Become an ace chef and master kitchen organiser with these ‘cooking clever’ apps…
1 Allthecooks
For people who love cooking and sharing ideas, Allthecooks has over 230 000 recipes and a vibrant community of cooking enthusiasts. Categories include kids recipes, healthy recipes, desserts, mains, baking, drinks, sides, soups, stews, pasta dishes and more. Easily scan through recipes according to the ingredients you have on hand, ask questions, add recipe ingredients to your shopping list, plan meals, get nutritional information and see how easy and how long each dish takes to make.
2 Paprika Recipe Manager
Paprika’s built-in web browser allows you to browse for and save recipes from anywhere on the web. When you find a recipe you like, simply tap a button to download the recipe and save it into Paprika. The free cloud sync service further allows you to sync your data across all of your devices. Create meal plans for the week or for a whole month. Automatically scale ingredients to your desired serving size, create grocery lists (items are automatically sorted by aisle: dairy, fruit and veg etc.) and pin active recipes to easily switch between them while you are cooking.
3 South African Food Recipes
Look no further for local culinary features, recipes and food-related culture. Create, manage and schedule your menus. Browse through various categories, including celebrity, beginner cook, dinner party, holiday/event, picnic, vegetarian etc. Each dish has a thumbnail image, description, list of ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions. Bookmark and manage your favourite foods. Share what you find with friends via e-mail and Facebook.
4 Gojee Food and Drink Recipe App
This award-winning app hand curates food recipes and cocktails from the world’s best food writers. Simply enter the ingredients you have at home and they’ll recommend mouth-watering recipes from their vast collection. Even find the perfect cocktail recipe for your next party.
5 Green Kitchen
If you just want to eat more greens or already are a full-time vegetarian, Green Kitchen is filled with tasty and inspiring food with ingredients straight from nature and a bare minimum of gluten, sugar and dairy – recipes are marked as vegan, raw, gluten-free or wholegrain. Sift through a mixed variety of main courses, snacks and healthy drinks with delicious visuals (there are several photos for each recipe) and detailed, easy-to-follow instructions (tap on a step to mark it as completed). Save your favourites so you can return to them quickly.
6 Pocket Wine Pairing
This app takes the mystery out of food and wine pairing and gives you all the guidance, information and examples you need to make successful pairings every time. There’s a detailed index of hundreds of meal types, showing you the best matches for different wine styles, grape varieties and blends. A ‘Do’s & Don’ts’ section, along with a ‘Quick Guide To Food Types’ enables you to discover even more unique food and wine pairings for yourself. The app also gives you complete access to a large wine glossary and allows you to view and sample many of the features and content of its parent app, Pocket Wine.
7 Kitchen Calculator PRO
Let this clever app work out all your recipe conversions (from weight to volume and vice versa) and scale your recipes up (or down) to change the number of servings you need. The app supports several volume, weight and temperature conversions. Simply enter amounts and view the results in standard cooking fractions (1/2, 1/3, etc) and grow a database of your favourite ingredients.
8 Multi Timer StopWatch
With Multi Timer, multiple timers can be set, independently started and run at the same time. It’s great for cooking, especially when you need to track the progress of multiple dishes at once. Assign a unique sound to each timer so you know which timer alarm has gone off. Store the timers that you use most often with just one touch. Turn off a timer by waving your hand over your device (saves you having to touch it with flour-coated fingers).
9 Fridge Pal
Fridge Pal lets you create (and share) shopping lists. Sort items by aisle and create a list for each place you regularly shop at. Scan barcodes or enter them manually to keep track of what you have at home, get reminders for expiry dates and search for recipes using combinations of ingredients. You can even plan your week’s cooking with the handy meal-planner calendar.
10 Pastatime
This is an easy-to-use spaghetti measuring app for one to four portions. Unlike physical pasta measuring tools with holes, this digital version helps you to eyeball the quantity needed – or, if you have a protective covering on your device, you can place the pasta directly on the screen. Measure out the correct amount of spaghetti and use the timer function to set an alarm for when the pasta is cooked.
Not in the mood to cook tonight? The EatOut Restaurant Guide app features close on 6 000 restaurant listings across South Africa. Find a restaurant using their quick and easy-to-use search menu – search a province, region, area and/or suburb, or use the ‘Near me’ function to find up to 10 restaurants close to you. Search for a specific kind of cuisine, ambience, average main meal price and whether you are looking to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. The app also offers restaurant contact details (addresses open in the Maps application), reviews (if available), opening times and facilities available (child-friendly, smoking section, wheelchair access etc).
Share your favourite foodie and/or kitchen app with us…
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