Vegitude GR 1

Problem Statement

Vegans and vegetarians , vegetarians, lactose-intolerant individuals, gluten-sensitive individuals, and other people with dietary restrictions have trouble finding recipes that fit their dietary restrictionsneeds. Most recipes don’t consider providing vegan and , vegetarian, etc., alternatives. It is complicated to keep track of appropriate substitutions for meat and dairy products. Additionally, it is difficult for non-vegans/non-vegetarians to people who have friends with dietary restrictions to cook a meal for their vegan or vegetarian friends since people without dietary restrictions can be inexperienced in altering recipes to fit different dietary needs.

User Classes

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People with Dietary Restrictions, new to cooking for themselves

Looking to cook for themselves. Could be novice or experienced. Might want recipes specifically designed for vegetarians and vegans, or might want alterations of classic recipes that swap out meat and dairy product for vegetarian/vegan equivalents.

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Needs significant guidance about substitutions.

People with Dietary Restrictions, experienced at cooking for themselves

Looking to research new substitutions or look at multiple versions of a recipe to create a new version for themselves. Know common substitutions, but might want to learn about less common ones.

People cooking for their friends who have dietary restrictions

Cooking for other people. Likely inexperienced since they are not vegan/vegetarian. Don’t have good knowledge of appropriate with substitutions or how to evaluate and pick vegan/vegetarian/etc recipes. May only have partial knowledge of the food preferences of the person they’re cooking for. None of us are vegetarians so this is cool. Sometimes we do cook for vegetarians, but the user class that we are a part of is small.

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Interviews

We interviewed a vegan who is experienced at cooking vegan food, a vegetarian who is a relatively novice cook, and a person who often cooks for a vegan friend, and a competent lactose-intolerant individual.

The vegan we interviewed reported that, when looking for recipes, he usually selects a classic recipe (e.g. shepherd's pie), and then looks for vegan versions. To do this, he looks up both a vegan version and a normal version online, and then uses the regular recipe, but making the substitutions from the vegan recipe. He reported that the vegan recipes he found usually came from blogs, rather than dedicated recipe collections. He also would sometimes just look up regular versions of recipes and use substitutions he has learned in the past from vegan friends or my inference from vegan recipes. Finally, he knows what types of food (e.g. indian food) are frequently "accidentally vegan," and searches for those items.

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The person who often cooks for a vegan friend stated that she figures out what to cook by asking her friends or looking things recipes on the internet, using Google. She will also often just take a recipe she knows and replace certain problematic ingredients with vegan substitutes. When trying to find vegan substitutes, she usually uses the internet or asks her vegan friend what to use and, if brand specific, where to buy it. She finds it occasionally difficult to find variety in things to cook and to figure out exactly what vegan substitutes she should use. She also said that a way to find recipes, vegan or not, by inputing inputting the ingredients she had would be pretty nice to have.

The lactose-intolerant individual noted that, since he has been lactose-intolerant since the age of three, he doesn't find it hard to figure what to eat for any meal. He mostly just cooks standard recipes, but drops the cheese. In some recipes, he compensates for the cheese when it is necessary for the manner of cooking. An example he gave was pizza, where he replaced the cheese with basil leaves to add flavor and keep the sauce from drying out in the oven. Apparently, though, sometimes you don't always get the end results that you'd expect. He personally doesn't use fake cheese himself, not liking soy products. He can eat baked goods that use dairy in their ingredients, but not things like waffles or anything with baked cheese. Although no cheese in a recipe is best, the amount of cheese does matter and, if in very small amounts, is negligible. He says that a manner of finding recipes based on the ingredients he has would be very useful as a lactose-intolerant individual as he finds himself often having a weird surpluses of random ingredients he doesn't know what to do with.

Needs/Goals

• Find multiple versions of a common recipe that fit within a set of dietary restrictions
• Find recipes created specifically for vegans/vegetarians/etc
• Suggest substitutions for problematic ingredients such as meat, dairy, or gluten.
• Find recipes appropriate for a given skill level
• Find recipes based on ingredients a user has on hand
• Find recipes that teach a specific skill and help the user improve their cooking skills