Cook With What You Have — Ingredient-First Recipes
Type the ingredients on your counter — or paste a list — and AislePrompt instantly ranks its full recipe catalog by how many you already own. No account needed. See what you can make right now, without a grocery trip.
Find recipes from your ingredients → Shop on Instacart →Ingredient-first, not recipe-first
Most meal-planning apps start from a dish you want to cook and then tell you what to buy. Cook With What You Have flips the model entirely: type a list in the chat ("I have chicken thighs, garlic, olive oil, and a can of tomatoes") — no account required — and AislePrompt scores its full 91,600+ recipe catalog by how many of your specific ingredients each recipe requires. A recipe that uses 10 of your 11 listed ingredients ranks above one that uses 2. Recipes requiring zero extra shopping appear first, labelled "You have everything." The algorithm runs on every search and re-ranks live as you add or remove ingredients from your list. Want to save your ingredient list for next time? Pantry inventory tracker →
How to use it: from fridge to ranked recipe list in four steps
No setup required. Step 1 — Open the AI chat and type what you have: "I have chicken thighs, garlic, olive oil, a lemon, and dried oregano." Plain language works; no fixed format is required. Step 2 — The catalog re-ranks immediately. Recipes using the most of your listed items rise to the top; recipes requiring none of your ingredients fall to the bottom. Step 3 — Tap any recipe card to see its full match breakdown: which of your items it uses, which it skips, and which extra items you would need to buy. Step 4 — Pick a recipe you can cook from what you have, or tap "Shop the gap on Instacart" to order the 1–2 missing items. The whole workflow — from typing a list to having a pre-filled cart — typically runs in under two minutes.
"Have all" vs "missing a few" — you choose
Every recipe in the results shows a match badge: a green "✓ You have everything" badge when your list covers every ingredient, or an amber "Missing 1 of 12" badge when you're almost there. Sort by fewest-missing to find what you can make without leaving the kitchen.
Example ingredient sets — what a typical fridge unlocks
The examples below show four common starting-pantry states and the range of recipes the catalog surfaces for each. Your exact matches vary with the live 91,600+ catalog total.
Match counts are drawn from AislePrompt's live catalog and grow as new recipes are added. Type your own ingredient list in the chat for a personalised ranking.
Order only the gap — not a full cart
Found a recipe that needs just one or two more items? One tap stages only those missing ingredients as a new cart — you order the gap, not a full weekly shop. Shop the gap on Instacart →
For retailer selection and the full handoff workflow, see the Shopping List page.
Cooks down what's about to expire
The match ranking gives a boost to recipes that use items nearing their expiration dates — so the half-used can of coconut milk or the wilting spinach becomes dinner instead of bin-waste. (For expiry tracking and persistent pantry management across sessions, see the Pantry page.)
Tips for sharper ingredient matches
Lead with your perishables. Listing your soonest-to-expire items first ("half a can of coconut milk, wilting spinach, Greek yogurt") gets those items the expiry-boost weighting — recipes that use them rank higher. Skip the assumed staples. Leave out salt, water, and basic cooking oil — the algorithm treats them as universal pantry staples so you don't need to list them; listing only your distinctive ingredients returns tighter results. Sparse lists work well. Three or four items ("eggs, bacon, cheddar, potatoes") rank hundreds of recipes meaningfully — there's no minimum list length. Mix produce and pantry. Combining a fresh item ("two chicken thighs") with a pantry item ("a can of white beans, rosemary") targets recipes that bridge both, often surfacing low-effort one-pot dishes like braises and stews. Switch to Spanish for Spanish-language recipes — type "tengo pollo, ajo y tomates" and results include Spanish-title recipes ranked the same way.
Any cuisine, any skill level, any ingredient count
Whether you have a fully stocked pantry or just five basics, ask the AI "what can I make with chicken, garlic, olive oil, pasta, and parmesan?" and it returns ranked recipes with step-by-step walkthroughs. For browsing and filtering the full catalog by cuisine or cook time, see the full recipe catalog. If you already have a specific recipe in mind from another site and just want to order the ingredients, use the Recipe Importer instead — that's for URL and screenshot imports, not pantry-first matching.
Bilingual — English and Spanish
AislePrompt's ingredient matching, recipe results, and step-by-step instructions work in both English and Spanish. Switch language from the header; your saved pantry items and shopping list carry over between sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I tell AislePrompt what ingredients I have?
Open the AI chat and type or paste a list — e.g. "I have chicken thighs, garlic, tomatoes, onion, cumin, and rice." The AI ranks matching recipes immediately. For persistent pantry tracking so you don't re-enter every session, use the Pantry page to build a saved inventory.
Can I search without setting up a pantry?
Yes. Just describe your ingredients in the chat — no account or pantry setup required. The pantry tracker saves your list across sessions, but ingredient-first recipe matching works instantly as a guest.
What if I only have 3–4 ingredients?
The AI handles sparse lists well — type "I only have eggs, butter, flour, and sugar" and it will suggest crepes, shortbread, pancakes, and more. It separately flags recipes that need only one common pantry staple (salt, oil, water) from those needing specialty items.
Is there an app?
AislePrompt is a mobile-first web app — no install needed. Add the site to your home screen for an app-like icon on iOS or Android.
Does the ingredient list format matter?
No fixed format required. "Chicken, garlic, lemon" and "I have a chicken breast, 3 garlic cloves, and half a lemon" both work — the AI parses quantity clues when present and ignores them when absent. Plain comma-separated lists are fine for speed; natural sentences add useful context for near-expiry items.
How do I get the best results from near-expiry items?
Mention near-expiry items explicitly in your ingredient list — e.g. "wilting spinach, Greek yogurt (3 days left), half a can of coconut milk." The algorithm gives a ranking boost to recipes that use items flagged as near-expiry. For persistent expiry tracking across sessions, set expiry dates in the <a href="/pantry">Pantry page</a> so the boost applies automatically every time.