Preparing, Cooking and Serving Food in English - Visual Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, I’m Rich. Welcome to Oxford Online  English! In this visual vocabulary lesson,  

you can learn words and phrases  to talk about food and cooking.

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easy! Turn them on now by clicking  the ‘CC’ icon in the bottom right.  

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Peel the courgettes. 

‘Peel’ means to take the skin off some fruit  or vegetables. Some foods are easy to peel,  

like bananas. With other ingredients, you  might need to use a knife or a peeler. 

Cut the tomatoes into quarters.

When talking about preparing food, the  combination ‘cut…into…’ is common. For example,  

you might hear: ‘Cut the chicken into six  pieces’, or ‘Cut the aubergine into small cubes.’

There’s one common exception to this pattern;  

you cut something *in* half, not ‘into’. For  example: ‘Cut the lemon in half,’ not ‘into half’.

Cut the radish into thin slices Slice the radish thinly. 

Many words connected with cooking can be both  verbs and nouns. ‘Slice’ is a common example.  

You can cut something into slices, or just  use slice as a verb: ‘Slice the cucumber’,  

‘slice the carrots’, and so on. Halve and deseed the peppers. 

‘Halve’ is the verb from ‘half’. It’s an efficient  way to say ‘cut something into two pieces’.  

You can also use ‘quarter’ as a verb. For example:  

‘Quarter the tomato’ and ‘Cut the tomato  into four pieces’ have the same meaning. 

‘Deseed’ means you remove the seeds.  With peppers, you also need to remove  

the pith – the white flesh on the inside. Chop the onion as finely as possible. 

Usually, ‘chop’ means to cut something into  medium-sized pieces, perhaps not in a precise  

way. However, if you chop something finely,  you cut it into the smallest pieces possible. 

Dice the red pepper. ‘Dice’ means to cut into small pieces.  

More specifically, ‘dice’ means that you cut  something in two directions. If you dice a pepper,  

you first cut it into strips, and  then cut the strips into small pieces.

Mix the ingredients together. Stir the ingredients to mix them. 

Here, ‘mix’ and ‘stir’ have the same meaning.  In general, ‘stir’ is more specific, because  

it means to use some kind of implement – like a  spoon – to mix whatever you’re mixing. You can  

mix something with your hands, or by putting it  in a container and shaking it, or in other ways. 

Stir fry the veggies on a high heat. 

Turn the heat up to high and fry the  vegetables, stirring continuously. 

Often, you can say the same thing in  fewer words by using a more specific  

verb. Both these sentences are fine  and both have the same meaning,  

but in the first sentence you save words  by using a more specific verb: ‘stir fry’. 

Bring the water to the boil  and then add the dumplings. 

In cookbooks and recipes,  you’ll often see the phrase  

‘bring the water to the boil’.  This means that you boil the water,  

and when it starts boiling, you’ll  add something or do something else.

Turn the heat down to low and  simmer the soup for twenty minutes. 

If you need to simmer something,  you turn the heat down  

until it is *just* boiling. There are a few  bubbles, but it isn’t boiling vigorously. 

Fry the meatballs until browned on both sides. Deep fry the potatoes and leave to dry. 

If you use the verb ‘fry’ in English,  it generally means shallow-frying:  

when you fry something in a little bit of  oil or butter. Use the verb ‘deep fry’ if  

you want to talk about cooking something  in boiling oil, like fried potatoes.

‘Brown’ is another useful verb. When cooking  meat, you often fry the meat first to brown  

it – you cook it until it is brown on the  outside, but probably not cooked in the middle. 

Pre-heat the oven to 180, then roast  the chicken for around one hour. 

Here’s a question for you: ‘roast’ and ‘bake’  

both mean to cook something in the  oven, but what’s the difference? 

There are different answers to this. Technically,  ‘roast’ means to cook something uncovered,  

until it turns brown. However, in everyday  language, ‘roast’ is generally used for  

meat and vegetables, and ‘bake’ is  generally used for bread, cakes, and fish.

We grilled the shrimp kebabs over a charcoal fire. We cooked the shrimp kebabs on the grill. 

With cooking, you can often use different  verbs or verb phrases to say the same thing.

For example, you can grill food, or cook  food on the grill. You can roast food,  

or cook food in the oven. It  doesn’t matter which you use.

The verb ‘grill’ is often used when you cook  something on a barbecue, but your cooker  

in your kitchen might have a grill, and you can  also buy electric grills to use in your kitchen. 

Blend the soup until fairly smooth. I used a hand blender to puree the sauce. 

You can blend something with a hand blender,  like you saw here, or with a regular blender. 

If you blend something for a longer time, it will  come out smooth. The opposite of smooth here is  

‘chunky’ – meaning you blend it for a short  time, and there are still some solid pieces.

Add a dollop of sour cream  to the soup and mix it in. 

Add a spoonful of sour cream to the soup. A ‘dollop’ means a small amount. It’s not  

specific, but it generally is used to mean around  one spoonful. You can use ‘dollop’ for things  

which are between solid and liquid, like yoghurt,  thick cream, sour cream, or other thick sauces. 

Sprinkle with grated parmesan  cheese before serving. 

You can might *sprinkle* something on your food  before you serve it, like cheese. Another example:  

you might sprinkle pepper, paprika or  oregano on top of a dish once it’s ready. 

They served the steak with green  beans and corn on the side. 

You can use ‘on the side’ for vegetables or  other things which accompany the main dish. 

Garnish with a mint leaf and serve. 

A garnish is something you add mainly for  decoration, to make the food look good; more attractive.  

Some garnishes are chosen for their flavour,  but you might garnish a dish with something  

that isn’t intended to be eaten. You can also  garnish a drink; cocktails often have a garnish.

Pour the chocolate icing generously over the top. The verb ‘pour’ is mostly used with liquids.  

You can also use the verb ‘drizzle’ to mean that  you pour a small amount of something. For example:  

‘Drizzle some olive oil over the salad.’ ‘Generous’ is more often used to describe people,  

but you can also use it to talk about food. For  example, you can have a generous portion or a  

generous serving. Here, ‘generous’ has the meaning  of large, but in a positive way – not too large.

What about you? Tell us about  the last thing you cooked;  

how did you do it? Can you use some of  the language you learned in this lesson?  

Write your answer in the comments and  share it with us and other learners!

If you liked this lesson,  don’t forget to check out the  

other lessons in our Visual Vocabulary series.

Thanks for watching!