How to Create Recipes with ChatGPT: 10 Prompts to Copy

No plan for dinner, but a half-full fridge? ChatGPT can turn it into a recipe in seconds. How good that recipe is depends mostly on how you ask.

Here are four rules for good recipe prompts, ten prompts to copy, and the mistakes to look out for.

1. Say What You Have and What You Want

The more specific, the better. “Make me a dinner” gets you something average. “Make me a quick dinner with chickpeas, spinach and canned tomatoes” gets you a recipe you can cook tonight.

2. Name Your Limits

A good recipe fits your evening, not just your ingredients. Add:

Time: “ready in 20 minutes”
Servings: “for 2 people”
Diet: “vegetarian”, “dairy-free”, “high in protein”
Kitchen: “one pan only”, “no oven”

3. Ask for the Format You Cook From

Ask explicitly for “the ingredients with amounts first, then numbered steps”, and say which units you use, grams or cups. If you live outside the US, also ask for ingredients from your local supermarket, so “heavy cream” and “all-purpose flour” become something you can actually buy.

4. Refine It in the Chat

The first answer is a draft. Just say what you’d change:

“Swap the mushrooms for courgette.”
“Make it spicier.”
“Scale it to 4 servings.”
“What can I use instead of cream?“

10 Prompts to Copy

Replace the parts in square brackets:

“I have [ingredients]. Suggest three dinners I can cook in 30 minutes, and write out the recipe for the first one with exact amounts.”
“Create a vegetarian recipe for 2 people with at least 30 g of protein per serving.”
“I only have one pan and 20 minutes. What can I cook with [ingredients]?”
“Write me a weekly plan with five dinners for 2 people that share as many ingredients as possible, plus a shopping list sorted by supermarket section.”
“Make this recipe vegan without it tasting like a substitute: [paste recipe].”
“Scale this recipe from 4 to 2 servings and give every amount in grams and millilitres: [paste recipe].”
“I have these leftovers: [leftovers]. What can I make without going shopping?”
“Create a meal prep recipe for three lunches that still tastes good on day three.”
“Explain step by step how to cook [dish], as if I’ve never done it before.”
“What side dish goes with [dish]? Give me three ideas with a short recipe each.”

Are ChatGPT Recipes Any Good?

For everyday cooking, often surprisingly good. A few things are still worth checking:

Amounts and cooking times. The AI writes, it doesn’t measure. Very short cooking times for meat or very long ones for vegetables are a warning sign.
Baking. In baking, flour, liquid and raising agents have to match exactly. Tested recipes are the safer bet here.
Poultry, mince and eggs. Cook them through, and use a meat thermometer if in doubt, rather than trusting a tight time estimate.
Allergies. AI easily misses hidden allergens, like the anchovies in Worcestershire sauce or the nuts in pesto. If you have allergies, check every ingredient yourself.
Nutrition. Calorie numbers from the chat are estimates, not measurements.

Save Recipes Instead of Losing Them in the Chat

The real problem with ChatGPT recipes: a week later, they’re buried somewhere in your chat history. You can copy them into a note, or you can ask for recipes where you keep them anyway.

Plateful has an AI chat built in. Ask for a recipe, and if you like it, save it to your collection with one tap. You can later have a saved recipe adapted, spicier, vegan or dairy-free, and ask questions about it while you cook. Plateful works out the nutrition per serving automatically, and you can drop the recipe straight into your weekly plan.

Recipes you already got from ChatGPT? Paste them into Plateful as text.

Quick Answers

Does ChatGPT cost anything for cooking? No. The free version is plenty for recipes.

Can ChatGPT make a meal plan? Yes, prompt 4 gives you a weekly plan with a shopping list. Just save it somewhere you’ll find it again at the supermarket.

The best recipe idea is the one you can cook tonight. ChatGPT gives it to you in seconds, once you know how to ask.