TablefulGuide
How to create a grocery list from recipes
Four recipes means four ingredient lists, three of which want onions. Tableful turns the recipes on your meal plan into one grocery list, adds repeated quantities together, and groups everything by aisle.
What you need
- Meals on your plan for the week
- Two minutes before you leave
- No AI use: the list is free on every plan
Step by step
1. Plan the week first
The list is built from the plan, so anything not planned is not on it.
2. Open the Groceries tab
Every ingredient from every planned meal, combined: three recipes wanting onions give you one line with the total, not three lines to add up in the aisle.
3. Read it by aisle
The list is grouped the way a shop is laid out, so produce is together and you cross the store once.
4. Take out what you already have
The five minutes spent checking the cupboard against the list is the whole difference between this and buying a fourth jar of cumin.
5. Shop from your phone
Tick lines off as you go. What is left is what you still need, which is the only thing a list has to get right.
6. Adjust the plan and watch the list follow
Swap Wednesday’s dinner and the list changes with it. The plan is the source, the list is the view.
When it does not work
- Quantities are in units you do not buy in. Recipes say 200g of chicken, shops sell packs. Round up in your head and use the leftovers.
- The list is enormous. Usually a serving count problem. Check that a recipe scaled for eight was meant to be.
- An ingredient is missing. It was missing from the recipe. Add the line to the recipe and it appears on the list.
- You shop for two weeks at once. Plan both weeks, then work through the list in two passes for the perishables.
Questions people ask
Does the list combine the same ingredient across recipes?
Yes. That is the main reason it exists. Ingredients repeated across the week arrive as one line with the amounts added up.
Can I add things that are not from a recipe?
Yes. Washing-up liquid is not in any recipe and still has to be bought.
Does it work offline in the shop?
Your kitchen lives on the device, so the list is there whether or not the supermarket has signal.
Related guides
Make a weekly meal plan: the step before this one.
Scale a recipe: quantities start there.
Cook hands-free: the step after the shopping.
Cook with what is in the fridge: for what the shop did not have.
Tableful vs Mealime: compared on grocery intelligence and plan building.
Reviewed September 2026. Tableful can only read content it can reach: private, deleted, region-restricted or paywalled posts may not be readable. Nutrition figures are estimates for meal decisions, not medical advice.