January 8, 2022

How To Develop Recipes – Part 1: Coming up with Recipe Ideas

In part 1 of this series focusing on how to develop recipes, I’ll look at the hardest part of the process – how to come up with a new recipe idea! I’ll walk you through the steps I go through when I’m developing new recipes and help you brainstorm recipe ideas for your next blog post!

Developing recipes is something that I’ve actually always loved, even if I didn’t originally sit down and think about how to develop recipes.

As a kid, I learned a basic cake recipe and then would spend time changing the flavors. At the time, I didn’t think of it as developing new recipes, I just thought of it as playing around.

Fast-forward 20 years, and I’ve honed my skills a bit and have really learned how to develop recipes for my food blog. I now follow a few simple steps when developing new recipes that I’ll share in this post!

Step 1: Brainstorming and Inspiration – What can you bring to the table?

This step is incredibly important and also often the most difficult. You need to figure out what you can create that would be new and interesting or that would solve a common problem.

Unfortunately, there isn’t just one approach and there’s no set guide for how to develop recipes. Instead, you’ll have to try a few options and see what works for you!

When developing new recipes, ask yourself:

Is there an issue you normally have with a specific recipe that you could try to solve?

My food blog focuses on baking and so for me in baking, this is often a timing question. I.e. how can I make my sourdough bread recipes work in less than 24 hours? Or I want cinnamon rolls ready for breakfast, but I don’t like getting up at 5 am.

These are problems that exist in most sourdough and cinnamon roll recipes that I can try to solve.

Are there two dishes you’d like to combine in a new and interesting way?

Maybe you love Black and White cookies, but you want to have them in donut form. (Check out Molly Yeh’s solution to this, her post also includes some great ideas for developing new recipes!)

Black and white donuts from molly yeh and How to develop recipes

Or perhaps you had a fantastic sandwich, but you want to try it in calzone form. This is where you can really draw inspiration from flavors and dishes you’ve tried in the past and get creative.

Is there a dietary reason a dish is normally difficult to make for some people?

This one is a little tricky because you don’t want to get too repetitive. There are a million recipes for aquafaba meringue out there already. But maybe you want to make an entirely gluten-free holiday cookie box. Or perhaps you’ve got a great idea for a vegetarian pasta carbonara that uses eggplant instead of bacon.

You’ll need to do some research to make sure that you aren’t being repetitive, but this can be a great way to get new inspiration and push your boundaries a bit.

Is there an accessibility issue with a recipe that you can address?

This could involve adapting recipes for people who live in small apartments and don’t have space for an air fryer, a wok, and a kitchenaid. Or maybe you want to think about cheaper ways to make recipes for people cooking on a budget.

Alternatively, think about whether some ingredients aren’t normally available in certain countries. Or if you live at high altitude, does that affect your cooking? If so can you try developing new recipes that take altitude into account?

Other Ideas could come from:

Upcoming holidays, dishes you grew up with, things you’ve tried while travelling or just something you’ve been craving recently!

You want to make sure though that you can still bring something new to the table and that you feel like you have something interesting to say about the topic!

Step 2: Research what has already been done and hone your idea

Now that you have a working idea, for example you’ve decided to make a vegan pasta Carbonara recipe, you need to research what else is out there.

It’s important to make sure your idea isn’t just the same idea thousands of other food bloggers have had. Instead make sure you’re contributing something new!

Google your idea and see what is out there.

If similar recipes exist but have bad reviews, take a look at some comments and see if you can improve upon them. Maybe there’s a vegan Carbonara recipe out there, but people are complaining that it’s too bland. Take that into account and think about how you can make yours more interesting.

Use your research to hone your idea until you’ve settled on a dish. At this point, you’ve decided that there are lots of food blogs with recipes for mushroom Carbonara but none for a flavorful eggplant Carbonara, so you’re going to try that!

Some more great posts about recipe development

There are tons of great food blogs and posts out there, so take a look around and hopefully something will help! These are some of the posts I turn to when I need a little extra inspiration!

Molly Yeh’s post (mentioned above). She talks about the behind the scenes of a blog post, and it’s a really great read!
Tips for food bloggers from Cookie and Kate – not just about developing recipes but more general advice for food bloggers!
Food 52 article by Ella Quittner – Ella is a professional recipe developer and gives some really great advice on the topic!
This article from Escoffier (the culinary school!) on recipe development is also really helpful if you’re in a bit of a creative rut.

If you’re looking for more inspiration, I also love this article on 4 ways to come up with inspiration to cook, which gives some great tips for anyone who just needs a little extra motivation to get in the kitchen!

Read the rest of the posts in this series on how to develop recipes!

Questions? Leave them in the comments, and I’ll get back to you! In the meantime, enjoy developing new recipes for your food blog or just for fun!

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