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. Works in English and Spanish. 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, a can of white beans, and a can of tomatoes") — no account required — and AislePrompt scores its full 141,300+ 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. Each message is a fresh search: add or drop an ingredient in your next message and the chat ranks the catalog again. 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, a lemon, and dried oregano." Plain language works; no fixed format is required. Spanish works too (see Bilingual input below). Step 2 — The chat ranks the catalog for you. 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. Missing a few items? Shop on Instacart → 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. From typing a list to a pre-filled cart takes these four steps.
Pantry check on every recipe: "You have everything" vs "Missing 1 of 12"
Save your ingredients to the Pantry (free account) and every recipe page checks its ingredient list against it: a green "✓ You have everything!" when your pantry covers the recipe, or "Missing 1 of 12 ingredients" with one tap to add just the gap to your shopping list. The check labels a recipe without changing the chat's order, which is always by how many of your listed ingredients each recipe uses.
Example ingredient sets — what a typical fridge unlocks
The examples below show four common starting-pantry states and a few of the recipes each one covers. Your exact matches depend on what you type and grow with the live 141,300+ catalog.
Each dish links to a full recipe in the catalog. Type your own ingredient list in the chat for a ranking built from exactly what you have.
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 →
The cart opens on Instacart, where you pick the store. For the full handoff workflow, see the Shopping List page.
Use up what's about to expire: list just those items
A typed list carries no dates, so the ranking treats every item on it the same. To use up what is about to turn, list only those items — "half a can of coconut milk, wilting spinach" — and the recipes that use both rise to the top, so the leftovers become dinner instead of bin-waste. (Expiry dates are tracked on saved items on the Pantry page.)
Tips for sharper ingredient matches
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.
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 input — English and Spanish
Type your ingredient list in English or Spanish ("tengo pollo, ajo y tomates") and the matching algorithm parses either language. Spanish-named dishes in the catalog rank alongside the English ones when they match: "tengo pollo, arroz, pimientos y caldo" pulls up arroz con pollo, and "cerdo, maíz pozolero y chile guajillo" finds pozole rojo. Recipe cards, ingredient lists and step-by-step instructions are returned in English. Your saved pantry items and shopping list carry over between sessions in either language.
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 shortbread, pound cake, sugar cookies, 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?
Search the near-expiry items on their own — e.g. "wilting spinach, Greek yogurt, half a can of coconut milk." A typed list carries no dates, so the ranking does not weight one item over another; a short list of only what needs using up is what puts the recipes that use them at the top. To keep expiry dates across sessions, save items on the Pantry page.
