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Welcome to the 100-word challenge!
We’re going to learn over 100 English vocabulary words in the next five days, so get ready to build your vocabulary fast.
Today’s lesson is all about cooking words – specifically, cooking verbs. I’ll say each word – make sure to repeat it after me to practice your pronunciation – and explain what it means by showing you a picture.
You can download the free PDF guide for this lesson by clicking on the link in the video description and entering your e-mail address. You’ll definitely want to get that so you can review and remember these cooking verbs later.
peel
Our first cooking verb is peel – this means to remove the skin or the outer surface of a fruit or vegetable. You can do it with a knife, or with a tool called a peeler.
slice, chop, dice, mince
Next we have several different ways of cutting foods:
We can slice them into thin, flat pieces.
We can chop them into smaller pieces which can vary in size.
We can dice them into small square pieces that should all be around the same size.
We can mince them into very tiny pieces.
grate
Another way to make small pieces is to grate a vegetable or some cheese, using this thing called a grater.
season
One very important step is to season the food, meaning to add salt, pepper, or other spices like cumin, oregano, and others.
marinate
One way to add extra flavor is to marinate the meat, meaning to let it soak in a mixture of liquids and seasonings for some time.
mix
The recipe might tell you to mix the ingredients, to put them together and combine them.
blend
Or you might need to blend the ingredients, meaning to use this thing, called a blender, to mix them extremely well.
boil
There are lots of different verbs for different cooking techniques. You can boil pasta, meaning to cook it in water.
steam
You can steam broccoli, meaning to cook it above water using the hot water vapor.
fry
You can fry potatoes, meaning to cook them in oil.
sauté
You can sauté vegetables, meaning to cook them in a very small amount of oil or butter.
bake / roast
If you cook something in the oven, you bake it or roast it. We typically use the word roast for beef, chicken, and pork. Bake is used for cakes, muffins, casseroles or lasagna, and fish.
grill
You can also grill things, cook them over the open flame on a grill – we use the same word for the action, the verb, and for the object.
simmer
If you’re making a soup or a sauce, the recipe might tell you to let it simmer – this means to let it cook on low heat.
stir
And you’ll probably need to stir it occasionally – move a spoon around through it.
reduce
Sometimes you want to reduce the sauce, meaning the amount of liquid gets less and the flavor gets more concentrated.
thicken
And you might add flour or corn starch to thicken it, make it flow more slowly and less watery.
knead
When you make bread, you’ll have to knead the dough – use your hands to stretch, pull, and squish it.
toast
Then you bake the bread, as we mentioned – and later, if you want a piece of bread to be extra brown and crispy, you can toast it.
garnish
A final step in some recipes is to garnish the food, meaning to add some small decorative ingredients like chopped up herbs.
serve
And then you’re ready to serve the meal – put it on plates and give it to your family and friends who are going to eat it!
Now you know 24 cooking verbs in English! Remember to download the free PDF to review them all. Hope you enjoyed this lesson, and join us tomorrow for the next video in the 100-word challenge!
