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How to Build a Recipe

This article explains the different options to create a recipe in the Cleveland Clinic Diet app.

Importing a Recipe from a URL

You can upload a recipe directly from a website URL.

  1. Open the Cleveland Clinic Diet app
  2. Tap Profile (top right corner)
  3. Scroll down to the Foods section
  4. Select Recipes
  5. Select + in the top right corner (iOS), or Create Recipe in the bottom right corner (Android)
  6. Select Add from the Web
  7. Paste the full URL for the recipe
  8. Tap Build/Import Recipe
  9. Review the list of ingredients and make edits as needed. See the section Editing an Imported Recipe for more info.
  10. Tap Done/Save

The Cleveland Clinic Diet app will read the recipe and select the best matches from our database. The recipe will be created and added to your Recipes list.

Importing a Recipe from an Ingredient List

You can paste a plain text version of recipe ingredients. From there, the Cleveland Clinic Diet app will find and add the appropriate foods to build the recipe.

  1. Open the Cleveland Clinic Diet app
  2. Tap Profile (top right corner)
  3. Scroll down to the Foods section
  4. Select Recipes
  5. Select + in the top right corner (iOS), or Create Recipe in the bottom right corner (Android)
  6. Select Paste Ingredients
  7. Paste the ingredients in list format
  8. Tap Build/Import Recipe
  9. Review the list of ingredients and make edits as needed. See the section Editing an Imported Recipe for more info.
  10. Tap Done/Save

The Cleveland Clinic Diet app will read the full list of ingredients and select the best matches from our database. The recipe will be created and added to your Recipes list.

Manually Building a Recipe

You can build a recipe from scratch using ingredients directly from the food database.

  1. Open the Cleveland Clinic Diet app
  2. Tap Profile (top right corner)
  3. Scroll down to the Foods section
  4. Select Recipes
  5. Select + in the top right corner (iOS), or Create Recipe in the bottom right corner (Android)
  6. Select Search for Ingredients
  7. Name your recipe and press Save (iOS only)
  8. Tap Total Recipe Size to set how much your recipe will make and select your serving type
  9. Tap Add Food to add each ingredient in full (i.e. 1 pound ground beef, 1 cup refried beans, 2 medium tomatoes)
  10. Tap Portion Size if you wish to edit the number of servings per portion
  11. Tap Done/Save

Tip: Total Recipe Size is the total amount that the recipe makes. Portion Size is the amount that you plan to eat and track in the Cleveland Clinic Diet app.

Editing an Imported Recipe

We do our best to match every ingredient possible, but sometimes, the importer can't find an ingredient in the food database. You'll know that's the case if you see a question mark icon next to one of the ingredients when creating a recipe.

You can tap anywhere on this ingredient to search for the food manually.

To make changes to an imported ingredient, tap the three horizontal dots next to the food and:

Select Edit Ingredient to open the food details screen and view or update the nutritional information

Select Replace Ingredient to search for a different entry for that ingredient in our food database

Select Delete Ingredient to remove the ingredient from the recipe entirely

Why Can't I Import a Recipe?

If you cannot import a recipe, or run into an error message, it may be due to one of the following reasons:

  • The importer cannot read the format of the text you pasted in.
  • The importer cannot find the website, or the URL does not exist/is blocked.
  • There are no recipes found on the website provided.
  • There is an issue with your internet connection.