Best Self-hosted Alternatives to Yummly

What to Cook? is a lightweight web application that suggests one recipe based on the ingredients you have at home. It matches available ingredients against a recipe dataset and returns a single recommendation via a simple web UI.

Key Features

• Ingredient-based matching that recommends one recipe adapted to what you have available
• Java backend with a client-side TypeScript/HTML front end (single-page UI)
• Example Docker Compose configuration for easy local deployment
• Minimal, focused workflow that returns a single clear suggestion to reduce decision fatigue
• Small codebase suitable for customization, experimentation, and contributions

Use Cases

• Home cooks who want a quick recipe suggestion based on leftovers or pantry items
• Developers or hobbyists who want a simple example of ingredient-matching and recipe UIs to extend
• Small kitchen or meal-planning workflows where a single clear recommendation is preferred

Limitations and Considerations

• Provides a single recipe suggestion rather than ranked lists or full meal planning
• Likely relies on a small built-in recipe dataset; scaling requires importing or building larger recipe data
• No built-in multi-user accounts, advanced allergy/diet filters, or complex natural-language ingredient parsing

What to Cook? is best suited for users seeking a minimal, self-hostable tool to turn available ingredients into an immediate recipe suggestion. Its small, editable codebase and Docker support make it practical for customization and experimentation.