One of the most important parts of cooking is inspiration. Without it, you’re liable to end up eating the same meals over and over again, making dinner time a drag.
The Hey Plum chatbot combats tedious cooking habits by providing users with customized suggestions. You just hop into Facebook Messenger and send the bot an ingredient, multiple ingredients or a whole dish — and the bot returns recipes. Want some recipes that showcase cayenne pepper? The bot suggest spicy cheese scones or double ginger gingerbread men. Have a hankering for ginger? There’s gluten-free ginger cake and ginger and orange-glazed baby carrots.
If you’re really stuck for inspiration, you can also ask the bot to inspire them by listing off ingredients. After selecting an ingredient, the bot then sends over suggestions for dishes in which the ingredient plays a star role. For instance, when selecting ‘avocado’ the bot provides ‘hot and crunchy avocado fires,’ ‘coffee avocado milkshake’ and ‘avocado gelato.’
Additionally, Hey Plum is sensitive to diet requirements — allowing users to receive ideas that are dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan.
I found it a useful way to shake up my dinner routine by adding a few new recipes to my roster, and found the bot quick and intuitive. The only occasional inconvenience? The bot developer lives in the U.K., so occasionally the recipes may contain certain specific ingredients that are difficult to get in some parts Canada — though that’s a rare occurrence and is generally a matter of just tweaking brands.
To try Hey Plum click here.
