Dietary Notes & Substitutions

Every recipe on Disharoo carries dietary tags — things like vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, keto, or paleo. These are curated based on the ingredient list, not generated by a medical or nutrition professional. If you're cooking for a severe allergy, coeliac disease, or any condition where a mistake has real consequences, treat the tag as a starting point and always read the full ingredient list yourself before cooking.

About the recipes

The recipes in this collection are AI-assisted and human-curated, not each personally cooked and photographed by us in a test kitchen. That means most of the time they are solid, but occasionally a timing or quantity won't be quite right for your stove, pan, or altitude. Trust your senses over the clock — meat is done when it looks and feels done, not when a timer says so. If something seems off in a recipe, we'd genuinely like to know — use the contact form and we'll fix it.

About the images

The images on recipe pages are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of the finished dish. Nobody cooked that particular plate and photographed it. They are there to give a sense of what a dish roughly looks like, and you should treat them as an impression rather than a target — if your version comes out looking different, that is not a sign you did anything wrong.

Practically, this means the image is not a reliable guide to portion size, colour, or exactly how something should be plated. The ingredient list and the instructions are the parts to trust.

Food safety basics

A few things worth repeating no matter which recipe you're following: cook poultry to an internal temperature of 74°C (165°F), minced/ground meats to 71°C (160°F), and whole cuts of beef, pork, or lamb to at least 63°C (145°F) with a rest. Get a $10 instant-read thermometer if you don't have one — it's the single biggest upgrade to cooking confidence we can recommend. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours, and when in doubt about something's freshness, throw it out.

Common ingredient substitutions

If a recipe calls for something you don't have or can't eat, these swaps work reliably in most home cooking — though baking is less forgiving than stovetop cooking, so expect some texture difference there.

Butter

Neutral oil or margarine (same volume) for cooking; for baking, try a 1:1 swap with a neutral oil, though texture will be slightly denser.

Eggs (baking)

1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water per egg, rested 5 minutes until gel-like. Works best in denser bakes like muffins and quick breads.

Dairy milk

Unsweetened oat, soy, or almond milk 1:1. Soy holds up best in savoury cooking; oat is closest in richness for baking.

Heavy cream

Full-fat coconut milk for savoury dishes; cashew cream (blended soaked cashews + water) for a neutral result.

Sour cream / yogurt

Coconut yogurt or cashew cream with a squeeze of lemon juice to mimic the tang.

All-purpose flour (gluten-free)

A 1:1 gluten-free blend with xanthan gum already mixed in substitutes most reliably; plain almond or rice flour alone usually changes texture too much in baking.

Soy sauce (gluten-free)

Tamari or coconut aminos — both are direct 1:1 swaps in most recipes.

Chicken stock

Vegetable stock or mushroom stock for depth. For richer body, add a splash of soy sauce or miso.

Wine (cooking)

Red: beef stock + a splash of balsamic vinegar. White: stock + a splash of white wine vinegar or lemon juice.

Breadcrumbs

Crushed crackers, rolled oats, or crushed corn chips for a gluten-free crunch/binder.

Dietary tags are guidance, not medical advice

We tag recipes based on what's in the ingredient list, which catches the obvious cases but can't account for cross-contamination, brand-specific formulations, or how strict you personally need to be. A recipe tagged gluten-free, for example, means none of the listed ingredients contain gluten by name — it doesn't verify that a specific brand of, say, oats or stock cubes was processed in a dedicated facility. If that level of certainty matters for you or someone you're cooking for, check your actual packaging rather than relying on the tag alone.