eng6-V2· Vocabulary· ~13 min

Food & Cooking

Words for food, meals and cooking.

This lesson helps you learn words about food, meals and cooking. You will learn the names of common foods like bread, rice and vegetables. You will also learn cooking verbs like cut, boil and fry. These words help you talk about what you eat and how you make food.

Key terms

ingredienta food you use to make a dish or a meal
mealthe food you eat at one time, like breakfast, lunch or dinner
boilto cook food in hot water
fryto cook food in hot oil
baketo cook food in an oven
peelto take the skin off a fruit or vegetable
Food Groups
WordCategory
bread, rice, pastaGrain foods
cheese, milk, butterDairy foods
chicken, fish, meat, eggFoods from animals
tomato, onion, potato, vegetablesVegetables
fruitFruit

Foods can go into different groups.

How to Make a Simple Salad
  1. 1Step 1: First, wash the vegetables.
  2. 2Step 2: Then, cut the tomatoes and onions into small pieces.
  3. 3Step 3: Next, add some salt and mix everything.
  4. 4Step 4: Now your salad is ready to eat!
🚫Common mistake

Don't say 'I boil eggs in oil.' You boil food in water and fry food in oil. These are different ways to cook.

⚠️Caution

The word 'fish' is the same for one fish and many fish. You do not say 'fishes' when you talk about food.

💡Note

'Chicken' can mean the bird or the meat. In a sentence like 'I eat chicken,' it means the food, not the animal.

Rules

  1. 1Food words like 'bread', 'rice' and 'cheese' are nouns. You can count some foods (one egg, two eggs) but not others (rice, milk — you cannot say 'one rice').
  2. 2Meals are the times you eat: breakfast is in the morning, lunch is in the middle of the day, and dinner is in the evening.
  3. 3Cooking verbs tell you what to do with food: cut, chop, mix, add, boil, fry, bake, peel, pour, slice.
  4. 4Some cooking verbs need heat: boil (in water), fry (in oil), bake (in an oven). Other verbs do not need heat: cut, peel, pour, mix, add.
  5. 5'Bake' is for bread, cakes and potatoes in an oven. 'Fry' is for eggs, meat and fish in a pan with oil. 'Boil' is for rice, pasta and eggs in water.

Practice

10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard

10 random questions per test