Grublin is a free recipe app for iPhone and Android that writes one complete recipe from whatever you have, so there is nothing to choose between. Its Kid-friendly option tells Grub to make something children will happily eat, familiar and mild rather than adventurous, to keep it balanced, and to work vegetables in so they are hard to pick out: blended into a sauce, grated, or finely chopped. Servings, kitchen kit and any allergies or diets in the family are set once and apply to every recipe.
The hour nobody writes recipes for
Recipe writing imagines a calm kitchen. The real one is 5:40pm, coat still on, a bag on the floor, four people under twelve telling you they're starving, and a fridge full of things that don't obviously go together. There is no time to browse, no energy to decide, and the one thing everyone will eat is pasta and pesto, which is why it's been pasta and pesto three times this week.
The problem isn't cooking. It's deciding, with an audience. Grublin takes the decision away. You tell it what's in and it tells you what's for dinner, in the time it takes to put the kettle on.
The Kid-friendly switch
On the Cook screen there's a switch labelled Kid-friendly. When it's on, every recipe request carries an instruction that reads, in effect: you're cooking for fussy kids, so make something children will happily eat, familiar and mild and not too adventurous, keep it balanced and nutritious, and work the vegetables in so they're hard to pick out or barely noticeable, blended into a sauce, grated or finely chopped, rather than sitting on the side as an obvious vegetable.
That changes what comes back. A tomato sauce with a grated carrot and courgette blitzed into it. A cottage pie where half the mince is lentils and the mash has swede in it. Fritters, fishcakes, wraps, traybakes, mild curries, things in a bun. The shape of food kids recognise, with more in it than they'll notice.
Turn it off for the grown-up dinner later and Grub goes back to his normal self.
Fast, because the vibe says so
Set the vibe to Weeknight and Grub keeps the method short: one pan where possible, no marinating overnight, nothing that needs an hour in the oven unless you've asked for it. Set Who's eating to four and more and the quantities follow. Keep both as your defaults and every weeknight answer arrives already sized and already quick.
Not pasta and pesto again
One tester, a working parent of four, put it exactly that way: the win wasn't a better pasta and pesto, it was not ending up there every night. Grublin starts from this week's fridge rather than from habit, so the answer changes as the shelf does. If the first idea doesn't land, Try a different idea moves on without going back to a blank screen, and you can steer it: "nothing with rice tonight", "something they can eat with their hands". Tweak keeps a winner and adjusts it: milder, bigger, swap the fish for chicken.
Set the cuisines the family likes, and a spice level of none or mild for the kids' nights, and the variety stays inside what they'll actually eat.
Allergies in a family of six
One child's nut allergy or one parent's gluten intolerance affects every dinner. Set the household's dietary needs once and every recipe fits all of them, with allergens, vegetarian, vegan, halal and kosher re-checked in the finished recipe by Grublin's own code. Nut-free kid-friendly dinners, dairy-free ones, gluten-free ones: set it and stop re-reading labels on recipe sites. You still read the labels on the packets; Grublin can't see those.
Your kitchen, your kit
An air fryer is a family kitchen's best friend at this hour, and Grub uses it for the crispy bits when you've told him you own one. A slow cooker set in the morning solves the whole problem in advance. Tell Grublin what you have once and every recipe is written for it.
Beat the bin, feed the children
The half-bag of spinach, the soft peppers, yesterday's rice, the end of the cheese. A family fridge produces leftovers at a rate no meal plan survives, and most of it is money in the bin. Grub's job is to eat it first. Photograph the shelf if typing it out is one task too many, and let him work out what the odds and ends become.
It tells Grub you're cooking for fussy kids: make something children will happily eat, familiar and mild rather than adventurous, keep it balanced, and work vegetables in so they're hard to pick out, blended into a sauce, grated or finely chopped, rather than served as an obvious side. That's the instruction. Expect grated carrot and courgette in sauces, lentils in mince, blended vegetables in soups and bakes. The recipe lists them, so you know; the plate doesn't advertise them. Set the vibe to Weeknight and Grub keeps methods short and pans few. It isn't a timer-based filter, but weeknight recipes are written to be made after work, not on a Sunday. Yes. Set every allergen and diet in the household once in Preferences and every recipe fits all of them, with the hard rules re-checked in the finished recipe. Read packet labels yourself. No. Grublin is for tonight: one recipe at a time from what's actually in the fridge. That's what stops it defaulting to the same dinner.Questions people ask
What does the Kid-friendly option actually do?
Does it hide vegetables?
How fast are the recipes?
Can I set it for a family with allergies?
Does it do meal plans for the week?