Easy Meal: a web application for finding recipes from available ingredients
Recipe web application for searching and filtering dishes, then ranking them by available ingredients, with authentication and saved favorite recipes.
Problem
The project consisted of designing a web application around a recipe API, then extending that base with application features such as filtering, recommendation from ingredients, authentication, and favorites persistence.
Approach
The application relies on TheMealDB to fetch recipes, categories, regions, and ingredients. I worked on mockups and the user journey, as well as filtering by search, category, region, first letter, and ingredient list. A matching score also ranks recipes according to available ingredients.
Firebase is used for authentication and persistence of ingredient lists and favorite recipes in Firestore.
Results
The project resulted in a deployed application that allows users to search and filter recipes, get recommendations from an ingredient list, create an account or sign in with Google, and save favorite recipes.
Limits
Matching relies on a simple textual comparison of ingredient names. Naming variations can therefore produce imperfect matches.
The initial scope also included integrating CaloriesNinja to add nutritional information. This feature was not completed within the allotted time.
Next steps
Complete the CaloriesNinja integration to enrich recipes with nutritional information, then group variants of the same ingredient, such as “tomato” and “tomatoes,” before improving the matching score calculation.