Recipes by ingredients
Start with the food in your fridge or cupboard and find a practical meal idea. Choose your ingredients below to see which ones fit, what else you need, and how to put them together.
Choose your ingredientsWhat can I make with these ingredients?
A little rice, a couple of eggs, half a pepper. Turn what you have into a practical next meal.
Follow the preparation shown for each ingredient. Ideas using grains, pasta, meat or pulses assume they are already cooked (or ready-to-eat/canned, where suitable). Cooking them from raw adds time. Matches do not check quantities, freshness or allergies. Check every ingredient and product label before cooking.
A collection of original, curated ideas matched in your browser, not AI-generated recipes. A recognized ingredient may not yet have a suitable idea; those are clearly marked. Your ingredient list stays on this page; no account or upload needed.
Your ideas will appear here. Add ingredients, then select “Find leftover ideas”.
A quick safety check. Use only properly stored ingredients. Refrigerate perishable food within 2 hours (1 hour above 90°F / 32°C), and reheat leftovers to 165°F / 74°C, checking with a food thermometer. Heating does not make improperly stored food safe.
Ingredient names draw on the USDA FoodData Central public-domain vocabulary and original editorial additions. Meal ideas and compatibility checks are TinkerMint’s, not USDA recommendations.
Read USDA leftover guidance, safe cooking temperatures and food storage guidance. For honey, see CDC infant-safety guidance.
From ingredients to a meal idea
- Choose a category or search by name, then add the exact ingredient and preparation shown. You can also paste a comma-separated list.
- Set your available time and select “Find leftover ideas”. Results put the fewest missing extras first; an idea may use only part of your list.
- Read the ingredients still needed, open “How to make it”, and check quantities and preparation before you begin. Update the search after changing your list.
Try rice, eggs and kale
Select “Clear ingredients”, leave the time at “Any time”, and paste “cooked rice, eggs, kale”. Find ideas: A small vegetable frittata comes first and still needs Cooking oil. Egg & vegetable skillet rice also appears, using all three selections but needing Cooking oil and Soy sauce.
Add “oil, soy sauce” and find ideas again. Egg & vegetable skillet rice becomes the first result, with all five listed ingredients matched and an estimated time of 15 minutes.
Choose “Up to 10 minutes” and the skillet rice disappears. A matched ingredient list does not establish portion sizes or guarantee you have enough food.
What an ingredient match can tell you
The catalog recognizes more foods than the meal collection can use. “No idea yet” means an ingredient is recognized but has no compatible idea here. Matching uses reviewed ingredient roles, not unlimited substitutions, and ignores quantities in pasted text.
Read preparation labels carefully: cooked rice and raw rice are different starting points. Timing assumes the preparation shown. The finder cannot check allergies, cross-contact, freshness, storage history or nutritional needs; review every selected ingredient, missing extra and product label.