Phrasal verbs about food and cooking

You may know how to cook, but do you know how to call what goes on in the kitchen or dining room?

Boil down

Meaning: to reduce a liquid by cooking to a thick sauce
Example: She boiled down the sauce to make it more flavorsome.

Boil over

Meaning: to cause liquid to overflow during boiling.
Example: She was cooking pasta on high heat and it boiled over.

Bolt down

Meaning: to eat food very quickly
Example: Jeffrey had only 15 minutes for lunch so he had to bolt it down.

Chop up

Meaning: to cut into pieces, especially with a few sharp blows
Example: Mary chopped up the onions for the salad.

Cut back

Meaning: to eat/drink less of a particular thing or food group
Example: Sue is lactose intolerant and had to cut back on dairy.

Cut out

Meaning: to form or shape by cutting
Example: After preparing the dough I cut out the cookies using cutter of different shapes.

Cut up

Meaning: to cut into pieces
Example: Joan cut up the pie into equal pieces.

Eat out

Meaning: to eat outside your home, especially in a restaurant
Example: John and Kate eat out at least once a week and every time they choose a different restaurant.

Eat up

Meaning: to eat all the food that you have been given, to eat until everything is finished.
Example: Matt, eat up. I don’t want you to leave out broccoli again, it’s good for you.

Pick at

Meaning: to unwillingly eat only a small amount of food because you are feeling sick, not hungry or don’t like the food
Example: This afternoon Andy picked at his food, because he was feeling sick and could hardly keep anything down.

Pick (sth) up

Meaning: to collect something from another place, for example food to go at a restaurant
Example: I’m going to a Greek restaurant to pick up our order.

Pig out

Meaning: to eat a lot of food
Example: Alice is on a diet, but she always pigs out on her cheat days.

Warm up

Meaning: to heat food that has already been cooked in order to eat it
Example: My husband has to work late this week and I warm up food for him when he gets back home.

Whip up

Meaning: to prepare a meal very quickly
Example: I had surprise visitors yesterday, thankfully I managed to whip up a light meal.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and don’t miss another article on CourseFinders.com

Find your perfect language school Search CourseFinders to find the course for you