It worked. Sadly, it worked. I typed in “plant-based recipe with five ingredients” and ChatGPT gave me this:
Ingredients:
2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into small cubes.
1 can (15 oz) of chickpeas, drained and rinsed.
2 tablespoons of olive oil.
1 teaspoon of taco seasoning (adjust to taste).
8 small tortillas (corn or flour) or lettuce leaves for a low-carb option.
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large mixing bowl, toss the diced sweet potatoes and chickpeas with the olive oil and taco seasoning until they're evenly coated.
Spread the seasoned sweet potatoes and chickpeas on a baking sheet in a single layer. Make sure they're not too crowded to allow for even roasting.
Roast in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender and slightly crispy, and the chickpeas are also slightly crispy.
While the sweet potatoes and chickpeas are roasting, warm the tortillas or prepare lettuce leaves for the taco shells.
Once the sweet potatoes and chickpeas are done roasting, remove them from the oven.
Assemble your tacos by filling each tortilla or lettuce leaf with a generous portion of the roasted sweet potatoes and chickpeas.
You can add your favorite toppings like avocado slices, salsa, chopped fresh cilantro, lime wedges, or dairy-free yogurt.
Serve your delicious plant-based sweet potato and chickpea tacos and enjoy!
This recipe is not only simple and quick but also packed with flavor and nutrients. You can customize it with your preferred toppings and sauces to suit your taste.
I have to say, the recipe is pretty perfect and I didn’t have to type a darn thing. Yet, I have no idea if it tastes or smells good, but it meets a lot of criteria such as including root vegetables, beans/lentils, and quick cuisine options, garnishments. I have made similar dishes, so it met my basic approval.
The next step was to see if it could create an image of this dish. Chat-PGT let me know it doesn’t create images but it would give me beautiful verbiage to describe the dish.
“Imagine a soft, warm tortilla filled with a delectable mixture of roasted sweet potatoes and seasoned chickpeas. The sweet potatoes are caramelized to perfection, giving a sweet and slightly crispy exterior while remaining tender inside. The chickpeas are lightly spiced, offering a savory and slightly smoky flavor that complements the sweetness of the potatoes.
On top of this flavorful base, picture a generous drizzle of creamy tahini sauce for a rich and nutty taste. Fresh, vibrant cilantro leaves and a squeeze of zesty lime juice are sprinkled over the top for a burst of freshness and a citrusy tang. To add some heat, you can imagine a few slices of red chili pepper or a dash of hot sauce.
Visualize this mouthwatering sweet potato chickpea taco, a harmonious blend of sweet, savory, and spicy flavors, all wrapped up in a warm tortilla – a delightful and wholesome culinary creation.”
And voila! Here are the images from Chat-GPT Photos.
What I was not expecting was the dart of disappointment that my services may not be needed anymore. This little pang in my heart of realizing my craft could be replaced. Granted, I didn’t ask it to create something complicated on the first go-round, so I typed in “create a recipe for plant-based quenelles”, thinking certainly a quenelle is not an everyday dish and they do take some skill to actually create. It couldn’t possibly be in a Chat GPT repertoire. Here’s the result.
Plant-Based Quenelle Recipe
Ingredients:
For the Quenelles:
1 cup of cooked and mashed potatoes
1 cup of cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup of cooked and mashed butternut squash
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of almond flour
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1/4 cup of finely chopped spinach
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
For the Sauce:
1 cup of vegetable broth
1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
2 tablespoons of vegan butter
2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of white wine (optional)
1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
For the Quenelles:
In a large mixing bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash.
In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and sauté until they become translucent.
Add the finely chopped spinach and sauté for another 2-3 minutes until the spinach wilts.
Mix the sautéed onion, garlic, and spinach into the potato mixture.
Add the bread crumbs, almond flour, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, dried thyme, salt, and pepper to the potato mixture. Mix well until everything is combined.
Shape the mixture into quenelle shapes. To do this, wet your hands and create smooth, oval-shaped patties. You can also use two spoons to shape them.
Place the quenelles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven at 375°F (190°C) for about 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.
For the Sauce:
In a saucepan, melt the vegan butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to create a roux and cook for 2-3 minutes until it turns a light golden color.
Gradually whisk in the vegetable broth and almond milk until the sauce thickens.
If desired, add the white wine and continue to simmer for a few minutes until the alcohol evaporates and the sauce thickens further.
Stir in the chopped parsley and season the sauce with salt and pepper.
To Serve:
Place the plant-based quenelles on a plate and drizzle the creamy sauce over them. Garnish with additional parsley if desired, and serve with your choice of side dishes, such as steamed vegetables, rice, or a fresh salad.
This plant-based quenelle recipe offers a comforting and elegant dish with a delicious creamy sauce and a variety of flavors and textures. Enjoy your culinary creation!
And to finish the dish, the AI image.
So, I think I caught Chat GPT in a bit of error. These quenelles are more like baked croquettes rather than luscious yummy, soft, elegant poached, and gently baked in a mother sauce French quenelle. Ah-ha! Gotcha! Chat GPT isn’t perfect – but it learns quickly – quicker than a human where a method of repeated cooking techniques for perfection may take days.
A little solace appears in my heart. Perhaps a smirk on my face but also a touch of reality that it won’t be long before someone could write a recipe or cookbook and never even try the recipe. My creativity in recipe development, the whole dopamine rush of creating a beautiful dish may not be needed for easier dishes, but perhaps there is room for creating and feeling the overwhelming satisfaction of a perfectly balanced dish of sweet savory, soft, crunchy, sour, umami, etc.
What is puzzling to me is how the machine learned to create this or snag ingredients and processes from wherever to produce a recipe and directions that are pretty human, and, if I was writing, would take much longer than the 2 minutes it took to get the recipe and download an image.
My brother felt like my recipes were beautiful but a bit complicated for the normal carnivore and suggested I scale back my recipes so they are more approachable for the non-cooking carnivore, the working parents, or individuals who just want to quickly participate in a plant-based meal without a lot of fuss, pre-work, or basically, thought. I was working on a few but now I suppose I could just snag these from Chat GPT and run some Instagram reels or YouTube shorts. Not a bad idea just to test the recipe. The AI Test Kitchen!
What do I do with this information?
Will it make me more efficient for other things?
How do I keep doing what I love and stay motivated?
Creativity does make one feel a bit special, and unique, by using personal hand skills and knowledge plus smell, taste, and mouthfeel for correctness and excellence. At some point, do we just not try or self-compete for the most perfect corn and zucchini white sauce-based lasagna?
Can Chat GPT create a treatise on AI in the kitchen and capture the internal conflict of a plant-based chef? We shall see.
You know, dear Lisa, this makes me smile. As a newly minted homemaker doing my own, independent-from-parents, home cooking starting about 54 years ago, reading recipes from a cookbook wasn't a lot different than what you describe in locating and reading the AI-generated recipes. Always drawn to lusciously elaborate descriptives, I read cookbooks like novels, looking for words to tell me how the dishes should look or taste (because back then there was only Julia on TV to show or tell us anything — certainly not even a dream of YouTube tutorials!) I would try a chosen cookbook recipe, usuallly falling short of the imagined elegant appearance of a dish, and only occasionally hitting the mark on the imagined taste experience, no matter how elegant and enticing its narrative had been. If it was something I really wanted to excel at creating, I'd intrepidly look for the guidance of yet another cookbook. I can't help but think that the avid cook-to-be will always look for guidance and improvement from the next, and, again, the next encouraging verbiage/voice/face. I doubt the human touch will be replaced anytime soon. Keep up the good work! :-)