If you’re using Recipe Card Blocks already, you’re probably here for one of two reasons: you want your recipe cards to look good without a weekend of fiddling, or you’re trying to figure out what the plugin can (and can’t) do before you commit.
Recipe Card Blocks helps you publish recipes in a structured format (like ingredients, steps, timings) and the behind-the-scenes schema that can power rich results in Google. In this post, we’ll walk through what it does, how to set it up, and which features sit in the free vs paid versions.
A quick PSA: we didn’t build Recipe Card Blocks. We’re documenting it for bloggers who already bought it and want to get it working properly. If you’re still shopping around, we’ll share better long-term options near the end!
What is Recipe Card Blocks by WPZOOM?
Recipe Card Blocks (sometimes listed as Recipe Card Blocks Lite) is a third-party WordPress plugin from WPZOOM that lets you build recipe cards using Gutenberg blocks. It’s made for food blogs, with built-in JSON-LD recipe schema so search engines can understand your ingredients, steps, times, and more.
There’s a free version that covers the basics (recipe card blocks + schema). The Pro plans add extra features and add-ons, but the main appeal stays the same: pre-designed styles and quick setup so your cards look polished fast.
How Recipe Card Blocks works for food blogs
Recipe card blocks turn a recipe into structured content on your site. Instead of typing everything as plain text, you fill in dedicated fields for ingredients, instructions, prep time, cook time, servings, and nutrition. That keeps your recipe consistent, easier to read, and easier to reuse in different layouts.
For SEO, Recipe Card Blocks outputs JSON-LD recipe schema behind the scenes. That’s the structured data Google uses to understand a recipe and qualify it for recipe-rich results, like stars, cooking time, and nutrition details in search. It generally covers the “must-have” recipe fields, so you’re meeting the baseline technical requirements. Where it stays fairly simple is depth: it focuses on core recipe data rather than more advanced markup and features you might want as your content library grows.
Design and styling features
Recipe Card Blocks is built around ready-made design choices, which is a big part of its appeal. Instead of building a card layout from scratch, you choose from a set of pre-designed recipe styles and start publishing straight away. These layouts handle spacing, typography, and structure for you, so your recipes look tidy and consistent without much setup.
From the word ‘GO,’ the plugin includes five modern recipe card styles. If you upgrade to Pro, you unlock more visual options and basic colour controls, letting you tweak accent colours so cards don’t clash with your theme. The focus stays firmly on presets rather than deep layout changes.
If you’re using Elementor, Recipe Card Blocks work there too. WPZOOM provides a dedicated Recipe Card widget, so you can place recipes inside Elementor layouts without breaking the design or switching editors.
AI recipe generator
The AI recipe generator is a feature in Recipe Card Blocks. You type in a prompt (something like: “one-pot creamy tomato pasta, 30 minutes, vegetarian”) and the tool generates a full draft recipe (ingredients plus step-by-step instructions) that you can drop into a recipe card and edit. It’s a quick way to get a starting point on the page, especially if you’re brainstorming ideas or building out basic content fast.
There is one catch: additional AI credits are separate from your plugin plan, so you’ll need to buy credits on top of your Pro subscription to actually generate recipes.
And please don’t publish AI output as-is. Treat it like a rough draft! Check ingredient quantities, timings, temperatures, and method steps, then rewrite in your own voice. If you’re building a real food blog with tested recipes, kitchen testing still wins.
Installation and basic setup
Install Recipe Card Blocks like any other WordPress plugin. For the free version, grab Recipe Card Blocks Lite from WordPress.org. For Pro, upload the ZIP from your WPZOOM account and add your licence key in the plugin settings.
To create a recipe, open a post in the block editor and click the + button. Add the Recipe Card block (you’ll find it under the Recipe Card Blocks section), then choose a pre-made style. From there, just fill in the fields: ingredients, instructions, prep and cook times, servings, and nutrition if you have it. Hit publish, and the recipe card shows up on your post automatically!
Where Recipe Card Blocks starts to feel limiting
Recipe Card Blocks does a pretty good job at the basics. You get clean, modern designs, an AI recipe generator if you want quick drafts, and support for both the block editor and Elementor. For many blogs, that’s enough to get started and look professional fast.
The negatives of it tend to show up a little later. Customization stays mostly inside preset layouts, so you can tweak colours in Pro, but you can’t really reshape how the card works. Schema is also fairly shallow – it covers core recipe fields, but doesn’t extend to things like more advanced video structures. There’s no concept of recipe collections, meal planning, or saved recipes for readers either.
You can build a recipe card without a plugin using standard WordPress blocks, but then you’re responsible for adding structured data yourself, either with custom code or SEO tools. That’s where most bloggers decide a plugin is still the better tradeoff – just with clearer limits in mind.
Could there be a better alternative for you?
If Recipe Card Blocks is working for you, genuinely – stick with it. A plugin that keeps you publishing is doing its job!
But if you’ve started doing that thing where you’re almost happy… except you keep running into “that’s just how the template is,” it might be time to take a look at WP Recipe Maker. Not because you’re suddenly a “pro blogger” now, but because you don’t want your recipe plugin deciding what your site can look like.
The biggest difference is control. With WP Recipe Maker, you can shape the recipe card layout in the Template Editor – move sections around, adjust labels, change what shows up, and style individual elements so it actually matches your brand. And you only have to do it once. Update the template, and every recipe using it updates too. No “open 300 posts and cry quietly” admin session.
Then there are the features Recipe Card Blocks just doesn’t really cover once you’re publishing at volume. WP Recipe Maker supports Recipe and How-To schema, which is useful if you post anything beyond straight recipes. It also has Recipe Collections, so readers can save recipes into their own lists and build shopping lists from them. That’s the kind of feature that brings people back!
Monetization is also easier to manage. You can set up ingredient and equipment links centrally, so updating an affiliate URL doesn’t turn into a scavenger hunt across your site. If you’re using the Amazon Product Advertising API for equipment links, WP Recipe Maker can also keep product details refreshed automatically once it’s configured.
Behind the scenes, WP Recipe Maker stores recipes as proper data in its own database tables. That keeps things organized, makes bulk management easier, and gives you a safer long-term setup if you ever switch tools later. It also helps you avoid plugin sprawl: instead of stacking add-ons for richer schema, roundups, affiliate links, and reader features, a lot of it lives in one place. And for roundup posts, ItemList schema is supported, which is helpful if you care about carousel-style visibility.
If your blog is growing and you want a recipe plugin that grows with it (without forcing workarounds), WP Recipe Maker tends to be the more comfortable place to land.
Build with WP Recipe Maker instead
We don’t want to hate on anyone. Recipe Card Blocks can be a super nice starting point. You get a good-looking card, you can publish quickly, and you don’t have to think too hard about layout choices. If that’s all you need right now, it does the job!
But if you want a plugin you can stick with as your blog grows, WP Recipe Maker is the stronger option. You get proper control over your recipe card layout through the Template Editor, richer schema options for more than just basic recipes, and features that help readers actually use your site – not just land on one post and leave.
It also keeps things simpler behind the scenes. Instead of stacking add-ons to handle roundups, deeper markup, affiliate links, and reader features, WP Recipe Maker covers a lot of that in one place. That means fewer moving parts, fewer “why did this break?” moments, and a setup that still makes sense when you’ve published 300 recipes, not 30.
Get WP Recipe Maker and build a food blog that turns one-time visitors into regulars!
