Customizing Existing Recipes

Adapt any recipe in Platebreaker to match your preferences, ingredient availability, or dietary needs.

How to Customize a Recipe

Open the recipe you want to customize
Tap “Customize Recipe” to enter edit mode
Make your changes (see options below)
Save your customized version to your recipe collection

Your customized recipe will show updated nutritional information based on your changes.

What You Can Customize

Adjust Ingredients

Change quantities:

Increase or decrease amounts for any ingredient
Nutrition recalculates automatically

Swap ingredients:

Replace an ingredient with a similar alternative
Example: Swap whole milk for almond milk, or chicken for tofu

Add ingredients:

Include additional vegetables, spices, or toppings
All USDA nutritional data updates in real-time

Remove ingredients:

Delete ingredients you don’t like or can’t eat
Nutrition totals adjust to reflect the removal

Adjust Portions

Servings: Change the number of servings (e.g., from 4 to 6)
Portion sizes: Adjust serving sizes for meal planning
Scale recipes: Double or halve the entire recipe

Modify Cooking Methods

Some cooking methods affect nutrient retention:

Raw → Cooked: Nutrients adjust for cooking losses
Steamed → Fried: Different methods can change nutrient availability
Platebreaker applies retention factors based on USDA data

Tips for Successful Customization

Maintain Balance

When you remove a nutrient-rich ingredient (like spinach), consider:

Adding another vegetable to maintain fiber and vitamins
How the change affects your overall nutritional targets

Use Similar Substitutions

For best results, swap ingredients within the same category:

Proteins: Chicken ↔ turkey ↔ tofu ↔ tempeh
Grains: Rice ↔ quinoa ↔ couscous
Dairy: Cow’s milk ↔ almond milk ↔ oat milk

Check the Rankings

After customizing, check how the recipe’s ranking score changed:

Higher score = better fit for your current needs
Lower score = may not fill your gaps as effectively

Saving Customized Recipes

Your customizations are automatically saved to “My Recipes”:

Access anytime from your profile
Use in meal planning just like any other recipe
Edit again whenever you want

Privacy: Customized recipes are private to you. They won’t show up in other users’ searches. Only professional chefs and verified recipe creators can publish recipes that appear in public search results.