Christmas cooking apps: Make no mistake, it’s the biggest dinner of the year. Christmas Day can bring significant levels of chaos to any household and put even the most experienced cook under pressure.
According to a study by Lifestyle Furniture, an average of 487 searches are made every August for ‘Christmas Dinner Ideas’.while just under half (49.9%) of people in the UK have said they would opt for a traditional roast Turkey Dinner on Christmas Day, meaning plenty of us like to break the mould. Moreover, research from Safefood found that almost six in ten (57%) of cooks admit they find producing Christmas dinner a stressful experience!
How can you ensure that eating time goes to plan? Look no further than these tasty apps, which are guaranteed to help you through all that Christmas cooking frustration.
Sidechef
Sidechef is free to download and use, perfect for those on specific diets. It caters for the most challenging foodies, including vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and paleo diets and even works with those with allergies to nuts and shellfish, among others. There is a premium version, which is a subscription, but all the basics are included. Treat yourself to over 18,000 recipes and create grocery lists…you can even use it to shop for ingredients on Amazon! Designed for everyone, from cooking novices to wannabe Gordon Ramsey, it even features videos and step-by-step picture instructions to help guide you along the way. It’s free to use on iOS and Android. Its coolest feature however, is its ability to control smart cooking devices through the app.
BBC Good Food
Voted one of the best cooking apps in Europe, BBC Good Food is bursting with baking ideas, cooking videos, easy-to-moderate recipes, expert tutorials and more. With paid-for and subscription versions and over fifteen thousand recipes, you can find everything included in Christmas dinner, from pigs’ blankets to stuffed turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, chutneys, and more. One of the best parts of this app, available on both iOS and Android, is that it’s managed to remain ad-free. One of its most recent additions is the Good Food podcast series, which promises to provide lots of foodie inspiration for the big day and beyond!
Supercook
For an off-the-charts, sustainable, zero-waste Christmas dinner experience, why not check out Supercook? This nifty little app, which is free to use, enables you to input what ingredients you have in your house and generate recipes on the back of them. Perfect for Stephen’s Day or even New Year’s Eve, it will help you make the most out of what you have, cutting down on waste disposal. It’s free to use and on both Android and iOS. With over one million downloads, you can be assured your cupboards will be almost empty by the time you’re finished with it.
Allrecipes
A delight among foodies, Allrecipes is sure to provide some starter and main inspiration for those who are sick of or simply don’t like turkey. Avail of recipes from all ethnicities from Italian to Mediterranean to Asia. Another plus is its post-Christmas health recipes section; it even features air fryer recipes! Free to use on Android and iOS, it’s a must before and after the festive period. Users can also add recipes, reviews and photos so you know what your dinner should look like. With 113 thousand original recipes, the app is perfect for producing an alternative Christmas feast.
Meater
One rather tasty app that takes cooking to a whole other level is Meater. For those who are unsure as to whether meat is cooked, this is a nifty app and device. Unfortunately, you require a smart meat probe to use it, but it deserves a mention for its pure meat cooking sophistication. Working on both Android and iOS, Meater enables users to track the temperatures of all meats, and its advanced estimator algorithm generates the cooking time. In addition, the device has a wireless range of up to 10 meters, and its unique Guided Cook System walks you through every step of the meat cooking process to guarantee perfect and consistent results.
Last but not least, if you like using up ingredients, experimenting with your cooking and sharing delicious recipes with your friends, look no further than Cookpad. Another nifty, ad-free app, you can search for ingredients, cater for different diets, connect and communicate with other passionate cooks, build your own recipe collection and use up all those festive leftovers. Free to use on both iOS and Android, it’s one of the most popular cooking apps in the world, with 800 million page views each month. It’s so popular, in fact, that it even went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in July 2009!
