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Build Guide

Build a Recipe Blog Without WordPress

WordPress recipe plugins are the slowest on the internet — they load enormous scripts for recipe cards. Build a recipe blog that's as fast as it is delicious.

Start Building
The Old Way

The WordPress Approach

Required Plugins

1WP Recipe Maker ($49-149/year) — recipe cards with schema
2Tasty Recipes ($79/year) — recipe plugin by WP Tasty
3Recipe Card Blocks ($49/year) — Gutenberg recipe blocks
4WP Delicious ($99/year) — recipe management
5Total Recipe Generator ($49/year) — schema and recipe cards

Limitations

Recipe card scripts add 150-300KB of JavaScript per page
Nutrition calculation requires manual entry or expensive API addons
Print layout is an afterthought — often broken or missing ingredients
Recipe schema markup conflicts with other SEO plugins
Recipe index/collection pages are just category archives with no custom filtering

Typical Cost

$50-150/year in recipe plugins + SEO plugin + hosting

The Modern Way

The Modern Approach

Astro (or Next.js) + MDX + Recipe schema + print CSS

Write recipes as MDX content with structured frontmatter for ingredients, steps, times, and nutrition. Build a lightweight recipe card component with print-friendly CSS. Recipe schema markup is generated automatically from the structured data.

Recipe pages load in under 1 second — no plugin JavaScript overhead
Recipe schema generated from structured MDX frontmatter — guaranteed accuracy
Print-friendly layout with clean recipe-only output
Custom recipe index with filtering by cuisine, diet, time, and ingredients
Nutrition info calculated from ingredient data — no manual entry

WordPress vs. Modern Stack

WordPress

  • Recipe card scripts add 150-300KB of JavaScript per page
  • Nutrition calculation requires manual entry or expensive API addons
  • Print layout is an afterthought — often broken or missing ingredients
  • Recipe schema markup conflicts with other SEO plugins
  • $50-150/year in recipe plugins + SEO plugin + hosting

Modern Stack

  • Recipe pages load in under 1 second — no plugin JavaScript overhead
  • Recipe schema generated from structured MDX frontmatter — guaranteed accuracy
  • Print-friendly layout with clean recipe-only output
  • Custom recipe index with filtering by cuisine, diet, time, and ingredients
  • Nutrition info calculated from ingredient data — no manual entry

Recommended Tools

Astro

Static recipe pages with content collections

Free and open-source

MDX

Structured recipe content with rich formatting

Free

Pagefind

Recipe search with ingredient and cuisine filtering

Free and open-source

Cloudinary

Recipe photo optimization with responsive sizes

Free up to 25,000 transformations/month

Vercel

Hosting with automatic image optimization

Free hobby tier

Step-by-Step Build Guide

1

Set up Astro with content collections and define a recipe schema — title, ingredients (with amounts), steps, times, servings, cuisine, and diet tags

2

Build the recipe card component — ingredients list, numbered steps, nutrition panel, and prep/cook time badges

3

Create print-specific CSS that renders a clean, ink-friendly recipe card without ads, navigation, or sidebars

4

Generate Recipe schema markup (JSON-LD) automatically from the structured frontmatter data

5

Build the recipe index with filtering by cuisine, diet (vegan, gluten-free), total time, and ingredient

6

Add Pagefind for searching recipes by name, ingredient, or cuisine type

7

Optimize recipe photos with Cloudinary and deploy to Vercel

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get my recipes in Google recipe rich results?
Use the Recipe schema markup generated from your structured data. Include recipe name, image, prep/cook time, ingredients, steps, nutrition, and ratings. Google requires these fields for recipe rich results and carousel placement.
Can I calculate nutrition info automatically?
Yes. Use the Edamam Nutrition API or Nutritionix API to calculate nutrition from your ingredient list. Cache the results so you only call the API when ingredients change.
How do I handle recipe collections and meal plans?
Create collection pages that group recipes by theme (weeknight dinners, meal prep, holiday baking). These collection pages rank for broader keywords and link to individual recipes, improving your internal linking structure.

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