mealmate-ability

Mealmate

What It Does

A voice-powered recipe assistant that searches 1000+ recipes, guides you through cooking steps, and generates shopping lists.
Find recipes by dish name, ingredients you have, cuisine, category, or get a random surprise — all hands-free.

Suggested Trigger Words

• recipe
• cooking
• food recipe
• what to cook
• recipe ideas
• meal ideas
• find a recipe
• cooking assistant
• meal helper
• mealmate

Setup

• No API key required. Uses the free TheMealDB API (https://www.themealdb.com).
• No configuration needed — works out of the box.

How It Works

1. User triggers with "recipe" (or similar)
2. Assistant asks how to help — by dish name, pantry ingredients, category, cuisine, or random
3. Based on choice, searches TheMealDB and presents options
4. User picks a recipe from the list
5. Shows full recipe details: ingredients, category, cuisine
6. Offers next actions:
   • 'cook' → Guided step-by-step cooking mode with next/back/repeat commands
   • 'list' → Shopping list of all ingredients
   • 'another' → Start a new search
   • 'done' → Exit

Supported Search Modes

• Name — Search by dish name (e.g., "chicken tikka", "spaghetti")
• Pantry — Find recipes using ingredients you have (e.g., "chicken, onion, rice")
• Category — Browse by category (Beef, Chicken, Dessert, Pasta, Seafood, Vegetarian, etc.)
• Area/Cuisine — Browse by cuisine (American, British, Chinese, French, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Thai, etc.)
• Random — Get a surprise meal

Example Conversation

User: recipe
AI: 🍳 Mealmate here! Tell me how to help: Say a dish name (e.g., 'chicken curry'), say 'pantry' to use your ingredients, say 'category' or 'area' to browse, or say 'random' to surprise you.

User: chicken tikka
AI: I found:

1. Chicken Tikka Masala
2. Tandoori Chicken
3. Chicken Curry
   Pick a number (or 'cancel'):

User: 1
AI: Chicken Tikka Masala
Category: Chicken • Area: Indian
Ingredients:

• 500g chicken breast
• 200ml yogurt
• 2 tbsp tikka paste
• ...
  Type 'cook' for guided steps, 'list' for shopping list, 'another' for new search, or 'done' to exit.

User: cook
AI: 👩‍🍳 Entering cook mode. Commands: next / back / repeat / exit
Step 1: Marinate chicken in yogurt and tikka paste for 30 minutes.

User: next
AI: Step 2: Heat oil in a pan and add marinated chicken.

User: next
AI: Step 3: Cook for 10-12 minutes until browned.
...
AI: 🎉 All done. Bon appétit!

User: recipe
AI: How should I help?

User: pantry
AI: List ingredients you have (comma-separated), e.g., 'chicken, onion, rice':

User: chicken, rice, tomato
AI: Here are some options:

1. Chicken Biryani
2. Spanish Rice
3. Chicken Fried Rice
   Pick a number (or 'cancel'):