Cooking in Japanese: The Verbs Recipes Actually Use (切る・煮る・茹でる)

Hi everyone! Kenji here 😊

If you're trying to cook from Japanese recipes — Cookpad, Kurashiru, Tabelog recipes — you'll hit a wall of very specific verbs. English collapses cut and boil into one each. Japanese has whole categories.

Let me walk you through the most useful ones.

🔪 Cutting: more than just 'cut'

The base verb is 切きる (to cut). Recipes use specific shapes of cut.

📖 Cutting styles

Term	Reading	Style	Used for
千切せんぎり	sengiri	julienne (thin strips)	cabbage, carrot
乱切らんぎり	rangiri	rough chunks (rolling cut)	potatoes for curry
輪切わぎり	wagiri	circular slices	daikon, lotus root
微塵切みじんぎり	mijingiri	mince (fine dice)	onion for fried rice
一口大ひとくちだい	hitokuchi-dai	bite-size	flexible guideline

📝 Recipe lines

玉たまねぎを微塵切みじんぎりにします。 — Mince the onion.
人参にんじんを乱切らんぎりにして鍋なべに入いれます。 — Rough-cut the carrot and add to the pot.

🔥 Three different 'boils'

The biggest cooking-verb trap for English speakers. Boil is one English word; Japanese has three distinct verbs.

💡 Quick rule:

煮にる (niru) = simmer with seasoning. The food absorbs the flavored liquid. (fish nimono, nikujaga)
茹ゆでる (yuderu) = boil in plain water, then drain. The liquid gets discarded. (pasta, spinach)
沸わかす (wakasu) = bring just the water to a boil. No food involved. (boiling water for tea)

Getting these mixed up is like saying I boiled my pasta in soy sauce — confusing.

⚠️ Cooking ramen sometimes uses 作る (make) because the noodles + broth come together. If focusing only on the noodles, 茹でる works.

🛒 Supermarket category words

In Japanese supermarkets, the prepared-food section (惣菜そうざい) labels things by cooking method. Recognize these and you instantly know what you're buying.

📖 Cooking-method categories

Japanese	Reading	English	Like
炒いため物もの	itamemono	stir-fry	yakisoba toppings
煮物にもの	nimono	simmered dish	nikujaga, fish nimono
和あえ物もの	aemono	dressed / tossed dish	spinach with sesame
揚あげ物もの	agemono	fried	tempura, karaage
焼やき物もの	yakimono	grilled / pan-fried	yakitori, yakizakana

🗣️ Real recipe snippets

📝 A bit of nikujaga (simmered beef + potato)

玉たまねぎを薄切うすぎりにする。
じゃがいもを乱切らんぎりにする。
鍋なべで肉にくと玉たまねぎを炒いためる。
水みずと調味料ちょうみりょうを入いれて煮にる。

Four verbs, four different cooking actions. Once you read them at native speed, recipes open up.

✨ Kenji's recap

Cutting styles matter — pick the right 切り for the shape needed.
三 boils: 煮る (simmer + flavor), 茹でる (plain water, drain), 沸かす (water only).
Supermarket labels: 炒め物 / 煮物 / 和え物 / 揚げ物 / 焼き物 cover most dishes.
Action verbs: 炒める (stir-fry), 揚げる (deep-fry), 焼く (grill/pan-cook), 蒸す (steam), 和える (toss).

Cookpad your way through Japanese home cooking. 🍳