Cooking Verbs - Verbos de cocina
Beginner Spanish · Cooking verbs
Cooking Verbs in Spanish
Cooking verbs help you understand recipes and talk about preparing food. Learn how to cook, cut, peel, mix, stir, add ingredients, heat food, and taste what you make.
Your next small win: recognize common cooking methods, follow simple recipe instructions, describe what you need or plan to do, and offer or ask for help in the kitchen.
Start with how food is cooked
Basic Cooking Verbs
These verbs describe common ways to prepare and cook food.
To cook
To bake
To boil
To fry
To grill / roast
To prepare
I like to cook on weekends.
I am going to bake fresh bread today.
We prepare the salad together.
Name three cooking methods
Say “to bake, to boil, and to fry” in Spanish.
Hornear, hervir y freír.
Get the ingredients ready
Food Preparation Verbs
These actions appear constantly when preparing ingredients and following recipes.
To cut
To chop
To peel
To mix
To stir
To add
To add
To melt
To heat
To cool
To serve
Regional variation: both agregar and añadir can mean “to add.” Which one you hear more often can depend on the region.
Prepare the ingredients
Say “I need to cut the vegetables first.”
Necesito cortar las verduras primero.
Follow the recipe
Useful Recipe Actions
Recipes often use short command forms. These tell the cook what to do next.
Cut the vegetables into small pieces.
Peel the potatoes before cooking them.
Mix all the ingredients well.
Add a little salt.
Stir the soup slowly.
Heat the oven before cooking.
Recipe pattern: forms such as corta, pela, mezcla, agrega, and calienta are informal commands addressed to one person.
Give three recipe instructions
Tell someone to cut the vegetables, mix the ingredients, and add a little salt.
Corta las verduras.
Mezcla los ingredientes.
Agrega un poco de sal.
Meal and tasting verbs
To eat
To drink
To try / taste
To order / ask for
To share
To enjoy
Meal ordering belongs mainly in the Restaurant lessons. Here, probar is especially useful because it can mean trying or tasting food.
Put the verbs into conversation
Talking While You Cook
I need to cut the vegetables first.
I am going to bake fresh bread today.
I want to try the soup.
We serve dinner at seven.
Two useful patterns: necesitar + infinitive tells what you need to do, and ir a + infinitive tells what you are going to do.
Preparing dinner
What are you preparing?
I am preparing vegetable soup.
Shall I help you cut the vegetables?
Yes, thank you.
Tasting the food
Try the sauce.
It is very good.
Does it need more salt?
No, it is perfect.
Help prepare dinner
Say that you are preparing vegetable soup, then ask whether you can help cut the vegetables.
Estoy preparando una sopa de verduras.
¿Te ayudo a cortar las verduras?
Your turn · 8 quick questions
Practice: Cooking Verbs
Choose the answer that best fits each situation. Focus on preparation verbs, recipe commands, kitchen plans, and tasting food.
Practice complete
You can use common cooking verbs in Spanish.
A few cooking phrases to revisit
One last step: give four kitchen instructions without choices.
Tell someone to cut the vegetables, peel the potatoes, mix the ingredients, and add a little salt.
Corta las verduras.
Pela las papas.
Mezcla los ingredientes.
Agrega un poco de sal.
You are going to prepare dinner. Which sentence fits?
- Voy a preparar la cena.
- Voy a servir la cena.
- Voy a probar la cena.
- Voy a compartir la cena.
Preparar means “to prepare,” so Voy a preparar la cena means “I am going to prepare dinner.”
Voy a preparar la cena.
You need to cut the vegetables first. Which sentence fits?
- Necesito cortar las verduras primero.
- Necesito mezclar las verduras primero.
- Necesito servir las verduras primero.
- Necesito probar las verduras primero.
After necesito, use the infinitive. Cortar means “to cut.”
Necesito cortar las verduras primero.
You want someone to add a little salt. What do you say?
- Agrega un poco de sal.
- Mezcla un poco de sal.
- Pela un poco de sal.
- Sirve un poco de sal.
Agrega is the informal command of agregar, meaning “add.”
Agrega un poco de sal.
You want someone to mix all the ingredients well. What do you say?
- Mezcla bien todos los ingredientes.
- Corta bien todos los ingredientes.
- Pela bien todos los ingredientes.
- Sirve bien todos los ingredientes.
Mezclar means “to mix,” and mezcla is the informal command used here.
Mezcla bien todos los ingredientes.
You are going to bake bread. Which sentence fits?
- Voy a hornear el pan.
- Voy a hervir el pan.
- Voy a freír el pan.
- Voy a enfriar el pan.
Hornear means “to bake.”
Voy a hornear el pan.
The soup looks good and you want to taste it. Which sentence fits?
- Quiero probar la sopa.
- Quiero servir la sopa.
- Quiero enfriar la sopa.
- Quiero compartir la sopa.
Probar commonly means “to try” or “to taste” when talking about food.
Quiero probar la sopa.
A recipe tells you to peel the potatoes before cooking them. Which instruction fits?
- Pela las papas antes de cocinarlas.
- Corta las papas antes de cocinarlas.
- Mezcla las papas antes de cocinarlas.
- Sirve las papas antes de cocinarlas.
Pelar means “to peel,” and pela is the informal command used in the recipe.
Pela las papas antes de cocinarlas.
Before cooking, you want someone to heat the oven. What do you say?
- Calienta el horno antes de cocinar.
- Enfría el horno antes de cocinar.
- Mezcla el horno antes de cocinar.
- Sirve el horno antes de cocinar.
Calentar means “to heat,” so Calienta el horno means “Heat the oven.”
Calienta el horno antes de cocinar.