link_to :action => 'create' going to index rather than 'create' - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am building a fairly simple recipe app to learn RoR, and I am attempting to allow a user to save a recipe by clicking a link rather than through a form, so I am connecting the user_recipe controllers 'create' function through a link_to.
Unfortunately, for some reason the link_to is calling the index function rather than the create.
I've written the link_to as
<%= "save this recipe", :action => 'create', :recipe_id => #recipe %>
this link is on the user_recipes/index.html.erb and is calling the 'create' function of the same controller. It doesn't seem to make a difference if I include the :controller or not.
The controllers look like this
def index
#recipe = params[:recipe_id]
#user_recipes = UserRecipes.all # change to find when more than one user in db
respond_to do |format|
format.html #index.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => #recipes }
end
end
def create
#user_recipe = UserRecipe.new
#user_recipe.recipe_id = params[:recipe_id]
#user_recipe.user_id = current_user
respond_to do |format|
if #menu_recipe.save
format.html { redirect_to(r, :notice => 'Menu was successfully created.') }
format.xml { render :xml => #menu, :status => :created, :location => #menu }
else
format.html { render :action => "new" }
format.xml { render :xml => #menu.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end

Answer 1

In the standard REST scheme the index action and the create action both have the same url (/recipes) and only differ in that index is accessed using GET and create is accessed using POST. So link_to :action => :create will simply generate a link to /recipes which will cause the browser to perform a GET request for /recipes when clicked and thus invoke the index action.
To invoke the create action use link_to {:action => :create}, :method => :post, telling link_to explicitly that you want a post request, or use a form with a submit button rather than a link.

Answer 2

Assuming you have default resources set up in your routes file, i.e. something like this
resources :recipes
The following will generate a link that will create a recipe; i.e. will be routed to the create action.
<%= link_to "Create Recipe", recipes_path, :method => :post %>
For this to work, JS needs to be enabled in your browser.
The following will generate a link that will show all recipes; i.e. will be routed to the index action.
<%= link_to "All Recipes", recipes_path %>
This assumes the default which is a Get HTTP request.