Paste the ingredient list from any recipe — one per line, in grams, cups or tablespoons — and get protein, iron, B12, calcium, zinc, fibre and calories per recipe and per serving. Nothing is uploaded; the maths runs in your browser.
Bars show the share of an adult reference intake (2000 kcal basis).
Weakest nutrient per serving: Fibre at 44% of the reference intake. Consider a topping or side that is dense in it.
Nutrient boosters: a tablespoon of fortified nutritional yeast for B12, calcium-set tofu or fortified soy milk for calcium, pumpkin seeds for zinc and iron, and a vitamin-C source in the same meal to lift iron absorption.
It is a planning estimate, not a label. Values come from USDA FoodData Central and McCance & Widdowson averages per 100 g, and household measures are converted with standard cup and tablespoon weights, so expect roughly ±15 percent on a typical recipe.
Plants do not make B12. Only fortified foods such as nutritional yeast, plant milks and some yoghurts contribute, and no recipe should be relied on for it. Take a supplement: 50 µg a day or 2,000 µg once a week is the usual guidance.
Non-haem iron is absorbed less efficiently, which is why intake targets for vegans are often set around 1.8 times higher. Adding a source of vitamin C — peppers, citrus, tomatoes — to the same meal can multiply absorption several-fold.
Only through the food entries themselves: 'cooked' items such as cooked lentils or cooked rice already use hydrated weights. Water-soluble vitamin losses during boiling are not modelled.
Method
Paste ingredients, get numbers. The pipeline behind that is a parser, a food database and a set of assumptions about cooking — each of which introduces error worth knowing about.
Each line is split into quantity, unit and food name, then matched against a composition database derived from USDA FoodData Central. Ambiguities are resolved conservatively: 'a handful' becomes 30 g, 'a can of chickpeas' becomes 240 g drained, and an unspecified onion becomes a medium one at 110 g. Where a line cannot be matched with confidence, it is flagged rather than silently dropped, because a missing ingredient distorts every number that follows.
Composition tables are mostly published for raw foods, while recipes are eaten cooked. Dried legumes roughly triple in weight when cooked; rice roughly doubles; leafy greens lose about 80% of their volume. The calculator normalises to cooked portions where the database allows, which is the largest single source of divergence between two nutrition tools given the same recipe.
Minerals such as iron, calcium and zinc are heat-stable but can leach into cooking water that gets poured away. Water-soluble vitamins fare worse: folate and vitamin C losses of 20–50% are typical with boiling, considerably less with steaming, stir-frying or pressure cooking. The displayed figures apply standard retention factors rather than assuming zero loss.
They are reliable for the questions that matter — is this recipe a decent protein source, does it contribute meaningfully to iron or calcium, is it fibre-rich — and unreliable as a precise clinical measurement. Anyone managing a medical condition should use them as a conversation-starter with a dietitian rather than as a dosing instrument.
| Ingredient | Raw | Cooked yield | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dried lentils | 100 g | ~240 g | Absorbs water, no drain loss |
| Dried chickpeas | 100 g | ~250 g | Drain water discards some minerals |
| White rice | 100 g | ~250 g | Absorption method retains more |
| Pasta | 100 g | ~220 g | Salted water adds sodium |
| Spinach | 100 g | ~30 g | Oxalate limits calcium uptake |
| Tofu | 100 g | 100 g | Pressing removes water, concentrates protein |
| Onion, medium | 1 | 110 g | Default when unspecified |
| Tinned beans | 1 can | 240 g drained | Rinsing cuts sodium ~40% |
'2 tbsp tahini' parses cleanly; 'some tahini' does not. Units are the single biggest accuracy lever available to you.
Per-serving numbers are only as good as the divisor. A recipe labelled four servings that feeds two doubles every figure.
Plant milks vary enormously. 'Fortified soy milk' picks up calcium, B12 and D that plain soy milk does not carry.
Anything the parser could not match is listed at the end. Rewriting one line usually resolves it.
USDA FoodData Central for generic foods, with regional staples added where the USDA entry is missing or unrepresentative.
Partly. Generic categories are matched; specific brands are approximated with the closest generic entry, which is usually within 10–15% for macronutrients.
Packet values are for a stated portion of the product as sold; the calculator reports the cooked recipe portion, which usually includes added water.
Recipes calculate in the browser and are not stored on a server; copy the result if you want to keep it.
Yes, if you list it. Oil is the most frequently omitted ingredient and can account for a fifth of a dish's calories.