Find Recipes Using Ingredients You Already Have On Hand
I'm at it again... my quarterly attempt to "try cooking up some fun recipes again". I consider it a personal challenge... and an attempt to overcome my lack of confidence in the kitchen.
I've decided that a large part of my frustration in the past has been threefold:
#1 ...trying to find enough quick & easy recipes that utilize ingredients that I already have on hand.
#2 ...trying to find enough tasty recipes that are quick & easy. Period.
#3 ...having enough decent cookware & tools on hand to make meals that will last more than one sitting (thus eliminating the need to cook so frequently).
My overall goal is to lessen the number of times Jim & I eat out each week. (Trust me, it's a lot!)
I'll address #2 and #3 in future articles. For me, Phase One in this process is to remove the intimidation factor by simply making the recipes adapt to my pantry (...rather than making my pantry adapt to the recipes).
Perhaps you remember my last fiasco...
This time, I definitely won't be stocking up on all of the possible ingredients that I think I might want to include in a dish... some time... in the near future... before I get tired of cooking again.
In fact, the point of this article is to share a handful of fun websites I found that let you type in the ingredients you already have on hand. After a simple search, you get a complete list of recipes that include the ingredients you entered.
My Favorite "Cook From Your Own Ingredients" Websites
I set out with the goal of finding recipes which included these ingredients:
- taco seasoning
- sour cream
- cream cheese
Listed in order of preference
SuperCook - A recipe search engine that utilizes the ingredients you already have on hand. It creates the "recipe card" right before your very eyes as you enter ingredients. It has a great, very modern interface. Fun to use!
It found 3 recipes with the above ingredients plus 2,000 other recipes that only require one or two other ingredients.
Google Base Recipe Search - Has a database of over 1.3 million recipes. You can include an entire list of ingredients; just put each 2-word ingredient in quotes and include a space between items (not a comma).
It found 62 recipes with the above ingredients.
Cookin With Google - This is a customized search engine that is just like the "regular" Google search engine, but this one only searches popular recipe-related sites. Type in your ingredients by putting 2-word ingredients in quotes and include a space between items (not a comma). The only downside is the results are provided in a non-friendly "search engine" kind of way... and that means you often get more lists of recipes rather than landing on an actual recipe. On the good side... you can fine-tune your results by choosing one of the following: vegan, world, atkins, seafood, diabetic, crockpot, weight watchers, gluten-free, low-fat, or vegetarian.
It found 10 recipes with the above ingredients.
Recipe Matcher - Type in the ingredients you've got, and it gives you a long list of recipes which include at least ONE of those ingredients. It also lists those items you still need to make that particular recipe. It sorts the results by percentage of your ingredients each recipe actually has. You can add recipes to "your favorites" at this site, print out the ingredients you still need, or print the entire recipe.
It found about 50 recipes with the above ingredients. (If you leave the "I have basic ingredients of butter, flour and salt on hand" checked, it finds a LOT more & most are meaningless. For example, it found about 450 recipes with the above ingredients, most of which didn't include all 3 ingredients.)
All Recipes Ingredient Search - I like how you can "exclude" ingredients. For example, you get a lot of lobster recipes in the results... simply ask it to exclude "lobster" but still include the other ingredients you previously listed, and you've easily narrowed down the results. Or, you could just search for a particular "type" of dish, rather than searching ALL recipes.
It found 14 recipes with the above ingredients, however most require one or two other ingredients as well.
Cooking By Numbers - Very limited list of available ingredients. You have to choose from the "most popular ingredients that people typically have on hand, rather than being able to type in whatever ingredients you personally have on hand. And it seems like the recipe database is relatively small.
Impossible to search using the ingredients listed above.
Mealopedia- Helps you make meal decisions based on ingredients you have in your home, based on your favorite foods, or just at random. It also creates your shopping list targeted at affordability, and also allows you to add personal notes to your recipes.
Impossible to search using the ingredients listed above.
Leftover Wizard - Search 160,000+ recipes at once. This one is kind of fun, because it seems more interactive than most. As you input each ingredient, the # of recipes available to you automatically changes -- as do the photos of the ingredients you just entered.
It found 16 recipes with the above ingredients.
My Fridge Food is another very user friendly site to find recipes using what you already have in your kitchen.
really great idea, so glad you did this! helped me out so much. being in college (and on a budget) its hard coming up with dinner ideas with what little food is in my cabinets and fridge. thank you! =)
Supercook.com was exactly what I was looking for - thank you :)