Automate Vegan Recipe Sharing with n8n & Telegram Bot

Opening Problem Statement

Meet Sarah, a passionate vegan community manager who runs a Telegram channel dedicated to sharing daily vegan recipes. Every day, Sarah painstakingly searches for new vegan dishes, manually sends recipe photos and URLs to each subscriber, and keeps track of who has received what. She estimates spending over an hour daily just performing these repetitive tasks. The constant manual work leads to occasional forgotten messages, duplicated shares, and disengaged users.

Sarah dreams of a way to automate this process—sending fresh, delicious vegan recipes daily without lifting a finger, while also keeping a neat record of subscribers to avoid repetition. This is exactly where this n8n workflow shines, automating personalized vegan recipe sharing effortlessly.

What This Automation Does

Here’s what happens when you turn on this workflow:

• Every day at a scheduled time (via the Cron node), the system fetches your list of Telegram chat IDs (subscribers) from Airtable.
• For each subscriber, it pulls a random vegan recipe from the Spoonacular API using the HTTP Request node.
• The workflow sends the recipe’s photo followed by the recipe title and URL directly to each subscriber via the Telegram node.
• When a new user joins your Telegram bot, the Telegram Trigger node captures this event, sends a welcome message, shares the first recipe immediately, and stores their chat ID and name in Airtable.
• Before adding new users to Airtable, the IF node ensures no duplicates exist, maintaining a clean subscriber list.
• This system runs daily without manual input, ensuring your community always receives fresh vegan recipe content.

By automating these tasks, Sarah can now save over an hour daily and keep her audience actively engaged with personalized recipe deliveries.

Prerequisites ⚙️

• n8n account – Access to create and run workflows.
• Telegram Bot API token – To send messages and photos through your Telegram bot.
• Airtable account 📊 – To store and manage subscriber chat IDs and names.
• Spoonacular API key 🔑 – For fetching random vegan recipes.

Optional: You can self-host n8n for better control and security. For self-hosting, providers like Hostinger offer easy setups.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Create and Configure Your Telegram Bot

First, create a Telegram bot via BotFather. Save the API token for later. This token allows n8n to send messages and photos to your users.

Expected outcome: You have a working Telegram bot with the API token ready.

Step 2: Set Up Airtable Base and Table

Create a new base in Airtable named something like “Telegram Subscribers.” Inside it, create a table (named “Table 1” in this workflow) with at least these fields:

• chatid (number type) – stores Telegram chat IDs
• Name (single line text) – stores subscriber names

Expected outcome: Your Airtable is ready to store subscriber information.

Step 3: Add Your Credentials in n8n

Go to n8n credentials manager and add:

• Telegram API with your Telegram bot token.
• Airtable API using your Airtable API key.

Expected outcome: Nodes can access your Telegram and Airtable accounts.

Step 4: Set Up The Cron Node for Daily Scheduling

Click on the Cron node. Configure the schedule to run once per day at your preferred time.

Visual: You should see fields to choose minute, hour, day, etc., with your daily time selected.

Expected outcome: This triggers the workflow daily.

Step 5: Get Subscriber List from Airtable

Add and configure the Airtable2 node:

• Operation: List
• Table: Table 1
• Application: Select your Airtable base.

Expected: Returns the list of all subscribers’ chat IDs.

Step 6: Prepare Each Subscriber’s Chat ID

Configure the Set node to extract the chat ID from Airtable results with this expression: {{$node["Airtable2"].json["fields"]["chatid"]}}.

Expected outcome: Flow data includes chat IDs for sending messages.

Step 7: Fetch a Random Vegan Recipe from Spoonacular API

Configure the Get recipes from API node (HTTP Request type):

• Method: GET (default)
• URL: https://api.spoonacular.com/recipes/random?apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY&number=1&tags=vegan

Expected outcome: You receive a JSON with a random vegan recipe including title, image URL, and source URL.

Step 8: Send Recipe Photo to Telegram Subscriber

The Recipe Photo (Telegram) node uses this settings:

• Operation: sendPhoto
• Chat ID: Use {{$node["Set"].json["chatid"]}}
• File: Use {{$node["Get recipes from API"].json["recipes"][0]["image"]}}

Expected: The subscriber receives the recipe photo.

Step 9: Send Recipe Title and URL

Configure the Recipe URL Telegram node:

• Text: Combine title and source URL using template:
  {{$node["Get recipes from API"].json["recipes"][0]["title"]}}

  {{$node["Get recipes from API"].json["recipes"][0]["sourceUrl"]}}

• Chat ID: Same as above

Expected: Subscriber receives clickable link with recipe title.

Step 10: Handle New Users with Telegram Trigger

The Telegram Trigger – people join bot node listens for new users starting a chat.

When triggered:

• Airtable node checks if the user is already listed.
• IF node verifies if chat ID is new.
• If new, Airtable1 appends their chat ID and name.
• Telegram – Welcome Message sends a greeting.
• Telegram Recipe Image and Telegram Recipe URL send the first vegan recipe immediately.

Expected: New subscribers get welcomed and receive a recipe instantly.

Step 11: Avoid Duplicate Airtable Entries

The IF node checks Airtable fields to compare existing vs new chat IDs. Only unique IDs are added to Airtable.

Expected: Clean subscriber list.

Step 12: Activate and Test the Workflow

Turn on your workflow and trigger the cron manually or wait for the scheduled time. Also, simulate new user joins to ensure the Telegram Trigger flow works.

Expected: Recipes sent automatically and new users added correctly.

Customizations ✏️

• Change Recipe Tags: Modify the tags=vegan parameter in Get recipes from API and Get recipes HTTP Request nodes to any other dietary preference like vegetarian or gluten free.
• Send Daily Recipe at Custom Time: Adjust the cron schedule to your preferred time zone or time interval.
• Add More Subscriber Info: In Airtable1 node, append extra fields like last name or username to personalize messages later.
• Use Different Messaging Platform: Replace Telegram nodes with WhatsApp or Slack nodes if you want to use a different chat app (requires additional setup).
• Include Recipe Instructions: Extend the HTTP nodes to fetch full recipe instructions and send them in messages for richer content.

Troubleshooting 🔧

Problem: “Telegram API error: Forbidden”
Cause: Incorrect or expired Telegram bot token.
Solution: Verify the token in n8n credentials: Click Credentials > Telegram API > update token and save.

Problem: “Airtable API rate limit reached”
Cause: Too many requests to Airtable in a short period.
Solution: Spread out requests or upgrade Airtable plan for higher limits.

Problem: No recipes sent on schedule
Cause: Cron node misconfiguration or failed HTTP request.
Solution: Check the cron schedule and API key for Spoonacular; test HTTP requests independently in n8n.

Pre-Production Checklist ✅

• Check Telegram bot token validity.
• Confirm Airtable base and table match workflow settings.
• Verify API key for Spoonacular API is correct and active.
• Test Telegram Trigger by joining bot with a test user.
• Review logs after a manual cron trigger for errors.
• Ensure no duplicate Airtable records after new user joins.

Deployment Guide

Activate your workflow in n8n by clicking the toggle to “Active.”

The Cron node will start running daily; monitor execution logs to ensure smooth operation.

For larger communities, consider breaking down the workflow or adding error-handling nodes for resilience.

FAQs

Can I use other recipe APIs?
Yes, you can replace the Spoonacular HTTP Request node URLs with other recipe API endpoints, ensuring the response format fits the message nodes.

Does this consume Telegram API credits?
Telegram bots generally do not have strict API usage limits, but keep user volume in mind.

Is my subscriber data secure?
Only your Airtable and Telegram bot store subscriber data; ensure credentials are secure and access is limited.

Can this handle hundreds of subscribers?
Yes, but consider Airtable API rate limits and workflow run times; you may need batching.

Conclusion

With this detailed n8n workflow, Sarah has transformed her vegan Telegram community engagement by automating daily recipe sharing. This process saves her over an hour each day while ensuring every subscriber receives fresh, personalized vegan recipes with images and links.

You’ve learned to connect Telegram, Airtable, and Spoonacular APIs seamlessly, handling new users and maintaining clean subscriber data. From here, consider expanding to multiple dietary preferences, integrating shopping lists, or adding feedback collection to further enhance your bot’s value.

Happy automating your delicious community interactions!