Find recipes from the ingredients you have
Type in what is in your fridge and cupboard. You will get a handful of recipes ranked by how little extra shopping each one needs.
How the matching works
The tool takes your list and looks for recipes that use as many of those ingredients as possible while needing as few extra ones as possible. A recipe that uses six of your ingredients and needs nothing else ranks above a recipe that uses six and needs four more.
That ranking is the whole point. A recipe you can cook right now is worth more than a better recipe that requires a trip to the supermarket, and most search tools do not make that distinction.
Getting a good result from your list
- Be specific about the main ingredient. "Chicken thighs" works better than "chicken".
- Include the staples you actually have. Oil, garlic, onion, tinned tomatoes, rice, pasta and stock cubes make an enormous difference to what is possible.
- List things you need to use up. Half a cabbage, a lonely carrot and a bit of leftover roast all narrow the answer usefully.
- Do not list herbs and spices you do not have. The tool will assume the list is accurate.
- Mention if you have a slow cooker, air fryer or a rice cooker, if the recipe needs to fit your equipment.
What makes a recipe a good match
| Signal | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Number of your ingredients used | The more of your list it uses, the less you waste |
| Number of extra ingredients needed | Every extra item is a reason not to cook it tonight |
| Whether the extras are pantry staples | Salt, oil and stock are not the same as fresh ginger and cream |
| Time to cook | A 90-minute braise is not a weeknight answer |
| Whether it uses up small amounts | Half-used vegetables are the hardest thing to find a home for |
When the answer is not a recipe
Sometimes the honest answer is that your list makes a good meal but not a recipe with a name. Three vegetables, an egg and rice is dinner, even if it does not have a title.
The tool will say so when that is the case, and it will suggest the single most useful thing to buy if your list genuinely cannot make anything. That is more useful than inventing a recipe that quietly ignores half of what you typed.
Why this beats a keyword search
A normal search for your ingredients returns pages that happen to mention them, which is not the same as pages that use them. You then have to read each one to find out whether it needs eight other things you do not own.
Matching against your actual list does that filtering for you. You get three or four real options instead of twenty results to sift through.
Most recipe sites start with the recipe and ask you to go shopping. This one starts with what is already in your kitchen and works backwards. You type in the ingredients, and you get recipes ranked by how little you need to buy.
It is built for the ordinary version of the problem: it is six o clock, there is food in the house, and you do not want to go to the shops again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Type your ingredients into the tool above, one list separated by commas, and it returns recipes ranked by how little extra shopping each one needs. Be specific about your main ingredient and include the staples you actually own.