What To Cook?

Self-Hosted

Open-source self-hosted recipe manager for organizing meals and shopping lists

Overview

What To Cook? is a self-hosted recipe management tool that helps users organize recipes, plan meals, and generate shopping lists. It supports importing recipes from URLs (via web scraping), categorizing by cuisine/diet, and filtering by dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten-free). Deployable via Docker for quick setup, it offers offline access and customizable meal plans. Self-hosting ensures full control over recipe data, making it ideal for privacy-focused users who want to avoid proprietary cloud services.

Self-Hosting Resources

Find Official Image on Docker Hub View Source & Docs

Below is a reference structure for docker-compose.yml. ⚠️ Do NOT run blindly. Replace placeholders with official values.

docker-compose.template.yml TEMPLATE


version: '3'
services:
  what_to_cook:
    image: <OFFICIAL_IMAGE_NAME>:latest
    container_name: what-to-cook
    ports:
      - "8080:<APP_INTERNAL_PORT>"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
    restart: unless-stopped

Key Features

URL recipe import
Meal plan creation
Dietary restriction filtering

Frequently Asked Questions

? Is What To Cook? hard to install?

No—It uses Docker for deployment, so you can set it up with a simple docker-compose command. Basic familiarity with running containers is helpful, but most users can get it working in minutes with the provided documentation.

? Is it a good alternative to Paprika Recipe Manager?

Yes—It offers core features like recipe import and meal planning, but with self-hosted privacy. Unlike Paprika’s subscription model, it’s free and lets you own your data, though it lacks Paprika’s polished native mobile apps.

? Is it completely free?

Yes—What To Cook? is open-source under the MIT License, so it’s free to use, modify, and self-host without any hidden costs or premium tiers.

Top Alternatives

Paprika Recipe Manager Search Google

Mealime Search Google

Yummly Search Google

Tool Info

Pricing Free/Open Source

Category Recipe Management

Platform Self-Hosted

Pros

⊕ Full data privacy (self-hosted)
⊕ No subscription fees
⊕ Docker deployment support

Cons

⊖ Requires basic server knowledge
⊖ Web-only interface (no native mobile app)
⊖ Limited third-party integration