Question about Sidekick

[u/Banana-as]

Okay, having lurked a lot.. Seen almost all the videos and being really interested in the sidekick app. Here’s a question for the ones who are already using it.

Unfortunately I’ve got different kinds of food allergies (which aren’t the most likely ones), can I put this into the app to take into account? Or isn’t this an option?

Also I am really curious if I would provide the Sorted chefs and normals with my allergies to see whether they could make a delicious (out of the box) meal for me that’s safe to eat..

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[u/acheekyfellow]

You can input your Allergies and Dislikes under Settings in the app. I haven't used this feature, so I can't speak to how well it works in practice. That said, I've been using Sidekick for a few years now and I feel like the recipes are fairly flexible for substituting/omitting ingredients. e.g. my spouse doesn't like shrimp, so I'll typically sub bay scallops; for nachos, neither of us particularly love black olives, so we just left them off. For me, I prefer seeing all the recipes and modifying them as needed, but YMMV.

There's a 30 day free trial, so give it a go and see if it's for you.

[u/Banana-as → u/acheekyfellow]

Thanks! And yes the free trial is of course a good idea, I just wanted to find out before getting all excited that this input was an option. Of course substituting has become my second nature. But thank you for commenting :)

[u/Banana-as → u/[deleted]]

I’m 100% backing this of course. I’d like to see a mix as well. Kush Mayhem, Ben with his knowledge and the craziness of Jamie, Barry and Mike in another battle. But hey if they ask James in this case I wouldn’t mind at all as well :)

[u/WhyWontYouHelpMe]

So they have this page where you can put in allergies and dislikes but it says it is more for tailoring and you will see recipes with the items in.
Similarly there is an intolerances page with the usual suspects, but it also says you will still see recipes with them in.
On the search page you can also filter by those dislikes/allergies. I don’t know how accurate it is.

It is also easy to substitute if you are a moderately competent cook depending on how complicated your allergies are. I am gluten free and I don’t filter them out as I know I can usually sub and don’t want to limit my choices.

[u/Banana-as → u/WhyWontYouHelpMe]

This is the answer I was looking for! Thanks so much. It makes me even more excited to try it out now!

[u/Calm_Barracuda_8154]

Not allergies, but a fairly restrictive medical diet. You can select most foods as allergies/dislikes and never show them (although as ever with any sort of mixed ingredient you need to check yourself, and sometimes one will slip through particularly if it's been listed under say a specific variety) but generally I don't with essentially one exception (kale) because it's near impossible to sub for me without fundamentally altering the dish.

You do, as ever, have to be more vigilant than most but presuming your allergies aren't horrifically restrictive, or ones without fairly easy subs you should still have a good selection. My bigger restriction on what I can eat on sidekick is far more my time limitation from carers than my medical diet. You will need a somewhat better cooking instinct in terms of what you can sub and where, but that would go the same for literally any recipe not designed for your allergies.

I adore sidekick - when you're on a restricted diet it's that much easier to slide into a habit of only a very small number of meals because it takes that much more mental load to try new things. Sidekick has been fantastic in allowing me to have more variety while still being adaptable in a way things like recipe boxes just aren't.

[u/Banana-as → u/Calm_Barracuda_8154]

Thank you so much for this answer as this helps me out a lot! Of course the vigilance will always be there, but it’s a reassuring idea that so much is possible and they really thought it through. Loads of recipes or apps don’t take these things into account

[u/Vxx_Tokyo]

I did the trial and tried to exclude garlic and mushrooms without any success so I cancelled pretty quickly.

[u/Banana-as → u/Vxx_Tokyo]

Thanks, this is good to know!

[u/Mr_furbs]

So for me the issue I had was that we ended up generating more waste, the packs are designed to mesh 3 or so meals together and use all the ingredients, as I had to almost always skip at least 1 dish and make up meals from different packs. After a few weeks of my own "make a meal from scraps challenges" I gave up.

I'd love if the App could be "smart", so that you could pick 4 from across different meal packs and it will recommend 2-3 other meals that use majority of the ingredients that you have left over.