Whether you are a culinary pro or you are timid in the kitchen, everyone can use a little more help in the cooking department. And given how much time we already spend on our devices, why not turn to our trusted smartphones or tablets for kitchen apps that offer extra assistance?
Regardless if you’re looking for inspiration for your next meal or you need help figuring out an ingredient replacement, there’s no shortage of apps — many of which are completely free — that can help make your time in the kitchen a breeze. As you might imagine, there are hundreds of cooking and kitchen apps available, so to help make your life easier, we’ve rounded up a handful of our favourites so you can take on your kitchen without feeling overwhelmed.
Yummly
Price: Free
When you need some extra assistance, think of Yummly as your smart cooking sidekick. Not only does it offer personalized recommendations, but it also offers step-by-step guided recipes, suggests recipes to make based on ingredients you have on hand, recipe scheduling for easy meal planning, plus handy tools and helpful videos that will instantly improve your time in the kitchen.
Tasty
Price: Free
You’ve likely seen a Tasty video in your time on social media, and using the Tasty kitchen app means you don’t have to scroll back through your timeline to find that one recipe you’re looking for. With over 4,000 delicious recipes to choose from, you’ll always be the master of your plate. Tasty offers users innovative step-by-step instructions for every recipe, recommendations for your next meal based on the time of day and even holiday, plus there’s a ‘My Recipes’ page that will serve as your own personal mobile cookbook.
The Photo Cookbook
Price: Free
If you cook better by following visual instructions, The Photo Cookbook is perfect for you, as it’s like a private cooking lesson in your kitchen with an expert chef who makes everything easy to understand. Users can look forward to beautiful photography, elegantly displayed in high resolution, that illustrates each step.
Oh She Glows
Price: $2.99
If you’re a fan of New York Times bestselling cookbook author Angela Liddon, then this is an app you need to have. The Oh She Glows app offers users access to Angela’s most popular plant-based dishes along with stunning, vibrant food photography for each recipe. Other great features include an amazing search function that sorts recipes by keywords, dietary info, dish types, and seasons, as well as filters like freezer-friendly, kid-friendly, quick and easy, budget-friendly, and more.
Substitutions
Price: $2.79
How many times have you been in the middle of cooking something only to realize that you’re out of a crucial ingredient? Probably more times than you can count. The Substitutions app is essentially a long list of ingredients with their possible substitutions. You can search the entire database, or narrow it down by categories like ‘Bake & Cook’ or even by ‘Vegan.’
SideChef
Price: Free
If you prefer to listen to how to make something, SideChef is a must-have as it’s an app that offers recipe dictation and has a hands-free option that allows you to talk to the app when your hands are full. Users can filter by diet and preferences, search by ingredients, and create grocery lists based on what you need for each recipe. SideChef features 18,000 step-by-step recipes that will take you from wondering “what’s for dinner” to cooking your next meal in minutes.
Paprika Recipe Manager
Price: $6.99
Paprika is a handheld recipe manager app that lets you organize your go-to recipes, create grocery lists, and plan your meals. You can also download and save recipes from your favourite websites and then seamlessly sync them to all your devices.
Epicurious
Price: Free
Epicurious is easily one of the most popular cooking apps available, and for good reason. The incredibly easy-to-navigate cooking app makes it even simpler to find the world’s best recipes, watch incredible food videos, and cook delicious meals. With over 35,000 highly rated recipes to choose from, this kitchen app helps you manage your shopping list and recipes, performs voice-activated commands (meaning you can go hands-free while in the kitchen), and it has a smart kitchen timer that lets you know how long to cook certain items, which is easily one of the app’s most useful features.
Kitchen Calculator Pro
Price: $3.99
If you’ve ever found yourself following a recipe you’re not familiar with or one from your grandmother’s collection that lists her own special measurements, they can leave you scratching your head and wondering how many tablespoons are in a cup. This is where the Kitchen Calculator PRO app comes in. This kitchen app makes cooking and measuring a breeze as it does all the conversions for you and makes it simple to scale recipes up (or down) to change the number of servings the recipe yields, while also converting ingredients from weight to volume (and vice versa).
Cocktail Flow
Price: Free
While the kitchen primarily is where you go to cook and indulge, it’s also the space where you might find yourself whipping up a few cocktails once the weekend arrives. Enter Cocktail Flow: an easy-to-use app that allows you to find out what drinks you can make based on the ingredients you have at home and you can search for recipes by country, base spirit, and even event. Plus, when you find a recipe you love, you can favourite it, add notes, read tips, and see personalized instructions on how to mix your drink perfectly.
