App Review: Supercook

Supercook is an app that you might find helpful in different scenarios. Supercook’s function is very simple: enter in the food items that you have available to you and it will show the different recipes you can make with the food you have.

This site could be helpful for anyone who is on a tight budget or wants to reduce the food waste they create. Or, you may just be too lazy to go to the grocery store today and you want to make something with what you have so you can stay in your sweatpants. That works too, the website doesn’t judge. As a graduate student on a tight budget and a lazy-sweatpants-wearer, I’ve used it a few times in the past with good results.

There are two ways you can go about using this site. If you already have a rough idea of what you want to make, type it into the site and then enter the ingredients that you have on hand. The site will then generate recipes that you can make and show you recipes that you are really close to including the ingredients you are missing that would complete the dish. Let’s say you want to make a pasta with red sauce and you have pasta, tomato sauce, mushrooms, and hamburger meat. Supercook.com would give you a recipe for spaghetti, a few other pasta dishes, and a list of additional ingredients you would need to make them.

The second way the site can be used is if you have no idea what you want to make and would like to use the ingredients that you have available to you. In this case, just enter in your ingredients and it will tell you what you can make with what you have. It will also give you a short list of a few ingredients you may want to pick up that will give you more options in regard to which recipes you can make.

One thing that I’ve noticed using this site is that the more versatile foods you have, the more recipes will be available to you. Rice, veggies, and beans are going to be a good starting point for most because they can be used in a variety of different dishes. And because they are fairly cheap, these foods are more available for those on a tight budget, like myself. Plus, rice and beans can be kept in dry storage for a very long time, making them ideal to keep somewhere in your pantry for when food might be running a little low.

I like to use this site when my culinary creativity is failing me and I need some other ideas for what I can eat before my next trip to the grocery store. Hopefully you will find it helpful yourself! If you want to learn more about different websites you can use to help improve your nutrition and the nutrition of your family, reach out to us on social media or check out our blog for more information.

Supercook is available for free download on iOS and Android.