You know the drill. You find a recipe online. It's buried under twelve paragraphs about someone's childhood in Tuscany. You scroll past the ads. You finally get to the ingredient list. You copy it. You paste it into a notes app. You try to format it. You give up and just cook from the website, dodging pop-ups the whole time.
There's a better way.
SimpleRecipe can import recipes from nearly any website with one click. No copying, no pasting, no formatting headaches. Just the recipe, clean and ready to cook.
Here's how it works.
The Magic of Recipe Schema
Most recipe websites use something called "recipe schema"—a standardized format that helps search engines understand recipe content. The same schema that makes recipes show up in Google search results also makes them easy to import.
When you paste a recipe URL into SimpleRecipe, we read that schema and pull out the important parts: ingredients, instructions, cooking times, servings. Everything you need, none of the life story.
How to Import a Recipe (The Step-by-Step)
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Find a recipe you want to save. Copy the URL from your browser.
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Open SimpleRecipe and tap the "+" button.
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Tap "Import from URL."
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Paste the URL and hit import.
That's it. The recipe shows up in your collection, formatted and ready to use. No copying ingredients one by one. No reformatting instructions. It just works.
What Gets Imported
When you import a recipe, SimpleRecipe pulls in:
- The recipe title
- The full ingredient list
- Step-by-step instructions
- Prep time, cook time, and total time
- Number of servings
- The recipe image (if there is one)
- The source URL (so you can revisit the original if needed)
What doesn't get imported? The twelve-paragraph preamble about why this recipe reminds the author of their grandmother's kitchen in the south of France. You're welcome.
Which Websites Work?
If a website uses proper recipe schema, it'll import cleanly. That includes most major recipe sites:
- NYT Cooking
- Serious Eats
- Bon Appétit
- AllRecipes
- Food Network
- Minimalist Baker
- Budget Bytes
- Smitten Kitchen
- And thousands of smaller food blogs
If a website doesn't use schema (or uses it poorly), the import might not work perfectly. But honestly? Most recipe sites have figured this out by now.
What If the Import Isn't Perfect?
Sometimes a recipe imports with a small formatting quirk. An ingredient is split weird. An instruction is cut off. It happens.
The good news: you can edit anything after import. Tap into the recipe, tap "Edit," and fix whatever needs fixing. It takes ten seconds and it's still way faster than manual entry.
Pro Tips for Importing
Import in batches: Found a great blog? Import five recipes at once while you're on the site. Future you will thank you.
Check the servings: Some recipes import with servings set to "1 loaf" or "12 cookies." Just adjust it to match how you usually cook.
Add your own notes: After importing, add notes for substitutions, tweaks, or things you want to remember. ("Used oat milk, worked great." "Double the garlic next time.")
Use collections to organize: Import a bunch of recipes, then drag them into collections. "Weeknight dinners," "Baking projects," "Things to make when I'm feeling ambitious." Whatever structure makes sense to you.
Why This Matters
Recipe management shouldn't be a chore. You shouldn't have to copy-paste and reformat every recipe you want to save. You shouldn't have to keep twenty browser tabs open just to plan dinner for the week.
Importing recipes should be effortless. You find something you want to make, you save it, you move on with your life.
That's what SimpleRecipe does. It takes the annoying part of recipe management—the data entry, the formatting, the "why is this in three different apps?"—and makes it automatic.
What About Recipes Without URLs?
Not every recipe lives online. Grandma's handwritten card. A recipe from a cookbook. Something a friend texted you.
For those, you can create recipes manually in SimpleRecipe. Tap the "+" button, choose "Create Recipe," and type it in. It's straightforward, and once it's in the app, it lives alongside your imported recipes.
The Honest Pitch
Here's the thing: you could keep saving recipes in a notes app. You could keep a pile of browser bookmarks. You could keep a stack of printed recipes stuffed in a drawer.
Or you could import them into SimpleRecipe, where they're organized, searchable, and actually usable.
No life stories. No ads. No scrolling past paragraphs of SEO filler while your hands are covered in flour. Just recipes, ready to cook.
Try it. Paste a URL. See how fast it is. Then import the rest of your bookmarks and never look back.