CREATE a Menu & Recipe Planner with Notion! | Beginner Tutorial + Free Template

A Notion-based menu planner can be built around two connected databases—one for menus and one for recipes—so every menu automatically pulls in the right dishes, ingredients, and tags. The payoff is practical: once recipes are stored (manually or via Web Clipper), creating a new menu becomes mostly a matter of naming it, tagging it, and selecting which recipes belong.

The setup starts with a page titled “Menu Planner,” optionally with an icon and cover, then switches to a clean layout (small text, full width). Two gallery-view databases are added: “menus” and “recipes.” The “recipes” database is customized first by adjusting layout settings (card size, cover/page preview choices) and removing unnecessary default properties. Core recipe fields are then created: a name, tags (e.g., “Italian”), a multi-select “course” (like “Main” or “Side”), a multi-select “ingredients” list, and a URL field for sources. A cover image can be added per recipe, and key properties (course, ingredients, tags) are turned on so the cards show the essentials at a glance.

Next comes the connection between recipes and menus. A sample menu entry like “Italian dinner night” is created with its own tags (such as special occasions or holiday meals). A relation property links each menu to multiple recipes. On the menu side, rollup properties aggregate information from the related recipes—pulling unique ingredient values and unique tag values—so the menu card displays what’s actually in the lineup. The menu card can also get its own cover image, and the same process is repeated for additional dishes (e.g., adding “garlic bread” as a “Side” with its own ingredients).

To make the menu feel like a structured plan rather than a flat list, a “menu template” is created. The template uses a linked view of the recipes database, filtered so it only shows recipes related to the current menu template. It also groups items by “course,” letting main dishes and sides appear in separate sections. Options like hiding empty groups and reordering groups help keep the layout readable. Notes can be added to the template using headings, dividers, and bullet points, and the template can be set as the default so every new menu automatically includes the same sections.

Finally, recipes can be added through Notion’s Web Clipper. When a recipe page is saved from Chrome into the “recipes” database, it can be retitled, tagged (e.g., “Thanksgiving”), assigned a course, and populated with ingredients. Creating a new menu like “Thanksgiving dinner” then allows the relevant recipes to be linked, with the menu template automatically reflecting ingredients, tags, and course grouping. The result is a reusable system for holiday dinners, dinner nights, and any recurring meal planning workflow—complete with a free template link provided in the description.