Mealie — Self-Hosted Recipe Manager & Meal Planner

What Mealie Does

Mealie provides a complete kitchen management experience:

• Recipe Import: Paste any recipe URL and Mealie auto-extracts ingredients, steps, images, and nutrition info
• Recipe Editor: Full rich text editor for creating and editing recipes with custom fields
• Meal Planning: Weekly/monthly meal planner with drag-and-drop scheduling
• Shopping Lists: Auto-generate shopping lists from meal plans or individual recipes
• Tags & Categories: Organize recipes with custom tags, categories, and tools
• Multi-user: Family and group support with shared recipe collections
• Cookbook Collections: Group recipes into themed cookbooks
• Nutrition Info: Track calories, macros, and nutritional data per recipe
• Print View: Clean, printer-friendly recipe cards

Architecture

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│  Vue.js      │────▶│  FastAPI     │────▶│  SQLite /    │
│  Frontend    │     │  Backend     │     │  PostgreSQL  │
│  (Nuxt)      │     │  (Python)    │     └──────────────┘
└──────────────┘     └──────────────┘

Self-Hosting

Docker Compose

services:
  mealie:
    image: ghcr.io/mealie-recipes/mealie:latest
    ports:
      - "9925:9000"
    environment:
      ALLOW_SIGNUP: "true"
      PUID: 1000
      PGID: 1000
      TZ: Asia/Shanghai
      BASE_URL: http://localhost:9925
      # PostgreSQL (optional, SQLite by default)
      # DB_ENGINE: postgres
      # POSTGRES_SERVER: db
      # POSTGRES_PORT: 5432
      # POSTGRES_DB: mealie
      # POSTGRES_USER: mealie
      # POSTGRES_PASSWORD: mealie
    volumes:
      - mealie-data:/app/data
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  mealie-data:

Key Features

URL Recipe Import

Paste a URL from any food blog and Mealie extracts:

• Recipe title and description
• Ingredient list with quantities
• Step-by-step instructions
• Photos and cooking times
• Nutrition information (if available)

Supports 500+ recipe websites including AllRecipes, Food Network, BBC Good Food, and any site using Schema.org recipe markup.

Meal Planning

Week of April 7-13:
├── Monday:    Pasta Bolognese 🍝
├── Tuesday:   Chicken Stir Fry 🥘
├── Wednesday: Taco Night 🌮
├── Thursday:  Salmon & Rice 🐟
├── Friday:    Pizza Night 🍕
├── Saturday:  Grilled Burgers 🍔
└── Sunday:    Slow Cooker Stew 🥣

• Drag-and-drop meal scheduling
• Randomize meals for inspiration
• Copy entire weeks
• Auto-generate shopping lists from planned meals

Shopping Lists

• One-click shopping list from any recipe or meal plan
• Combine ingredients from multiple recipes
• Check off items while shopping (works on mobile)
• Share lists with family members

Recipe Scaling

Adjust serving sizes and all ingredients scale automatically:

Original (4 servings):
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs

Scaled to 8 servings:
- 4 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 8 eggs

API

# Import recipe from URL
curl -X POST http://localhost:9925/api/recipes/create-url 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" 
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com/recipe"}'

# List recipes
curl http://localhost:9925/api/recipes 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

FAQ

Q: Does it support Chinese recipe sites? A: It supports any site using Schema.org Recipe markup. Some Chinese recipe sites like Xiachufang and Meishichina work. For unsupported sites, create recipes manually or use the browser bookmarklet to import.

Q: Can I use it offline? A: Mealie is a PWA — after installing to your home screen, you can browse loaded recipes offline. New recipe imports and shopping list sync require a network connection.

Q: Multi-language support? A: Yes — 20+ UI languages including Simplified Chinese. Recipe content language depends on the import source.