A recipe in Wholesum is a list of ingredients with quantities, written for a set number of servings. You write each recipe once, for whatever number of servings is natural. Wholesum scales it to your group later, when you add it to a meal plan.
Create a recipe
- Go to My recipes and click Create new recipe → Create Manually.
- Enter the Recipe name (up to 50 characters).
- Enter Servings per recipe: how many people the quantities you're about to enter will feed.
- Fill in the ingredient table (see below). Click Add ingredient for each extra row.
- Optionally add instructions, dietary information, categories, tags and a photo.
- Click Save. Or click Save and go to ingredients to set stores and prices for the new ingredients straight away.
A new recipe with its first ingredient
The ingredient table
Each row is one ingredient:
| Column | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Qty | A number or a fraction, such as 2, 0.5 or 1 1/2 |
| Unit | Choose from weights (ounces, pounds, grams…), volumes (cups, tablespoons, gallons…) or counted units (whole, can(s), package(s), bag(s)…) |
| Ingredient | Start typing and choose from your existing ingredients, or type a new name to create a new ingredient |
| Store | Where you buy it. This also suggests stores you've used before. |
| Cost | Opens the cost calculator (see Setting ingredient prices) |
| Substitute | Sets replacements for people with dietary restrictions |
As you type an ingredient name, Wholesum suggests ingredients you already have:
Ingredient suggestions while typing
Tip: pick the existing ingredient whenever you can. Choosing "Peanut Butter" from the list keeps one Peanut Butter ingredient, with one price and one store, across all your recipes. Typing a slightly different name ("peanut-butter") creates a second ingredient. If that happens, you can merge them later. See Finding and merging duplicate ingredients.
Reordering and removing rows: drag a row by the handle on its left to move it. Click remove to delete a row.
Units and shared ingredients: once an ingredient is used in other recipes, you can only pick units that work with it. For example, you can switch between weight units but not change a weight to a can. The name and store are also locked on the recipe. Change them on the Ingredients page instead, so every recipe stays in step.
Below the ingredients
Under the ingredient table you can add the recipe's dietary information (Meal contains), instructions, meal categories, tags and a photo. See Recipe details: dietary information, instructions, categories, tags and photos.
Edit a recipe
Click a recipe's name on My recipes to open it. Make your changes and click Save.
When you edit a recipe you'll also see:
- Cost per recipe and Cost per serving under the ingredient table. If some ingredients don't have a price yet, a note says so.
- Print, top right, which downloads the recipe as a PDF.
- Review with Olive, top right, which asks Olive to check portions, dietary conflicts and cost. See Reviewing a recipe with Olive (portions, allergens, cost and nutrition).
Editing a recipe
Unsaved changes: if you try to leave a recipe with unsaved edits, Wholesum asks whether to Save or Discard them.
Recipes with several kitchen locations (Enterprise)
If your account tracks more than one location, a Please choose a location menu appears at the top of the recipe. Stores and prices can differ per location. Pick the location you want to see or edit before you change them.
Scale by batch (Enterprise)
Some recipes only make sense in whole batches, like a sheet cake or a Dutch-oven cobbler. Turn on Batch recipes in Settings, then switch on Scale by batch on the recipe. The number you enter becomes servings per batch, and meal plans round up to whole batches.
Video walkthrough
This short video tours My recipes and creating a recipe. Some screens have been updated since it was recorded, but the steps are the same.
