked and can be eaten straight from the tin. It's only worth warming them when they're part of a hot dish, such as pasta or a toastie.

Can you eat sardine bones?

Yes. During the canning process they become soft, are barely noticeable and are a good source of calcium. If you still don't like them, choose skinless and boneless sardines.

How long does an opened tin keep?

Transfer the sardines and their oil to a glass container with a lid, keep them in the fridge and eat them within two days. Don't leave them in the opened tin.

Are sardine dishes suitable for children?

Usually, yes. The mildest options are the scrambled eggs, the pasta and the rice. Avoid spicy flavours and browse our selection of tins best suited to children.

Can you swap sardines for sprats or herring in these recipes?

You can, but you'll end up with a different dish. Sprats are usually smoked, smaller and stronger in flavour, while herring is most often salted or pickled. For pasta and salads, sardines in olive oil remain the better choice.

Are sardines a healthy everyday choice?

Sardines are rich in protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D and calcium, and they accumulate less mercury than large predatory fish. What nutrition experts say about them is covered in more detail in the Articles section of our blog.

About the authors

This article was written by the SARDINELE team. We're a family business founded by a father and son, and we fell for sardines in Portugal, where we tasted them for the first time. For the past two years we've worked exclusively with Portuguese tinned fish, we're in touch with dozens of producers, and we cook every recipe we publish ourselves first. In our shop you'll find nothing but Portuguese products.

Instead of a conclusion

If you only try one thing from this whole list, make it the spaghetti with sardines, lemon and capers. After that, you'll never look at a tin of sardines the same way again. And if you have an oven and 20 minutes, try our latest discovery, the focaccia with sardines.

Want more to choose from? Browse the sardines in our shop or all the recipes on our blog. Made something of your own? Tell us in the comments, we'd love to try it.