As college students, finding our way around a kitchen can be tricky. Thankfully, there’s an app for that. These nine cooking apps can tell you what to cook, how to cook it and where to eat out.
1. My Recipe Book
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This app is exactly what it sounds like. It stores all of the recipes you love in the same place and makes it easier to search for them. One of the best features is the grocery checklist. You can either type in what you need or you can select “Add All Ingredients” if you decide to cook a certain recipe. That way you don’t have to manually add each ingredient. You’ll have your grocery list with you at all times!
2. Epicurious
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In this app, you can search for recipes from the cooking site Epicurious, get ratings from other consumers and generate a grocery list. You can even see what’s in season for healthier and more local cooking. Epicurious curates recipes from other sources, such as Gourmet and Bon Appetit, so it has over 100,000 options. Their desserts are particularly delicious, most notably the Lemon Ice Box Pie.
3. Recipes by Ingredients
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This app is for the times when all you have in the fridge is beer, butter, and the cauliflower you convinced yourself to buy. With Recipes by Ingredients, you can enter all of the eclectic things you have in your fridge, and it will give you a list of the recipes you can make with them. Just type all of the ingredients in and scroll through the options.
4. Cookpad
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Cookpad allows you to find and share recipes with friends. You create a profile, and then you are free to “favorite” dishes to set aside for later browsing. It will store your recipes, let you draw from a larger pool, and create a shopping list for yourself. This app is similar to social media sites such as Twitter where you are able to “follow” people. Imagine Pinterest, but with a full focus on food.
5. Tastemade
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Tastemade is an app that makes it easy to find the perfect restaurant in any area. All you have to do is search for a location, and then browse the options. For every restaurant, there is a video capturing the atmosphere and the food, detailing one of the best things to order, and providing a “pro-tip” for the inside scoop.
It’s a great way to get in the know about the food scene in any city, familiar or not. The app will even give you directions to the restaurant! And if you find a place you love and want to remember it, just “favorite” it, and the app will save it for you.
It even has contributions from some of Spoon University’s own writers.
6. BigOven
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What makes Big Oven stand out from other recipe finding apps is the menu planner: you can save all of the meals you want to make for the week. This is great if you know you are going to have a hectic week and want to plan ahead, or if you want to figure out what you will need during your weekly grocery shopping.
The other feature is Use Up Leftovers, where you enter the ingredients you have on hand and are presented with a fun recipe to try. This helps keep your fridge clean and decreases the amount of waste.
7. Moocho
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Instead of finding and storing recipes, Moocho helps you discover deals in your surrounding area. You have virtual Moocho money, which you can use to earn extra pieces of pizza or cookies at restaurants that support the app. The downside: not all restaurants are involved. However, the ones that do accept Moocho offer great deals, which is especially handy for students.
8. New York Times Cooking
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Heads up: this app is only available for iPads. But it has something the other apps don’t; videos. In about five minutes or less, each recipe video walks you through how to make the dish, showing you every step along the way. The other great feature is What To Cook This Week, which makes planning meals much easier. Overall, the recipes are easy, healthy, and come from all over the world.
9. Cocktail Flow
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And finally, perhaps the most useful (and dangerous) app of all: Cocktail Flow. It lets you discover and save drink recipes that you never even knew existed. There is also a feature where you can enter what liqueurs and beers you already have, and it will filter through the recipes available with those ingredients. Replete with recipes like Tornado Twist and El Presidente, this app will spice up any party.