Recipe template in Markdown: one dish, one file

Use this recipe template for a dish described in plain Markdown. You put the dish name above a brief description, then write the yield and preparation time in a sentence. You follow those opening lines with ingredient amounts, preparation steps, and swaps.

To write a Markdown recipe, use ordinary text and a few marks. Here, you use headings for the parts, dashes for ingredients and substitutions, and numbers for the cooking order. You can fill in the blank form or read the invented dish example before writing your own.

Parts of a recipe file

A recipe file here is a single .md page about a single dish. You describe what you prepare, how much you prepare, and the time involved. Then you write down the ingredients, how you combine them, and what you could substitute.

You keep the amounts beside the ingredient names in this setup. You put the preparation directions in their own numbered part. For a swap, you name an ingredient and what to use in its place.

You can write the recipe alongside other plain .md writing, including pages from AI agents. In the recipe itself, you write about the dish and its preparation. Plain text is enough for the headings, sentences, and list lines.

Blank recipe template

Begin a .md recipe with the following form, replacing the bracketed wording. Write about one dish throughout the form. In the numbered part, replace each sample line with a cooking direction for that dish.

# [Dish name]

[One sentence describing the dish.]

For [yield] servings, allow [preparation time] minutes.

## Ingredients

- [Amount] [ingredient]
- [Amount] [ingredient]
- [Amount] [ingredient]

## Method

1. Combine [ingredients] in a bowl.
2. Add [ingredient] to the bowl.
3. Stir [ingredients] with a spoon.

## Substitutions

- [Ingredient]: [replacement and amount].

Read the opening lines and the three parts as follows:

• Dish name. Put the name after # on the opening line. Describe the dish itself in the sentence beneath that name.
• Yield and time. Fill in the servings and preparation duration in the sentence before Ingredients. Keep both details together in that sentence.
• Ingredients. Write an amount before the name on a dash line. In the invented sample, Jane Doe gives beans by the cup and parsley by the teaspoon.
• Method. Write one cooking action on a numbered line. In the invented sample, Jane Doe writes three numbered lines.
• Substitutions. Name the ingredient before the colon and its replacement after it. Add the replacement amount on that same line.

For the amount-first lines, see Markdown bullet points, where you can read about bullet items with digits at the beginning of their text. For the preparation sequence, see numbered lists, where you can read about number markers and gaps between items.

In this form, you leave empty lines between the description, yield sentence, headings, and lists. For the distinction between separate paragraphs and a line break within a paragraph, read paragraphs and blank lines.

Jane Doe's sample recipe

Jane Doe and her cucumber bean bowl are invented for this example. In this invented dish, she combines cooked beans with cucumber, oil, and parsley. Read the filled-in form with the ingredient amounts beside their names and the cooking actions beneath Method.

# Jane Doe's cucumber bean bowl

I combine cucumber and cooked beans with oil and parsley.

For 2 servings, allow 10 minutes.

## Ingredients

- 1 cup cooked beans
- 1 cup chopped cucumber
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1 teaspoon chopped parsley

## Method

1. Combine the cooked beans and cucumber in a bowl.
2. Add the oil to the bowl.
3. Stir in the parsley with a spoon.

## Substitutions

- Parsley: use 1 teaspoon chopped dill in its place.

In the description, Jane Doe speaks in the first person. She describes combining the ingredients in one sentence. Under Ingredients, Method, and Substitutions, she has four ingredient lines, three numbered cooking steps, and one substitution line.

In the substitution, she names parsley before the colon and dill after it. She gives the dill amount in that same line.

Short descriptions and ingredient lines

For the description and ingredient lines, follow these tips:

• A sentence for the dish. Describe the combination in one sentence beneath the name. Jane Doe names cucumber, cooked beans, oil, and parsley in her example description.
• Amounts beside names. Keep the quantity on the ingredient's dash line. Jane Doe pairs an amount with beans, cucumber, oil, and parsley beneath Ingredients.
• Preparation within an ingredient phrase. Put a short preparation word beside the ingredient when that matches the dish. Jane Doe specifies cooked beans, chopped cucumber, and chopped parsley within the ingredient phrases.

Recipe file name

Give this dish its own .md file. For the example, you could use cucumber-bean-bowl.md, with words from the dish name joined by hyphens. Keep the description, ingredient amounts, method, and substitution inside that file.

For a separate discussion of short names and hyphens between words, read Markdown file naming. You can read about keeping a name unchanged there too. Here, you name the recipe for the dish and keep the preparation details inside the page.

Where Sashmark fits

Sashmark, planned as one desktop program to read and edit .md text, is still in development for people with Markdown pages from AI agents. It has not come out yet. A folder with recipe files beside other Markdown pages is the sort Sashmark is planned for.

See the planned features, the help pages and the roadmap for where each part stands.

Visit sashmark.com.