An AI created my lunch today..
Just over a week ago @aadil@merveilles.town tooted about a subreddit called Eat Cheap and Vegan. On there I discovered this thread which talked about an app called Plant Jammer.
I've been looking for an app like this for a long time. Basically I want to put in some ingredients I have and then find out what I can make with those ingredients, without having to go to the grocery store to find that one missing ingredient. Especially in the current pandemic crisis, I want to minimise the number of times I need to go to a grocery store.
I've tried using using Supercook, where you put in some ingredients and it searches recipe websites for possible options, but the recipes it suggested just wasn't that great. I thought Plant Jammer would be something similar, but it's a different beast altogether.
With Plant Jammer you first decide what type of meal you want to make, for example Italian, Thai, or Mexican. You then give it a couple of ingredients that you want to use, and based on the type of meal it will ask you to select a couple of other ingredients that you have in the house. All of this is done using a type of flavour wheel, where an algorithm determines whether the resulting dish will have the right flavour profile. For example, it may suggest adding apples or walnuts for extra crunch, or some miso paste for extra umami flavour.
The algorithm then generates a recipe based on your ingredients, figuring out the exact amount of each ingredient you need, and even writes down the steps to prepare it. 🤯️
So far I've used it to make a smoothie and a pasta salad, and the flavours were pretty good. It was great at using up some leftover fruit, veggies and nuts we still had around, and I'm looking forward trying to use it to plan a dinner.
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