aptitude: list all previous recommended packages
Synaptic -> Custom Filters -> Missing Recommends
or
aptitude search '~RBrecommends:~i'
(thanks to http://blog.isonoe.net/post/2011/07/18/Debian-Tips-1%3A-Find-missing-recommended-packages)
Maybe there's a more elegant way, but this works for me,
for package in $(dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall | awk '{print $1}')
do
echo $package
dpkg-query -s $package | grep Recommends
done
another suggestion:
awk '/(^Package|^Recomm)/' /var/lib/dpkg/status | grep -B1 ^Recommends
@EightBitTony: awk is also very good in searching, try this:
dpkg --get-selections | awk ' !/deinstall$/{print $1}'