Despite the magical powers and ability to build intricate contraptions, cooking meals is one of the most crucial mechanics in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, even though this may not appear to be the case on the surface.
Whether you’re roasting an apple by the fire or whipping up a fancy gourmet dish, cooked meals are often the final defense between Link and the cold embrace of a Game Over screen. Of course, some meals restore more hearts than others, so you’ll need to carefully curate your ingredients to get the absolute most healing properties out of your dishes.
10 Honeyed Apples
Looking for a sweet treat that’s also going to give you some nice healing benefits? Honeyed Apples are the way to go! All you’ll need for this recipe is an Apple and some Courser Bee Honey, making it a simple yet effective way to gain back some health in a pinch.
This recipe will net you seven hearts, so it’s a good meal to keep on-hand going into the heat of battle. Plus, Link deserves some dessert every once in a while — he’s more than earned it!
9 Meaty Rice Balls
This five-ingredient recipe is a hardy meal that is a reliable source of health when Link is feeling down. Just combine three pieces of raw meat and two Hylian Rice, and you’ll have some delicious Meaty Rice Balls in no time.
This meal restores ten hearts, which is more than enough to sustain the adventurer on the go — especially in the mid-game, where it’s likely to fill your health to full as you continue to grind for shrines. The ingredients are pretty easy to gather on the go, too, making for a reliable snack when you’re in a pinch.
8 Fried Wild Greens
Some of the more common ingredients you’ll find around the world include Hyrule Herbs, which are known to boost the healing properties of your recipes depending on how you include them. Well, if you just throw up to five of them together for a meal, you’ll have yourself some Fried Wild Greens.
As per usual, the healing properties of this recipe will depend entirely on which ingredients you use and how many of them, but if you spring for five Hyrule Herbs, you can get up to 13 hearts of healing from one go.
7 Copious Meat Skewers
Break out your hunting bow, because this meal requires a whole lot of raw meat — five pieces, to be specific. The heart output on the Copious Meat Skewers will definitely vary depending on what kind of meat you cook up (i.e. regular versus prime), but this recipe can max out at 20 hearts if you load up on the quality ingredients.
It might not be all too fancy, but this meal will definitely sustain Link through even the toughest fights that Hyrule has to offer.
6 Copious Seafood Skewers
Hopefully Link is a fan of seafood, because this recipe includes nothing but. Tears of the Kingdom has a variety of fish, and cooking many of them will grant you different status effects like increased swim speed or attack power.
This recipe can range from ten to 20 hearts depending on the five fishy ingredients you choose, which isn’t anything to scoff at. Keep in mind that if you want to cancel out any of the status effects your ingredients have and just go for healing, you’ll want to use two or more ingredients that have different effects.
5 Hearty Fish and Mushroom Skewers
Although this recipe is one of the more complicated meals on this list, it can provide some of the absolute best payout when it comes to its healing properties. The base recipe of Fish and Mushroom Skewers can be made by cooking any fish with any mushroom.
In order to get the maximum healing, you’ll want to use some Hearty Salmon, Hearty Bass, Hearty Truffle, Big Hearty Truffle, and/or Hearty Durian. A combination of these ingredients will not only take Link’s hearts back to full but will also grant some temporary bonus hearts on top.
4 Hearty Meat and Mushroom Skewers
Similar to its seafood counterpart, the Hearty Meat and Mushroom Skewers are made of a mix of proteins and mushroom ingredients. Any meat and mushroom mix will do, but as always, the quality of your ingredients will really determine the healing benefits you’ll be getting out of the meal.
Prime meat will be the way to, including some Hearty Truffle and Big Hearty Truffle, to get the max healing along with some extra hearts. Some of the ingredients are hard to come by, but it’s worth the hassle when a meal like this can make or break an important fight.
3 Hearty Elixir
The Hearty Elixir is one of the most powerful healing items in the game, but it’s also one of the most difficult to procure. The recipe itself only has two ingredients — a monster party, of which you should probably have plenty, and a Hearty Lizard.
The latter is what can cause some issues because these critters can be tough to find out in the wild. Thankfully, you can buy some from Beedle at the Woodland Stable, and you’ll be well on your way to making an elixir that heals you to full and gives you an extra four temporary hearts.
2 Hearty Mushroom Skewers
You can never have enough skewers — and if your Link is vegetarian, this recipe is for you! The name of the game here is mushrooms, or more specifically, some Hearty Truffles and some Big Hearty Truffles. Sounds like it would make for a pretty decadent meal, even if truffles on their own might not be as appealing.
The Hearty Mushroom Skewer will get Link all the way back up to full health and then some, as additional temporary hearts will be added depending on how many of the ingredients were a Big Hearty Truffle.
1 Hearty Fried Wild Greens
Hearty Fried Wild Greens will give you some of the absolute most healing you can get in Tears of the Kingdom — up to full healing with five extra temporary hearts. You’ll need some Hearty Radishes, or even better, some Big Hearty Radishes to get the full effect.
It’s tough to get your hands on the radishes seeing as they’re pretty rare, so it’s usually best to save this dish during a tight spot in a critical battle. It probably doesn’t taste the best, but there’s no denying that this meal is unbeatable when it comes to healing!