Textual Chef · for developers

Recipes as data, in full.

The Textual Chef catalog as JSON: 4,500+ complete recipes, each with half, standard and double quantities, steps with the amounts written in, estimated nutrition per serving, allergens, diets and cuisine. The keyed API is in beta. A 100-recipe sample is live now: free, no key, no rate limit.

What exists today, and what does not

What a record holds

Field	What it is
id, name, description	Stable slug id, display name, one-sentence description.
url, text	The HTML page and its plain markdown twin.
cuisine, region, meal, method, difficulty	Controlled vocabularies: over 100 cuisines, 11 meal types, 18 cooking methods, 3 difficulties. Region is filled on part of the catalog.
mainIngredient	The ingredient the dish is built around.
servings, time	Servings at the standard batch; prep, cook and total minutes.
nutritionPerServing	Calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber (g) and sodium (mg), with an estimated flag.
diets, restrictions	14 diet labels (Vegan, Keto, High Protein...) and 13 restriction labels (Gluten-Free, Nut-Free...).
allergens	contains: the 9 major allergens found in a required ingredient. avoidable: found only in an optional or substitutable ingredient.
ingredients	Each with an id, name, prep note, and quantities at half, standard and double.
steps	The method three times, at half, standard and double, with the quantities already written into each step.

One record

Kuru Fasulye, trimmed to three restrictions, two ingredients and two steps. The full record, with all eleven ingredients and every step at three batch sizes, is at /api/v0/recipes/kuru-fasulye.json.

{
  "id": "kuru-fasulye",
  "name": "Kuru Fasulye",
  "description": "A classic Turkish stew made with tender white beans, beef, and aromatic red pepper paste in a rich tomato sauce.",
  "url": "https://textualchef.com/recipes/kuru-fasulye/",
  "text": "https://textualchef.com/recipes/kuru-fasulye/recipe.md",
  "cuisine": "Turkish",
  "region": null,
  "meal": "Dinner",
  "method": "Stovetop",
  "difficulty": "Medium",
  "mainIngredient": "White Beans",
  "servings": 4,
  "time": {
    "prepMinutes": 15,
    "cookMinutes": 60,
    "totalMinutes": 75
  },
  "nutritionPerServing": {
    "calories": 420,
    "proteinG": 28,
    "carbsG": 45,
    "fatG": 14,
    "fiberG": 12,
    "sodiumMg": 680,
    "estimated": true
  },
  "diets": [
    "High Fiber",
    "High Protein",
    "Mediterranean"
  ],
  "restrictions": [
    "Gluten-Free",
    "Nut-Free",
    "Dairy-Free"
  ],
  "allergens": {
    "contains": [],
    "avoidable": []
  },
  "ingredients": [
    {
      "id": "navy_beans",
      "name": "navy beans",
      "prep": "soaked",
      "quantities": {
        "half": "1 cup",
        "standard": "2 cups",
        "double": "4 cups"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "beef",
      "name": "stew beef",
      "prep": "diced",
      "quantities": {
        "half": "1/2 lb",
        "standard": "1 lb",
        "double": "2 lbs"
      }
    }
  ],
  "steps": {
    "standard": [
      "Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.",
      "Add 1 lb diced stew beef and sear for 5 minutes until browned and reaching an internal temperature of at least 145°F."
    ]
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-12"
}

Fetch it from anywhere: curl https://textualchef.com/api/v0/recipes/kuru-fasulye.json

Why the quantities come three ways

Most recipe data gives you one ingredient list and leaves scaling to you. Scaling by multiplication is where recipes break: half of one egg, 0.33 cups, a pinch doubled. Every record here carries the amounts a cook would actually use at half, standard and double, and the method is written out at each size, so an app can show a halved recipe without doing arithmetic on text.

Where the recipes come from

The recipes are written with the help of language models and published only after automated schema and culinary checks pass. Every ingredient carries half, standard and double amounts, and the method refers to ingredients by id rather than retyping them, which is how the amounts get written into each step. Nutrition is estimated, not measured in a lab, and every record says so with "estimated": true. Treat it as a planning figure, not a label.

Join the beta

The keyed API opens to a short list first. Beta testers get a lifetime discount on the launch price, whatever it turns out to be, and a say in the record format while it is still v0. The price is not set yet, so there is nothing to pay and nothing to cancel.

Email What you are building Expected volume Just exploring Under 10,000 requests a month 10,000 to 100,000 a month 100,000 to 1 million a month Over 1 million a month A one-time dataset export

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Related

• Recipes with nutrition per serving
• Allergen, diet and restriction filters
• The recipe dataset, by cuisine
• The free sample index (JSON)