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📚 Kitchen & Cooking

Core Cooking Actions: Heat and Preparation

Core PathWay

B1Lexis

1 Why Cooking Verbs Matter

Imagine you find a delicious recipe online, but you don’t understand the instructions. What does it mean to simmer the sauce? Should you roast the vegetables or grill them? These cooking verbs are essential because they tell you exactly how to prepare food. Each verb describes a different cooking method, and using the wrong one can change your dish completely. If you boil meat instead of roasting it, the taste and texture will be very different!

Today, we’re going to prepare a classic tomato pasta dish together. As we cook, you’ll learn the most important cooking verbs in English. You’ll understand when to use each verb and how to give clear cooking instructions. This knowledge will help you follow any recipe confidently, whether it’s from a cookbook, a website, or a cooking show. By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to describe cooking processes clearly and write your own recipe instructions using the correct verbs.

We’ll focus on two types of verbs: heat-based cooking methods (like fry, bake, and steam) and preparation actions (like chop, slice, and peel). These verbs work together in every recipe. First, you prepare the ingredients, then you cook them using heat. Let’s start our cooking journey!

2 Heat-Based Cooking Methods

Different cooking methods use heat in different ways. Understanding these differences helps you choose the right method for each ingredient. Let’s explore three fundamental heat-based cooking verbs that you’ll use in almost every recipe.

boil

cook food in water at 100°C until bubbles form

Collocations:

boil waterboil pastaboil eggsboil potatoesboil ricebring to the boil

Examples:

Boil the pasta in salted water for 10 minutes.
You need to boil water before you add the vegetables.

L1 Contrast:

Boiling uses very hot water with large bubbles. This is different from simmering, where the water is hot but only has small bubbles. When you boil pasta, the water must be moving actively. In many languages, there’s only one word for both boiling and simmering, but in English cooking, these are different techniques.

fry

cook food in hot oil or fat in a pan

Collocations:

fry onionsfry gentlyfry until goldenfry the garlicstir-fry vegetablesdeep fry

Examples:

Fry the onions gently until they become soft and golden.
Heat the oil in a pan, then fry the chicken for 5 minutes on each side.

L1 Contrast:

Frying always uses oil or fat in a pan. You can fry gently over low heat or quickly over high heat. This is different from grilling, which uses direct heat without oil. Many learners confuse ‘fry’ with ‘grill’ because some languages use similar words for both methods. Remember: if you use oil in a pan, you’re frying.

steam

cook food using hot vapor from boiling water

Collocations:

steam vegetablessteam fishsteam broccolisteam until tendersteam gently

Examples:

Steam the broccoli for 5 minutes to keep it healthy and green.
You can steam fish over boiling water instead of frying it in oil.

L1 Contrast:

Steaming is a very healthy cooking method because you don’t use oil. The food sits above boiling water and cooks in the hot vapor. This is gentler than boiling because the food doesn’t touch the water directly. In some cuisines, steaming is very common, but in others, it’s less traditional. However, it’s becoming popular everywhere because it keeps vegetables fresh and colorful.

Key Terms

boilcook food in water at 100°C until bubbles form

frycook food in hot oil or fat in a pan

steamcook food using hot vapor from boiling water

boil waterheat water until it reaches 100°C and bubbles form

fry gentlycook in oil over low or medium heat without burning

3 Preparing Tomato Pasta: Step by Step

Now let’s cook together! I’m going to show you how to make a simple tomato pasta dish. As we prepare it, you’ll see how cooking verbs work in real instructions.

First, boil water in a large pot. Add some salt to the water – this gives the pasta flavour. While the water is heating, prepare your ingredients. Take two onions and chop them into small pieces. You don’t need perfect squares, just cut them small enough to cook quickly. Next, take three cloves of garlic, peel them, and chop them finely. Garlic burns easily, so we chop it small so it cooks fast.

Now heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. When the oil is warm, add your chopped onions. Fry gently for about 5 minutes. You want them soft and golden, not brown or burned. Stir them regularly with a wooden spoon so they cook evenly. When the onions are soft, add the chopped garlic and fry for one more minute. The smell will be wonderful!

Add a can of chopped tomatoes to the pan. Mix everything together well. Then add a pinch of salt, some black pepper, and a teaspoon of sugar. The sugar balances the acid in the tomatoes. Stir well and let the sauce cook gently while your pasta boils. This is called simmering – the sauce should bubble very gently, not boil hard.

By now, your water should be boiling. Add the pasta and boil it for the time shown on the packet – usually 10-12 minutes. Stir it occasionally so it doesn’t stick together. When the pasta is ready, drain it in a colander in the sink. Don’t rinse it! Just shake the colander to remove the water.

Finally, add the drained pasta to your tomato sauce. Mix ingredients together gently so every piece of pasta is covered with sauce. Taste it and add more salt if you need to. Serve immediately with some fresh basil leaves on top. You’ve just used more than ten different cooking verbs to create a delicious meal! Each verb described a specific action, and following them in order gave you a perfect result.

4 Preparation Verbs: Getting Ingredients Ready

Before you can cook anything, you need to prepare your ingredients. These preparation verbs are just as important as cooking verbs. Let’s look at three essential actions you’ll use in almost every recipe.

chop

cut food into pieces using a knife

Collocations:

chop onionschop finelychop roughlychop into pieceschop the vegetableschop and dice

Examples:

Chop the onions into small pieces before you fry them.
You can chop the tomatoes roughly – they don’t need to be perfect.

L1 Contrast:

When you chop something, you cut it into pieces, but the pieces don’t need to be the same size or shape. This is different from ‘dice’, which means cutting into small, even cubes. Chopping is quicker and less precise. Many learners use ‘cut’ for everything, but ‘chop’ is more specific and natural in cooking contexts. If a recipe says ‘chop the onions’, it means use a knife and cutting board, not scissors or a food processor.

slice

cut food into thin, flat pieces

Collocations:

slice thinlyslice the breadslice into roundsslice the tomatoesslice evenly

Examples:

Slice the cucumber thinly for the salad.
Slice the bread into thick pieces for toast.

L1 Contrast:

Slicing always creates thin, flat pieces. Think of sliced bread or sliced cheese – these are thin and flat. This is very different from chopping, where the pieces can be any shape. When you slice, you usually make one long cutting movement. Some learners confuse ‘slice’ with ‘chop’, but if you want thin, even pieces, you must slice. For example, you slice tomatoes for a sandwich, but you chop tomatoes for a sauce.

peel

remove the outer skin of fruit or vegetables

Collocations:

peel and choppeel the potatoespeel the garlicpeel the carrotspeel an orange

Examples:

Peel the potatoes before you boil them.
You need to peel and chop three carrots for this soup.

L1 Contrast:

Peeling means removing only the outer skin or layer. You can peel with a knife, a peeler, or sometimes with your hands (like oranges). This is different from ‘skin’, which usually refers to removing the skin from meat or fish. Many learners say ‘remove the skin’ instead of ‘peel’, which is correct but less natural. In recipes, we always say ‘peel the potatoes’, not ‘remove the skin from the potatoes’. Note that some vegetables like cucumbers can be used with or without peeling – it depends on the recipe.

Key Terms

chopcut food into pieces using a knife

slicecut food into thin, flat pieces

peelremove the outer skin of fruit or vegetables

chop onionscut onions into small pieces with a knife

peel and chopremove skin and then cut into pieces

mixcombine different ingredients together

stirmove a spoon or utensil around in liquid or food to combine

drainremove liquid from food, usually through a colander

mix ingredientscombine all the components of a recipe together

stir wellmix thoroughly by moving a utensil through the mixture

heat the oilwarm oil in a pan before cooking

5 Practice: Write Recipe Instructions

Now it’s your turn to write clear recipe instructions using the cooking verbs you’ve learned.

✍️Writing Taskimperative form with cooking verbs: chop, boil, peel, drain, mix, fry

Rewrite each sentence below as a clear recipe instruction. Use the imperative form (commands) and include the correct cooking verb from this lesson. Make your instructions clear and direct, as if you’re teaching someone to cook.

You need to cut the vegetables into small pieces.
The water should be heated until bubbles appear.
It’s necessary to remove the skin from the potatoes.
The pasta must have the water removed after cooking.
You should combine the sauce and pasta together.
The onions need to be cooked in oil until soft.

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6 What You’ve Learned

You’ve now learned the essential cooking vocabulary you need to follow recipes and give cooking instructions in English. You can distinguish between different heat-based methods: boiling uses water at 100°C, frying uses hot oil in a pan, and steaming uses hot vapor. You also know when to use baking, roasting, and grilling for different types of food.

You’ve practised the key preparation verbs that appear in every recipe. You know that chopping creates pieces of any size, slicing creates thin, flat pieces, and peeling removes the outer skin. You can use mix and stir correctly, and you understand the difference between them. You also know how to drain pasta and other foods after cooking.

Most importantly, you can now form clear imperative instructions like a real recipe: ‘Boil the water’, ‘Chop the onions’, ‘Fry gently for 5 minutes’. These simple commands are the foundation of all recipe writing. You’ve also learned useful verb combinations like peel and chop, heat the oil, and stir well that make your instructions sound natural and professional.

Next time you read a recipe in English, you’ll understand exactly what each instruction means. You’ll know the difference between methods and you’ll be able to follow the steps confidently. You can also write your own recipes now, using the correct verbs to describe each stage of preparation and cooking. Keep practising these verbs whenever you cook – they’ll soon become automatic!

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