Top 5 Vegetarians and Vegan Apps for Recipes

These iPhone recipe apps offer great options for meatless meals

A couple creating a vegetarian meal in the kitchen.
by Tanya Menoni
Updated November 08, 2018

Nearly every iPhone recipe app includes some vegetarian or vegan recipes, but they're not always easy to find because they're mixed in with other content.

These vegetarian and vegan apps either focus specifically on meat-free meals or they provide a special section devoted to their vegan and vegetarian users.

If you want to move these apps to your iPad, follow these steps. 

To keep top tabs on your health, You can also use the iPhone Health app that helps you track activity, mindfulness, nutrition, and sleep.

01
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Best for Strictly Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes: Green Kitchen

A screenshot of the Green Kitchen Apps website.

What We Like

  • Hand-picked recipes especially designed for vegans and vegetarians.

  • Recipe shopping list can be shared by email or iMessage.

  • Multiple language options.

What We Don't Like

  • Some recipes require additional in-app purchases.

  • No nutritional information included.

Cost: $3.99
In-app Purchases: Yes

The Green Kitchen app is dedicated to vegetarian recipes. The recipe list is limited — there are only 153, but they include main courses, snacks and beverages. You can purchase 28 more recipes through the app. Each includes photos and is marked as to whether it's also vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, or whole grain. Green Kitchen isn't free, but it's close to it. 

02
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Best for Variety: Healthy Recipes by SparkRecipes

A screenshot of the Spark Recipes apps website.

What We Like

  • Huge database of recipes.

  • Recipes include nutritional information.

  • Works on iPhone or iPad.

  • Easily filter for vegan and vegetarian recipes.

What We Don't Like

  • No way to save and send ingredient list directly from the app.

Cost: Free
In-app Purchases: No

Healthy Recipes isn't devoted solely to vegan and vegetarian cooking, but the app makes it easy to identify meat-free meals. It includes more than 500,000 user-submitted recipes and an advanced search option lets you select only vegan or vegetarian dishes. There's a good selection of meat- and animal-free recipes. You can save them to your favorites or share them by email after you identify those you want to try. Nutritional facts are also included for each recipe.

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Best for Gourmet Food: Epicurious Recipes

A screenshot from the Epicurious Website.

What We Like

  • Excellent recipe collection.

  • Easy to create a shopping list.

  • Recipes specifically for seasonal ingredients.

What We Don't Like

  • Filtering recipes not granular enough.

  • App can be buggy, especially after an update.

  • Many recipes require uncommon ingredients.

Cost: Free
In-app Purchases: No

If you prefer professional recipes rather than the user-submitted variety, the free Epicurious app deserves a look. It includes thousands of recipes from Bon Appétit and the now-defunct Gourmet magazine. The app itself is gorgeous, and there are pictures included for most recipes. You can find specific vegetarian or vegan dishes under the search tab, and there are plenty of them. The only downside is that the recipes are displayed in a slideshow format so it can be tedious to scroll through the results list.

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Best for Convenience Cooking: allrecipes Dinner Spinner

A screenshot of the Allrecipes Dinner Spinner website.

What We Like

  • Easily customized interface for vegetarian and vegan recipes.

  • Dating app-like Swipe Right feature to find related recipes.

  • On sale near me feature to help you find ingredients at the best price.

What We Don't Like

  • Ad supported, which slows the app down.

  • Some recipe collections hidden behind a paywall.

  • Can be buggy, particularly after an update.

Cost: Free
In-app Purchases: Yes

The AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner app is free and it's another great option for finding vegan and vegetarian recipes. The app contains thousands of user-submitted recipes. The advanced search filters help identify those that are vegan or vegetarian, and there's an option for dairy-free dishes as well. The app's Dinner Spinner helps you come up with quick recipe ideas. It doesn't include a specific vegetarian category, but you can choose vegetables as a main ingredient.

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Best for Strictly Vegan Recipes: Food Monster

Screenshot of the One Green Planet FoodMonster app website.

What We Like

  • New recipes added daily, five days a week.

  • Includes a Meal Plan section with 7-10 recipes for each meal plan.

  • Plenty of easy recipes for those who are always on the go.

What We Don't Like

  • App isn't super user-friendly.

  • Can be very slow to load and has lots of choppy lag.

  • Many features hidden behind subscription paywall.

Cost: Initial free trial. After that it's $1.99/month or $19.99/year.
In-app Purchases: After subscription, No.

The Food Monster app is a companion to the One Green Planet website. This means you'll find lots of great recipes designed especially for vegans. This includes apps that are categorized by seasons, collections of apps, and even apps that are trending or fall within popular themes. But you'll have to be patient ot get to all the good stuff, because this app can be slow to load. Maybe it's because of all the beautiful food images that are included, but it's still a little frustrating. But if you're looking for a vegan-specific app and you don't mind paying for it, this is one option to check out.