Discovering Clove: The Little App That’s Making My Life Simpler

Jan 29, 2026

Every now and then something small and clever pops up in my cooking life and I think, “wow, this is cool.” Right now, that something is Clove.

If you’ve been around Milly’s a while, you’ll know I’m a long-time, almost fangirl-level admirer of Cornersmith and have been right from the early days of their café and picklery in Sydney through to their brilliant recipe books. Alex Elliott-Howery inspired me from the get-go to really think about what I buy and to make sure I use it all. Her books are filled with recipes, yes, but also with master techniques that encourage you to substitute something you’d have to buy for something you already have, like finish-the-fruit-bowl muffins and empty-the-crisper green fritters.

So when I spotted that she’d released a little salad e-book on an app called Clove (all about seasonal salads, cracking dressings and pulling together gorgeous salad-y offerings far more inspired than the usual ‘green leaf–tomato–avo–vinaigrette’ combo that dinner chez Oldfield so often relies on), I was in.

I bought it, attempted to download it… and of course, technology decided to humble me. So off I went a help-desk message and, lickety-split, back came a reply from a very friendly bloke called Luke. Not a bot. Not a script. Just a helpful young human who didn’t make me feel like a muppet for not knowing where my own download button was!

And then came the plot twist:
Luke is a Kiwi.
Lives in Auckland.
And is a big fan of Milly’s. (I liked him already.)

Naturally, we met for coffee — as you do when you find a foodie kindred spirit. And what I learned made me wish I was a few dozen years younger; the future looked so exciting!

Who knew you could combine a digital recipe collection system (I do love a neatly organised list!) with some very cool AI features that help you plan meals, organise your grocery list and share meal prep tasks with others in the household? Not me, I first signed up to Clove thinking, I just wanted the e-book, but the scope of what this little system can do is genuinely exciting.

Here’s what Clove actually does, and why it’s replaced my other recipe apps:
✔️ Keeps all your recipes in one tidy, searchable place
Access from your phone or laptop. Cookbooks, websites, Instagram, grandma’s handwritten notes, snaps of recipes from magazines, all pulled together in one neat place. The most exciting bit? You can add recipes via a link or from an image. Just snap a pic of your recipe and Clove scans it into the app. No more tedious typing! Plus there are heaps of recipes already on the site!
✔️ Lots of recipes already on the site – and classes too!
The site is already populated with lots of good quality recipes from some of our favourite creators. And there are online classes coming too.
✔️ Meal planning is such a cinch, I actually enjoy doing it
Swap meals around, plan for who’s actually home and build your week around what’s already in the fridge. (Love the Cornersmith “use-it-all” thinking here.)
✔️ Grocery lists — automatically
Plan your meals → Clove builds the shopping list → everyone in the household can add/tick things off in real time. No more “Did we get milk?” messages. This would have been so useful when the kids were growing up.
✔️ Built for families
Share recipes, plans and lists. Add notes. Coordinate like adults who don’t have time for guesswork.
✔️ And yes, it has clever bits
AI menu suggestions, nutrition information, adjustable serving sizes, clean layout - and it’s all so easy to learn and use.

What struck me most chatting to Luke was how aligned Clove is with how we cook: practical, quality-focused and always trying to make the week run a little more smoothly. So this week, I’m sharing it with you. No kickbacks, no sponsorships, no affiliate codes - just a really useful tool from good people doing good work and discovered through a happy little Auckland coincidence.