Unless you live with your family, you're probably only cooking for one or two people at most. Unfortunately, most of the popular cooking sites give you recipes with servings that are far too much for your liking (think four to eight).

Sure, you can save the leftovers, but what if you want to try a new dish every day? Luckily, we've scoured the internet for the best websites for single-serving dishes. Here are ten of our top picks.

How Do You Cook for Just One Person?

There are plenty of online cooking guides for beginners, packed with every recipe you can ever think of. But as you might have already noticed, most of these recipes cater to families. What if you just want to make something for yourself? How do you go about prepping a single-serving meal?

One of the most important tips to take note of is to determine how frequently you want to stay in the kitchen. Do you want to cook a new meal every night, or just cook once and eat the meal twice?

After nailing this down, start creating a list of what dishes to make for the week. By doing so, you will know which ingredients to buy and how many you will need. Not only is this a money-saver (since you won't go overboard when shopping), but it also prevents food from going bad because you "forgot" to use them.

Lastly, you can always turn to the internet for inspiration. Look for salad apps and blogs (if you like to eat clean) or just browse the list of websites with single-serving recipes we've researched for you below.

1. One Dish Kitchen

one dish kitchen website

One Dish Kitchen is exactly what its name implies: a recipe source for the times you want to cook for just one. There are plenty of meal ideas available on the website, from salads and appetizers to main dishes and drinks. You can also find separate categories for gluten-free, low-carb, vegetarian, and vegan recipes.

The best part is that Joanie Zisk, the website's creator, also has a cookbook with 175 single-serving recipes for your perusal.

2. 1-2 Simple Cooking

1-2 simple cooking website

Keeping singles and couples in mind, 1-2 Simple Cooking aims to teach home chefs a fun and easy way of cooking. The recipes featured on the website produce a maximum serving of two, perfect if you're living with your partner or a roommate.

They are also divided into several categories for easy scanning, one of the best ones being the Fast Food category with recipes you can make in 10 minutes or less.

Although Joy, the website's owner, has since stopped working on the site, it's thankfully still up for browsing.

3. Singly Scrumptious

singly scrumptious website

The good thing about Singly Scrumptious, apart from its delicious array of one-serving recipes, is that it comes with very useful categories. You can browse by:

  • The type of meals (comfort foods, freezer-friendly, light meals, etc.) the time (15 minutes or less, 30 minutes or less, 1 hour, etc.)
  • The courses (breakfast, lunch, dessert, etc.)
  • The type of ingredient (fish, meat, vegetarian, etc.)

The website also has a dedicated page for big batch recipes in case you do need to meal prep for the week or have guests over. It caters for all scenarios!

4. The Single Gourmand

the single gourmand website

Run by a former veteran who has had a passion for cooking since his early childhood days, The Single Gourmand is jam-packed with nothing but mouthwatering meal ideas. The recipes are very straightforward and short, and you'll enjoy how clean and minimalist the site looks in general.

Aside from the delicious recipes, there is also a section where you can find useful resources like a Cooking Dictionary, measurement conversions, and ingredient substitutions, something you wouldn't find on other websites.

5. Single Serving Chef

single serving chef website

Single Serving Chef is not the most aesthetic cooking website you'll come across, but it definitely is one of the top sites to go to for one-portion recipes. You can find 15-minute meals here, along with ideas for desserts, lunches, and even meals that use Kitchenaid appliances.

Another great thing about this site is that it has a page called Recipe Substitutions for the times you need to swap out an ingredient for a different one.

6. Recipes for One by the Food Network

food network single-serving recipes website

For One by the Food Network isn't really a dedicated website for single-serving recipes, but it's a great resource nonetheless. Here, you have 70+ meal ideas, which typically take between ten minutes to over an hour to prepare.

What makes the recipes in the Food Network special is that they come complete with nutrition information (calories, total fat, sugar, etc.). This is particularly useful if you're health-conscious or just want to watch what you eat.

7. Quick and Easy Dinners for One by Allrecipes

allrecipes dinners for one website

With over 300 single-serving recipes, Allrecipes' Quick and Easy Dinners for One is a great place to start looking for what to cook for dinner. You can find all sorts of meals here, including simple omelet dishes, vegetable meals, and quick breakfast ideas.

The unique thing about this website is that every recipe has reviews and ratings, so you'll know exactly what to expect before trying it out.

8. Single Serving Recipes by Bigger Bolder Baking

bigger bolder baking single-serving recipes website

On the hunt for a website with single-serving baked goodies? Look no further than Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking. It has a dedicated page for one-portion recipes, most of which are cakes in a mug and take just minutes to make.

If you're not a fan of reading recipes off of a website, you can also head over to the Bigger Bolder Baking YouTube channel to find countless recipe videos.

9. Cooking for One by PBS

pbs cooking for one website

There are only about a hundred single-serving recipes on PBS' Cooking for One page, but that doesn't mean you won't find something here to make for dinner. In fact, dinner dishes aren't the only ones on the menu as this site also features cocktails, granola bars, and even bread!

The recipes themselves are also very straightforward, with no unnecessary paragraphs describing the dish.

10. Meal-For-One Recipes by BBC Good Food

recipe website of bbc good food

Complete with ratings and nutritional information, the recipes on Meal-For-One by BBC Good Food are nothing short of easy and simple to prepare. No categories are used, but some of them are marked if they are vegetarian, gluten-free, and the like.

A neat feature of each recipe is that when you get to the end, you can see a section recommending another dish that goes well with the one you just made.

Treat Yourself to a Sumptuous Home-Cooked Meal

These websites are the perfect resources for home cooks who live alone but still love experimenting with new recipes. If you're in the same boat and hate having to leave the leftovers in the fridge to rot, these websites will give you just the exact portion you need.