Getting Started
Installation
- Open Obsidian Settings.
- Go to Community Plugins and make sure restricted mode is off.
- Click Browse and search for "Recipe Box".
- Click Install, then Enable.
You can also install a specific release manually from the GitHub releases page by extracting main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/recipe-box/.
Zero-Config Quick Start
On first enable, Recipe Box creates a Recipes folder in your vault. Drop any note into that folder and open it - Recipe Box will detect it as a recipe and switch into the recipe view. No frontmatter required.
That's it. Everything below is for customizing how Recipe Box finds your recipes if you want them somewhere else, or if you already have a library organized differently.
Customizing Recipe Detection
Recipe Box detects recipes using two independent filters, applied with AND logic:
Folder scope - Recipe Box only looks at notes inside the configured recipe folders and their sub-folders. The default is ["Recipes"]. You can add more folders, remove the default, or set a single folder of / to search your entire vault. Configure this under Settings → Recipe Box → Recipe library → Recipe folders.
Frontmatter type (optional) - If you set a Recipe type value (e.g. recipe), Recipe Box also checks the note's type frontmatter property and only treats it as a recipe if it matches. By default this is blank, meaning folder location alone is enough. This is useful when a folder contains a mix of recipe notes and other notes you want to exclude.
The two filters combine: a note must be in a recipe folder AND match the type value (if one is set). Some examples:
- Folder only (default):
recipeFolders: ["Recipes"], no type value. All notes inRecipes/are recipes, no frontmatter needed. - Type only:
recipeFolders: ["/"],recipeType: "recipe". Any note in your vault withtype: recipeis a recipe. - Both:
recipeFolders: ["Recipes"],recipeType: "recipe". Notes must be inRecipes/and havetype: recipe.
Setting the folder to / with no type value treats every Markdown note in your vault as a recipe. Recipe Box will warn you if this combination is active.
This configuration can cause bad performance depending on the size of your vault and if you have a lot of other non-recipe notes
Setting Up Notes & Storage
Under Notes & storage, set:
- Meal plan note path - where Recipe Box writes your weekly meal plan (default
Meal Plan.md) - Grocery list note path - where Recipe Box writes your grocery list (default
Grocery List.md)
Confirming Your Recipe Headings
Recipe Box looks for an Ingredients heading and an Instructions heading (defaults: Ingredients and Instructions) in each recipe note. If your recipes use different heading text, update these under Notes & storage to match. Don't include any leading #.
Your First Recipe
- Drop a note into your
Recipesfolder (or whichever folder you configured). - Add an
## Ingredientsheading followed by a bullet list of ingredients (e.g.- 2 cups flour). - Add an
## Instructionsheading followed by a numbered list of steps. - Open the note - Recipe Box switches it into the Recipe View automatically.
Your First Meal Plan and Grocery List
- From the recipe view, click Add to meal plan (or run the Add/remove this recipe from meal plan command).
- Choose a day and meal type.
- Open the Shopping Assistant (cart icon in the ribbon, or run the Shopping assistant command) to see your grocery list, automatically built and grouped from your meal plan.
Next Steps
- Writing a Recipe Note - the full frontmatter schema and formatting conventions
- Recipe View - everything the recipe view shows and does
- Meal Planning and Shopping Assistant - the meal plan and grocery workflow
- Settings Reference - every setting, explained