What to Cook With Ingredients You Already Have (Every Tool Tested)

You've got half an onion, some rice, a bell pepper that's seen better days, and a can of black beans. You know there's a meal in there somewhere. You just can't see it.

There are at least eight different ways to turn random fridge ingredients into dinner, from googling recipes to dedicated ingredient-matching apps to AI chatbots. Each one works differently, and most of them will still leave you at the grocery store buying things you didn't plan on. I've tested all of them.

Here's the honest breakdown. What works, what doesn't, and which approach actually solves the problem long-term.

These apps all work the same way. You check off ingredients from a list, and they show recipes that use some or all of them. It's the most obvious solution to "what can I make with what I have?" and it works better than you'd expect.

SuperCook is the biggest. It pulls from multiple recipe databases and shows you how many of your ingredients each recipe uses. The interface is clean. You can filter by meal type, cuisine, and diet. It's free.

The catch: SuperCook only knows what you tell it, and you have to tell it every single time. There's no memory between sessions. If you used half the bell pepper yesterday, it doesn't know. If your spinach is going bad tomorrow, it doesn't care. It matches ingredients to recipes. That's it.

MyFridgeFood is similar but smaller. Fewer recipes, simpler interface. It does the same checkbox-to-recipe matching. Nothing wrong with it, but SuperCook does the same thing with a bigger recipe pool.

Plant Jot is niche. It's specifically for plant-based recipes, which is great if that's your thing. Smaller recipe database, but everything is vegan.

The fundamental limitation of all three: they're recipe finders, not meal planners. They tell you what you could make. They don't help you decide what you should make based on what's expiring, what nutrition you need, or what you already ate this week.

AI chatbots are genuinely good at this. Tell ChatGPT "I have rice, black beans, a bell pepper, and half an onion. What should I make?" and you'll get a solid answer in seconds. Usually with a full recipe, substitution ideas, and cooking times.

I tested all three chatbots for this. ChatGPT gives the most creative suggestions. Gemini is best at structured meal plans. Claude asks the best clarifying questions ("What cooking equipment do you have?" "How much time do you have?"). Full comparison here.

For a one-off "what should I make tonight?" question, chatbots are hard to beat.

The problem is the same one that kills every AI meal planning attempt after week two. Chatbots don't remember anything. Tomorrow you'll have to list your ingredients again. Next week you'll re-explain your dietary restrictions. They don't know you already had rice twice this week or that the bell pepper you mentioned yesterday is now gone.

According to HelloFresh/Wakefield Research, 69% of Americans have used or are open to using AI for cooking help. The demand is there. The tools just aren't built for ongoing use.

These are newer tools that sit between chatbots and traditional recipe apps. They use AI to generate recipes from your ingredients, but they're purpose-built for cooking instead of being general-purpose chatbots.

DishGen lets you type in ingredients and generates a custom recipe. It's fast. The recipes are surprisingly decent. You can adjust for dietary restrictions and serving size. Free tier gives you a handful of generations per day.

ChefGPT does something similar with more features. It has different modes: one for using up ingredients, one for meal planning, one for recreating restaurant dishes. The premium version includes nutrition info.

Both are better than raw ChatGPT for recipe generation because they're tuned for food. The recipes feel more practical, with realistic cooking times and common techniques.

But they share the same core problem as chatbots. No persistent memory. No pantry tracking. Every session starts from scratch. They generate recipes. They don't plan meals.

Every tool above answers the same question: "What can I make with these ingredients right now?"

That's useful. But it's not the whole problem.

The Penn State University study that found Americans waste 31.9% of the food they buy didn't blame bad cooking. It blamed bad planning. People buy food without a plan for using it. Then they can't figure out what to make. Then it goes bad.

Finding one recipe from your ingredients doesn't fix that cycle. You make dinner tonight. Tomorrow you're back to square one, staring at the fridge again. The leftover rice from tonight's meal? Nobody reminded you to use it. The herbs you bought for one recipe? They're wilting.

What you actually need is something that:

1. Knows everything in your kitchen without you re-entering it every time
2. Prioritizes what's expiring so it gets used before it goes bad
3. Remembers what you ate so you're not having rice for the fourth time this week
4. Tracks nutrition so dinner isn't just "whatever uses the most ingredients"
5. Plans ahead so tomorrow's meal accounts for tonight's leftovers

That's not a recipe finder. That's a meal planning system. And that's why I built MealThinker.

You tell it what you bought, what you used, what you're in the mood for. It tracks everything. When you ask "what should I make?" it already knows your fridge, your preferences, your nutrition goals, and what's about to go bad. No forms. No checkboxes. Just a conversation.

See the difference in action: full demo of planning a week of dinners.

How every approach compares

	Knows your ingredients	Remembers next time	Tracks expiration	Plans multiple meals	Tracks nutrition	Free option
Google recipes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
SuperCook / MyFridgeFood	Yes (manual)	No	No	No	No	Yes
ChatGPT / Gemini / Claude	Only if you list them	No	No	Sort of	No	Yes (limited)
DishGen / ChefGPT	Only if you list them	No	No	No	Premium only	Yes (limited)
MealThinker	Yes (conversational)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	7-day trial

The first column is where all these tools perform equally. That's what makes them seem interchangeable. Everything after the first column is where the real differences show up.

The EPA estimates the average American wastes $728 per year on food that goes uneaten. Most of that isn't food you forgot to buy. It's food you bought and didn't use. A recipe finder helps you cook tonight. A meal planner helps you stop throwing money away.

If your fridge is full of random ingredients right now, try MealThinker free for 7 days. No credit card required.

What app tells you what to cook based on what you have?

SuperCook, MyFridgeFood, and Plant Jot let you check off ingredients and find matching recipes. AI tools like ChatGPT, DishGen, and ChefGPT generate custom recipes from ingredient lists. For ongoing meal planning that remembers your kitchen and preferences, MealThinker tracks your pantry through conversation and suggests meals based on what you have, what's expiring, and your nutrition goals.

Is SuperCook free?

Yes, SuperCook is completely free. You check off ingredients from a list and it shows recipes from multiple databases. The limitation is that it doesn't save your ingredient list between sessions, doesn't track what's expiring, and only finds recipes rather than planning full meals.

Can ChatGPT make recipes from my ingredients?

Yes, ChatGPT generates solid recipes from ingredient lists. Tell it what you have and it responds with a full recipe, cooking times, and substitution ideas. The limitation is that it forgets everything between conversations. It won't remember your ingredients, preferences, or what you cooked last time. For a detailed comparison, read how ChatGPT compares to dedicated meal planners.

What's the best way to use up food before it goes bad?

The most effective approach is using a tool that tracks what's in your kitchen and prioritizes ingredients by freshness. Ingredient-matching apps like SuperCook find recipes but don't know what's expiring. AI meal planners like MealThinker track your pantry and suggest meals that use up perishable items first. According to the EPA, the average American wastes $728/year on uneaten food.

Is there a free AI meal planner?

Most AI meal planners offer free trials rather than permanent free tiers. MealThinker offers a 7-day free trial with full access and no credit card required. DishGen and ChefGPT have limited free tiers for one-off recipe generation. ChatGPT's free tier works for individual recipe ideas but lacks meal planning features like pantry tracking and nutrition logging.