Kitchen guide
How to find recipes by ingredients you already have
It's 6pm, you're hungry, and the fridge is a random collection of half-used things. The question — "what can I make with these ingredients?" — is one of the most common cooking searches on the internet. This guide walks through the ways to answer it, from old-school methods to scanning your fridge with a single photo.
Start with what you actually have
Recipe-by-ingredient searching flips the usual flow on its head. Instead of picking a recipe and shopping for it, you take stock of what's already in front of you — the eggs, the wilting spinach, half a block of cheese — and find dishes that fit. It saves money, cuts food waste, and removes the "pop to the shop" step entirely.
Three ways to do it
1. Type your ingredients into a search
The classic approach: list what you have and search "chicken rice broccoli recipe" or use an ingredient-matching website. It works, but typing out a whole fridge is tedious, and it's easy to forget the half onion hiding at the back.
2. Learn flexible "template" dishes
Stir-fries, frittatas, pasta tosses, grain bowls, soups and curries all follow a pattern: a base, a protein or veg, a sauce or seasoning. Once you know the templates, almost any combination of leftovers slots into one of them. It's a great skill — but it takes practice.
3. Photograph your fridge and let AI do the rest
The newest approach: take one photo of your open fridge or your leftovers, and let a vision-capable AI identify the ingredients for you. No typing, no forgetting the odd jar — it sees everything in frame, then suggests recipes matched to what you're in the mood for.
How Soffritto does it
Soffritto is built around the photo method. The whole flow takes under a minute:
- 1
Snap or upload a photo of your fridge
Open the door, get most of the contents in frame, and take the shot. A leftover-covered counter works just as well.
- 2
Answer a few quick questions
Tell Soffritto your mood (cosy, fresh, spicy…), the meal type, how much effort you're up for, and any dietary needs.
- 3
Get three recipes made from what you have
Each recipe lists the ingredients spotted in your photo, step-by-step instructions, and a realistic cooking time. Save the ones you like to revisit later.
Tips for better leftover recipes
Photograph everything, not just the stars. The half onion, the yogurt pot and the sad carrot are exactly the ingredients that turn a plain dish into a great one.
Be honest about effort. If you have 15 minutes, say so — a realistic quick recipe beats an ambitious one you abandon halfway.
Use the most perishable things first. Leafy greens, soft herbs and opened dairy have the shortest clock — let them lead tonight's recipe.
Name your craving. "Something spicy" or "comfort food" steers the suggestions far better than ingredients alone.
Ready to see what's hiding in your fridge?
One photo, a few taps, three recipes. Private, instant, and only using what you already have.
Get recipes from my fridge