Alexa gives you the power to control your lights, play music, add items to your grocery list, and with a bit of effort, you can also use it read recipes to you as you cook in the kitchen. Here are two ways to get your Amazon Alexa to read recipes out loud to you in the kitchen.

1. Ask Alexa to Read a Recipe From the Internet

amazon alexa speaker on a table

The kitchen is definitely one of the best places to set up your Amazon Alexa. The easiest way to get Alexa to read a recipe to you in the kitchen is by asking her. "Alexa read me a recipe for (insert food here)". Alexa will then find a recommended recipe from the internet and give you the option to start the recipe, send it to your phone, or hear another suggestion.

While this option doesn't let you select a specific recipe from your library, it's a great place to start if you're looking for inspiration in the kitchen or have forgotten a couple of important steps.

2. Make Your Recipes into Audio Files and Ask Alexa to Read Them

There are lots of reasons to embrace text-to-speech technology, and this is one of them. If you have a very specific recipe that you want to be read aloud to you as you cook, then you're going to need to convert it into an audio file, upload it to your Amazon account, and ask Alexa to play it for you. Follow these steps for each recipe you want Alexa to read to you, and you can build up your personal library of audio recipes, which you can then add to a playlist on a compatible smart speaker.

Step 1

After you've selected the recipe you want to save to your recipes playlist, go to TextToSpeech to convert the instructions to an mp3 file. Paste in the ingredients and their quantities, and the recipe instructions into the website and hit Create Audio File.

TTS

At this stage, there are a few options you can choose from including the language, speed, and a variety of male and female voices.

There are plenty of other text-to-speech options online including Windows apps Text to Mp3 Converter, which offers a free trial, and the free Balabolka.

If you're not a fan of the artificial sound of text-to-speech options, you can also record the audio files yourself using your phone, although that will obviously be far more time-consuming.

Step 2

The next step is to upload each recipe as an individual mp3 file to your Amazon account, using either the Amazon Music desktop app. You can upload up to 250 files for free. You may need to go in and edit the song info which is very important in order to ask Alexa to play them. Do this by going to the list of songs in your Amazon account, right-clicking the file, and selecting Edit Song Info.

SongInfo

Step 3

The last step in this process is to get yourself in the kitchen and play the recipe of your choice, using the command, "Alexa play [Recipe Title]."

As you're preparing the ingredients and going through the instructions for the recipe, you can pause and resume play with the basic playback voice commands. If you need Alexa to repeat something, use the command, "Alexa rewind 5 seconds." You can adjust the time based on your needs.

Getting Alexa to Help You in the Kitchen

These are the two most popular ways to get your Alexa to read recipes out loud to you in the kitchen. While they're not perfect, they sure do come in handy, especially when your hands are full.