Best recipe apps

Do you still have your grandmother’s cookbook? If yes, you can consider yourself lucky! Such a book will become one of your most valuable possessions as an adult who is just starting into the world. But what do you do when grandma’s book isn’t available? Keep mom on the phone every night for cooking advice?

Well, due to actual technology you don’t have to. Even though tablets don’t take being splashed with tomato sauce so kindly, they proved to be a wonderful addition to any kitchen. Today’s best recipe apps don’t just blindly deliver the recipe and let you do the calculations. Everything is interactive and you can even create shopping lists that sync with your other devices. Still, the biggest help such an app brings is watching the dish being prepared when you’re puzzled by how fine the carrots need to be chopped.

The confusing part is that there’s more than one recipe app out there. So which one do you choose? Well, we did the search for you and put together a top 5 of the best recipe apps.

Best recipe apps for iOS & Android

Sidechef: Step-by-step cooking

Who wouldn’t like a professional chef cooking for them? I know I would! Even though some make it look simple, cooking is a difficult job and requires more than just mixing ingredients. And you learn all of these when you get started in life and there’s no one to cook for you.

Sidechef is an app designed for beginners who need step-by-step instructions and offers detailed information as text, pictures, and videos. You even get voice instructions so you won’t get distracted by the video.

And to make things more interesting, there is also a share option where you can enjoy cooking with friends. You can share the shopping list with your significant other and let others admire the final result of your culinary efforts.

Sidechef comes with the following features:

• 3000+ step-by-step recipes
• Timers that will tell you just exactly how long the pasta needs to boil
• Voice commands so you won’t have to smear the sauce all over your tablet
• Easy search option by ingredient, dish name, and others
• The possibility to change the portion size without having to redo all the calculations

Of course, these are only the most important features and I invite you to discover the rest by using the app for your next meal.

BigOven

Just like the name suggests, this app gives you access to a large library of recipes. Right now there are over 350,000 recipes uploaded and they will definitely add more so you won’t complain about boredom in the kitchen for a long time.

The best part is that you won’t have to browse all these recipes to find something inspiration for the evening meal. BigOven is also a social app and shows you what your friends and people you are following are cooking. You can even follow bloggers and you’ll see their ideas as soon as you open the app – instant inspiration!

Another aspect we loved about this app is the organization. You can create folders and subfolders and keep your recipes organized in categories. Also, you have a special section called ‘My recipes’ if you want to share something with the world.

Other features that make this app great are:

• The possibility to create a shareable shopping list
• Integrated menu planner that allows you to create the menu for the entire week
• The app synchronizes with other devices so you’ll always have it handy
• ‘Leftovers’ creativity – if you want to make something with just what’s in the fridge, all you have to do is type in the ingredients. The app will give you the recipes that fit best.

Yummly

Up until now we discussed apps that gave you access to their library and you had to scroll for ideas. But what if you could skip the scrolling part? Yummly is another app with a fantastic library (over 1 million recipes), but it also has a unique characteristic: it shows you recipes according to your preferences. For instance, let’s say you like the Mediterranean diet. You introduce this in the app and you’ll be shown some very delicious recipes in that department. I consider this to be a handy feature and wouldn’t give it up for any other apps.

The best part is that you can also setup your taste and dietary restrictions and Yummly will take them into consideration. And, it will learn your habits and only show recipes that you may like.

To continue with the impressive features, you can add the ingredients from a recipe to your shopping list with just a click. If you like a clean list, you’re in luck! Yummly is also assigning each ingredient in categories making your trip to the shop so much easier.

Allrecipes Dinner Spinner

If you love cooking and you need more recipes every day, this is the app for you. With over 11 million recipes, Allrecipes stands true to its name: you can find any recipe you want in here, regardless of the cuisine.

But wait, the great part is just about to be revealed! You don’t have to browse through the entire library to find something that will fit what you have in the fridge. The search engine allows you to introduce the ingredients and find recipes based on what you introduced.

ChefTap

Besides offering access to a great library of recipes, ChefTap has a unique feature that you won’t find on many recipe apps. The app will allow you to save recipes from other sites by simply sharing the page (the only condition is that the page is in English). The clipped recipe will be saved in your archive and you will have it forever. This feature also works on Pinterest and other social media sites, making your work a lot easier.

Other features we like:

• The app will organize your shopping list by aisle
• The possibility to organize your recipes by tags
• The recipe can be scaled easily so you won’t have trouble reading from a distance.

Now that we’ve reached the final point of our top 5, which is the app you tried so far? Do you have other preferences? We’re eager to know your opinion so don’t forget to leave us a comment.