Get recipes

Use this action to get a list of recipes that match your search terms. You can use it to find a recipe ID or slug. The response includes a brief description of each recipe. To view the full details and steps for a specific recipe, use the mealie.get_recipe action afterwards.

This action returns its result in a response variable, which you can use in later steps of the same automation or script.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To search for recipes from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. From the search box, search for and select Mealie: Get recipes.
6. Select the Mealie instance you want to use, and fill in the options you want.
7. In the Response variable field, enter a name to store the data in, such as recipes.
8. Select Save.

This action does not support targets. In the UI, you are not prompted to choose an area, device, entity, or label. You select the Mealie instance instead.

Options in the UI

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this action as mealie.get_recipes. Store the result in a response variable so you can use it in later steps:

action: mealie.get_recipes
data:
  config_entry_id: YOUR_MEALIE_CONFIG_ENTRY_ID
  search_terms: tomato soup
  result_limit: 5
response_variable: recipes

This returns up to five recipes that match “tomato soup” and stores them in the recipes response variable.

Options in YAML

Response data

The action returns a list of recipes that match the search, each with a brief description. Use the recipe ID or slug from the response with the mealie.get_recipe action to get the full details.

Good to know

• The behavior of the search depends on the backend used for Mealie. With a PostgreSQL backend, the search is fuzzy. Otherwise, it is a literal search. For more information, see the Mealie documentation.

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

These actions work well alongside this one:

• Get recipe: Get a Mealie recipe by its ID or slug.

• Import recipe: Import a recipe into Mealie from a URL.

• Get meal plan: Get the Mealie meal plan for a specified date range.