TLDR: Check out Supercook to search for recipes by ingredients!
Last night, my late night thoughts led me to believe I was going to be a millionaire. As my brain wandered down a path of thought regarding my diet and how I can become more adventurous with my meals, I thought I had just come up with the best idea for an app since TikTok. Now, I am not necessarily a fussy eater – anymore – but I went through a stage of consuming mostly beige foods with tomato ketchup. Honestly, I cannot knock the beige food diet; it’s quick and simple to make – just put your food in the oven, it requires little to no cleaning up, it’s surprisingly nice and it helped me to gain weight inline with my goal. However, beige food lacks any real nutritional value and science has proven the link between a nutritional diet and a happier mind so I wouldn’t recommend consistently eating beige food if you want to sustain good health.
My thinking exposed a need for something to help me turn the random ingredients in my cupboard into something healthy; something that Jamie Oliver won’t try to take away from me like he took away nice school meals – for which he is still not forgiven! I began to imagine a simple stock control system whereby users can scan the barcodes on their ingredients as they take them out of their shopping bags using an app on mobile devices, similar to how you scan things using MyFitnessPal. Once you have entered your ingredients into the app it would suggest recipes which users can make using only what users have in their cupboard. Then as users use the ingredients, they could add/adjust/delete via the app and the recommendations automatically update.
Thinking even further about my idea – it really was too hot to sleep – I thought of what I believe would be an amazing collaboration between Amazon and MyFitnessPal. If you are unfamiliar with MyFitnessPal it is an app used primarily for tracking calories and macro/micro nutrients. Imagine if MyFitnessPal were to incorporate the idea above but thinking one step ahead of the user and recommending recipes the user may like based off their preferences. Taking another step ahead of the user, if the app suggested recipes that include ingredients the user doesn’t have in their kitchen but that are in stock for delivery on Amazon. That way, if the user likes a recipe then they would be able to order the missing ingredients through the app for fast home delivery by Amazon – how convenient! With that being said, following the recent announcement of Amazons investment in Deliveroo finally being approved by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, I believe our government may be reluctant to approve anymore acquisitions by Bezos.
So when I awoke this morning and began my market research, it took only a few quick google searches before I found the answer to my problems: Supercook.
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I know I may be many years late to realise this need as when researching for this post I found articles written about this app dating as far back as 2009, yet I have only been using this app for one day. In time, if my opinion changes, then watch this space as I will come back and update the post. At the moment though, I am blown away! To achieve a weight loss or weight gain goals, cooking is equally as important as training and this app puts the brain of Gordan Ramsey in the palm of your hand. With all this time indoors we have at the moment, this app is a great way to kill some time searching and trying out new recipes.
This free app has a simple user interface which allows you to select your ingredients from a categorised list then shows recipes based upon your selection and it even suggests recipes that include one or two ingredients you do not have. Also, you can also tailor your search by dietary requirements and nutritional factors such as; calories, carbs, proteins, fibres, fats and more.
I must add, I am no way affiliated with Supercook, their app is just really useful and I wish I had came across it sooner. Also, seeing as they recognised one of my needs before I recognised it myself, I feel it is worth sharing to others who may cease to recognise the same need – if you do then go and give it a try!
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Nathan Bickerton 