diff --git a/mealie/schema/recipe/recipe_ingredient.py b/mealie/schema/recipe/recipe_ingredient.py
index cafdd58d8..4a32f0ff9 100644
--- a/mealie/schema/recipe/recipe_ingredient.py
+++ b/mealie/schema/recipe/recipe_ingredient.py
@@ -303,6 +303,11 @@ class RecipeIngredient(RecipeIngredientBase):
     reference_id: UUID = Field(default_factory=uuid4)
     model_config = ConfigDict(from_attributes=True)
 
+    @field_validator("reference_id", mode="before")
+    @classmethod
+    def ensure_reference_id(cls, value) -> UUID:
+        return value or uuid4()
+
     @field_validator("quantity", mode="before")
     @classmethod
     def validate_quantity(cls, value) -> NoneFloat:
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/user_recipe_tests/test_recipe_crud.py b/tests/integration_tests/user_recipe_tests/test_recipe_crud.py
index 0370dbbaf..7203527df 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests/user_recipe_tests/test_recipe_crud.py
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/user_recipe_tests/test_recipe_crud.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ from recipe_scrapers._schemaorg import SchemaOrg
 from recipe_scrapers.plugins import SchemaOrgFillPlugin
 from slugify import slugify
 
+from mealie.db.models.recipe import RecipeModel
 from mealie.pkgs.safehttp.transport import AsyncSafeTransport
 from mealie.schema.cookbook.cookbook import SaveCookBook
 from mealie.schema.recipe.recipe import Recipe, RecipeCategory, RecipeSummary, RecipeTag
@@ -1252,6 +1253,25 @@ def test_get_recipe_by_slug_or_id(api_client: TestClient, unique_user: utils.Tes
         assert recipe_data["id"] == recipe_id
 
 
+def test_get_recipe_ingredient_missing_reference_id(api_client: TestClient, unique_user: utils.TestUser):
+    slug = random_string()
+    response = api_client.post(api_routes.recipes, json={"name": slug}, headers=unique_user.token)
+    assert response.status_code == 201
+
+    # Manually edit the database to remove the reference id from the ingredient
+    session = unique_user.repos.session
+    recipe = session.query(RecipeModel).filter(RecipeModel.slug == slug).first()
+    recipe.recipe_ingredient[0].reference_id = None
+    session.commit()
+
+    # Make sure we can fetch the recipe and generate a new reference id
+    response = api_client.get(api_routes.recipes_slug(slug), headers=unique_user.token)
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    recipe_data = response.json()
+    assert len(recipe_data["recipeIngredient"]) == 1
+    assert recipe_data["recipeIngredient"][0].get("referenceId")
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("organizer_type", ["tags", "categories", "tools"])
 def test_get_recipes_organizer_filter(api_client: TestClient, unique_user: utils.TestUser, organizer_type: str):
     database = unique_user.repos