How to Self-Host Tandoor Recipes: Full-Featured Recipe Manager 2026

TL;DR

Tandoor Recipes (MIT, ~5K GitHub stars, Python/Django) is a feature-rich self-hosted recipe manager with detailed nutritional information. While Mealie focuses on simplicity, Tandoor goes deeper: built-in nutritional database (OpenFoodFacts integration), barcode scanning for ingredients, detailed shopping list with supermarket aisle mapping, and full-text recipe search. If you care about nutrition tracking alongside recipes, Tandoor is the better choice.

Key Takeaways

• Tandoor: MIT, ~5K stars, Python/Django — recipes + nutrition + shopping + barcode scan
• OpenFoodFacts: Integration with the open food database for nutritional info
• Barcode scanning: Scan ingredient barcodes to add to shopping lists
• Supermarket mapping: Map ingredients to your store's aisles for efficient shopping
• Meal planning: Weekly planner with nutritional summary
• Full-text search: Search inside recipes (not just titles)

---

Tandoor vs Mealie

Feature	Tandoor	Mealie
License	MIT	AGPL 3.0
GitHub Stars	~5K	~7K
UI Complexity	Higher	Simpler
Nutrition data	Yes (OpenFoodFacts)	Limited
Barcode scan	Yes	No
Shopping list	Yes (advanced)	Yes (basic)
Supermarket mapping	Yes	No
Recipe scraping	Yes	Yes (better)
Meal planning	Yes	Yes
OCR import	Yes	Yes
API	Yes	Yes

---

Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  db_recipes:
    restart: always
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    volumes:
      - postgresql_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}"
      POSTGRES_USER: djangodb
      POSTGRES_DB: djangodb

  web_recipes:
    image: vabene1111/recipes:latest
    container_name: tandoor
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - staticfiles:/opt/recipes/staticfiles
      - mediafiles:/opt/recipes/mediafiles
    depends_on:
      - db_recipes
    environment:
      SECRET_KEY: "${SECRET_KEY}"    # openssl rand -hex 64
      DB_ENGINE: django.db.backends.postgresql
      POSTGRES_HOST: db_recipes
      POSTGRES_PORT: "5432"
      POSTGRES_USER: djangodb
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}"
      POSTGRES_DB: djangodb
      ALLOWED_HOSTS: "meals.yourdomain.com"
      GUNICORN_MEDIA: "0"
      TIMEZONE: "America/Los_Angeles"
      ACCOUNT_EMAIL_SUBJECT_PREFIX: "[Tandoor]"
      DEBUG: "0"

  nginx_recipes:
    image: nginx:mainline-alpine
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - staticfiles:/static:ro
      - mediafiles:/media:ro
      - ./nginx/conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d:ro
    depends_on:
      - web_recipes

volumes:
  postgresql_data:
  staticfiles:
  mediafiles:

# nginx/conf.d/recipes.conf
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name _;
    
    client_max_body_size 16M;
    
    location /static/ {
        alias /static/;
    }
    
    location /media/ {
        alias /media/;
    }
    
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://web_recipes:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

# Generate secret key:
openssl rand -hex 64

docker compose up -d

---

Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

Replace the nginx container with Caddy for automatic HTTPS:

meals.yourdomain.com {
    handle /static/* {
        file_server {
            root /path/to/staticfiles
        }
    }
    handle /media/* {
        file_server {
            root /path/to/mediafiles
        }
    }
    reverse_proxy web_recipes:8080
}

Or simply proxy through Caddy to the nginx container:

meals.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:80
}

---

Part 3: Initial Setup

1. Visit https://meals.yourdomain.com
2. Create admin account
3. Admin Panel → Household → Create Your Household
4. Invite other users to the household

---

Part 4: Import Recipes

From URL

1. Recipes → + New → Import From URL
2. Paste recipe URL
3. Tandoor extracts ingredients, instructions, images
4. Review and save

Manual Entry

1. Recipes → + New → Manual
2. Add ingredients (search by name → Tandoor suggests from food database)
3. Add steps with photos
4. Set servings, time, difficulty

From OCR (Photo)

1. Recipes → + → Create From Image
2. Upload photo of printed/handwritten recipe
3. Tandoor uses OCR to extract text
4. Review and correct

---

Part 5: Nutrition Information

When you add ingredients, Tandoor looks up nutrition data:

1. Type ingredient name → Tandoor suggests matches from OpenFoodFacts
2. Select the correct product → nutrition data auto-filled
3. Recipe shows: calories, protein, carbs, fat per serving

Manual Nutrition Lookup

1. Foods → Search or Create Food
2. Type name or scan barcode
3. Enter or import nutrition data per 100g

---

Part 6: Shopping Lists

Generate shopping lists from recipes:

1. Add to Shopping List from any recipe (adjust servings)
2. Multiple recipes → shopping list auto-combines quantities
3. Shopping → Lists → My List

Supermarket Mapping

Map ingredients to your supermarket's sections:

1. Supermarkets → Create Supermarket
2. Add sections: Produce, Dairy, Meat, Canned Goods, Frozen, Bakery
3. Foods → Edit Food → assign to supermarket section

Shopping list sorts by supermarket section → efficient shopping path through the store.

Barcode Scanning

1. Shopping → Scan Barcode
2. Scan product barcode with your phone camera
3. Tandoor looks up the product → adds to shopping list

---

Part 7: Meal Planning

1. Meal Plan → Weekly View
2. Click any day → Add Recipe
3. Set servings (for the family)
4. Nutritional summary shown for the week
5. Generate Shopping List from the meal plan

---

Part 8: Recipe Scraping Sites

Tandoor supports 700+ recipe websites including:

• allrecipes.com
• seriouseats.com
• food52.com
• BBC Good Food
• NYT Cooking
• Bon Appétit
• Epicurious

---

Part 9: API

# Get API token from Settings → API → Create Token

# List recipes:
curl https://meals.yourdomain.com/api/recipe/ \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_TOKEN"

# Search recipes:
curl "https://meals.yourdomain.com/api/recipe/?query=pasta" \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_TOKEN"

# Create a shopping list:
curl -X POST https://meals.yourdomain.com/api/shopping-list/ \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"recipes": [{"recipe_id": 42, "servings": 4}]}'

---

Maintenance

# Update Tandoor:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Run migrations:
docker exec tandoor python manage.py migrate

# Backup:
# Database:
docker exec db_recipes pg_dump -U djangodb djangodb | gzip \
  > tandoor-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

# Media files (uploaded photos):
tar -czf tandoor-media-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect tandoor_mediafiles --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f web_recipes

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See all open source food and lifestyle tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/lifestyle.