Guide · Cooking & leftovers

What should I cook today? Recipe ideas from your groceries

Updated 5 October 2026 · 5 min read

The easiest way to find a recipe from your groceries is to start with what you actually bought and use up what spoils first. Bonstructer knows the item lines from your receipts and can suggest a dish made mostly from those ingredients.

Why does so much food end up in the bin?

The German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) runs the initiative "Zu gut für die Tonne!" ("Too good for the bin"). It points out that Germany throws away roughly ten million tonnes of food every year, more than half of it in private households. Current exact figures are on the pages linked below. The everyday reasons are mundane: buying too much, losing track of the fridge, and having no idea what to make of one leftover ingredient.

The last one is where a recipe suggestion that starts from what you have helps. It does not replace planning, but it answers "what do I cook?" before the lettuce wilts.

How do I cook with what I already bought?

1. Check your stock. Look at what you bought a few days ago and what has to go first: fresh items such as salad, fish, minced meat and berries before long-lasting ones such as rice, pasta and tins.
2. Pick one or two main ingredients. A dish often needs just that, for example leek and potatoes for a soup. The rest is pantry: oil, salt, spices, stock.
3. Plan for leftovers. Cooked rice becomes fried rice, stale bread becomes croutons or bread dumplings, soft vegetables go into soup, a bake or a pan.
4. Note what is missing. If a dish almost works, write down the missing item instead of starting a big shop.

How does Bonstructer help?

After you scan a receipt, every item line with its price is in your notebook. In the chat you can ask, for example: "What can I cook tonight from yesterday's shopping?" The app then suggests a dish made mostly from the ingredients you bought. The answer shows which ingredients come from your receipt and what is missing, such as nutmeg.

Two things count in the suggestion:

• Diet wishes, such as vegetarian, vegan or without certain ingredients.
• Household size, so portions fit one person, a couple or a shared flat (WG).

If you like, you can also get the recipe idea by email every day. That is optional and you switch it on yourself. The feature is meant for grocery shopping; a hardware store receipt naturally has no recipe in it.

How do I tell whether food is still good?

In Germany the best-before date (Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum, MHD) is not a throw-away date: it states until when the producer guarantees full quality if stored correctly. Many foods are still fine afterwards, so check how they look, smell and taste. The use-by date ("zu verbrauchen bis"), for example on raw minced meat or fish, is different and binding: do not eat food past it. Consumer advice centres (Verbraucherzentralen) and "Zu gut für die Tonne!" have more detail. This is not health advice.

Which habits reduce food waste?

• Shop with a list and look into the fridge first. The chat can build the list from what you buy regularly and push it to Bring! if you want.
• Put new items at the back and older ones at the front.
• Freeze leftovers the same day or use them the next day.
• Cook small portions if nobody likes leftovers.
• Scan the receipt right after shopping, so you know what came into the house.

What does it cost and where can I try it?

Bonstructer runs in your browser at bonstructer.com/app. Basic use is free; some extra and AI features use credits (AIC), and the price is shown beforehand. The Android app is in closed testing on Google Play; on iPhone you add the web app to your home screen. A demo notebook is already filled if you have no receipt at hand.

See how well it reads difficult receipts in the examples on the home page.