The friendly guide
What to cook with what's in your kitchen
Dinner is probably already in the house. Here's how to find it, from leftover chicken recipes to the five meals that rescue any combination of ingredients.
1. Start with a proper look at what you have
Open the fridge, the freezer and the cupboard before you open a recipe book. Half a roast chicken, a bag of spinach on its last legs, a tin of chickpeas you bought with good intentions. Write down the things that need using first, especially anything fresh.
This five minute check is the whole secret. Most "nothing to eat" kitchens have two or three dinners hiding in them.
How the app helps
Type what you find into "What have you got?" and it shows your recipes that use the most of it, best matches first.
2. Give leftover chicken a second life
Cooked chicken is the most useful leftover there is. It works cold in sandwiches and salads, and reheats beautifully in anything with a sauce. Some ideas that never fail:
- Chicken and mushroom pie under a sheet of puff pastry
- A quick chicken curry with whatever vegetables need using
- Chicken fried rice with yesterday's rice and a beaten egg
- A creamy chicken and leek pasta bake
- Chicken soup with the carcass boiled for stock
The same trick works for leftover roast beef, lamb and gammon: a sauce or a pastry lid makes anything feel like a new meal.
How the app helps
Save your favourite leftover recipes once, and next time the chicken appears you just search "chicken" and pick one.
3. Learn the five rescue meals
Almost any combination of ingredients fits one of five shapes: soup, stir fry, pasta, omelette or curry. If you can make these five, you can turn nearly anything into dinner.
Soft vegetables and odd bits of cheese go in soup or a frittata. Meat and crunchy veg go in a stir fry. Tins and dried herbs make a curry. Once you stop needing an exact recipe, the kitchen gets a lot less stressful.
How the app helps
Keep your versions of these five in the app, and "What have you got?" will surface the right one for whatever's in the fridge.
4. Match recipes to ingredients, not the other way round
The usual way of cooking starts with a recipe and ends with a shopping trip for the things you're missing. Flipping it round is cheaper and calmer: start with the ingredients, then find recipes that use them.
The best matches are the ones where you already have nearly everything. A recipe missing one ingredient is a quick top up shop; a recipe missing eight is next week's problem.
How the app helps
"What have you got?" ranks your recipes by how many of your ingredients they use, and shows exactly what's still to buy for each one.
5. Buy only the gaps
Once you've picked dinners around what you have, the shopping list writes itself: just the missing bits. Cross off anything already in the cupboard and group the rest by supermarket section so the shop itself is quick.
Our shopping list guide has the full method, and the weekly meal planning guide shows how this fits into a whole week.
How the app helps
Pick your recipes and the list is written for you, grouped by supermarket section. Tick off what you already have and shop the rest.
Questions people ask us
What can I make with the ingredients I already have?
Start by listing what's in the fridge, freezer and cupboard, then look for recipes that use the most of it. Soups, stir fries, pastas, omelettes and curries can absorb almost any combination of ingredients.
How the app helps
Type your ingredients into "What have you got?" and it ranks your saved recipes by best match.
What can I cook with leftover chicken?
Leftover roast chicken works in pies, curries, fried rice, pasta bakes, salads, sandwiches and soups. Anything with a sauce or a pastry lid reheats it well. Use it within a couple of days and reheat it until it's piping hot.
How the app helps
Save your go to leftover chicken recipes in the app so they're one search away next Sunday evening.
How do I use up vegetables before they go off?
Soft or tired vegetables are perfect for soup, pasta sauces, curries, frittatas and stir fries, where texture matters less. Roast a mixed tray of odds and ends and they keep for days as a side or a pasta sauce base.
How the app helps
Recipes in the app are grouped by storage section, so it's easy to spot which of your recipes use fresh ingredients first.
How does cooking from what I have save money?
You stop buying duplicates of things already in the cupboard, you throw less food away, and your shopping list shrinks to just the gaps. For most households that's the single biggest saving in the weekly shop.
How the app helps
Tick off what you already have on your list and what's left is exactly what to buy, nothing more.
Or let the app find dinner for you
Type in what you've got and The Big Food Shop shows your recipes that use the most of it, best matches first, with exactly what's still to buy. Then it writes the shopping list for the gaps.