Lesson 85 · German A1-2

Reading a Recipe

Ein Rezept lesen

German recipes (Rezepte) are a genuinely good real-world reading text: short, imperative-heavy, and full of food vocabulary you already have from Lesson 12. Today combines the du-imperative (Lesson 25) with cooking verbs into something you could actually cook from.

Today's win: read and follow a simple German recipe from start to finish.

Recipe verbs (usually du-imperative or infinitive)

schneidento cutkochento cook/boil
mischento mixbratento fry
hinzufügento addwürzento season

A short recipe, worked through

Nudeln mit Tomatensoße
Koche die Nudeln in Salzwasser. (Cook the pasta in salted water.)
Schneide die Zwiebel klein. (Cut the onion small.)
Brate die Zwiebel in Öl. (Fry the onion in oil.)
Füge die Tomaten hinzu. (Add the tomatoes. - separable verb, Lesson 15)
Würze mit Salz und Pfeffer. (Season with salt and pepper.)

Notice each line uses the Sie-imperative or a bare du-imperative form without a pronoun - the same pattern from Lesson 25, just applied step by step throughout a whole text rather than one sentence.

Common recipe nouns

die Zutat / die Zutaten (pl.)ingredient/s
die Zwiebelonion
das Salz / der Pfeffersalt / pepper
Try it out loud: find a real simple German recipe online (or ask your teaching agent for one) and read through the steps out loud before cooking it.

Quick recall check

1. "Cut the onion small." - ______ die Zwiebel klein.

Show answer
Schneide

2. What's the German word for "ingredients"?

Show answer
Zutaten

3. "Add the tomatoes." (separable verb) - Füge die Tomaten ______.

Show answer
hinzu

4. What does "würzen" mean?

Show answer
to season

5. What mood/form are most recipe instructions written in?

Show answer
imperative

Primary source

Vocabulary cross-checked against the official Goethe-Zertifikat A1 Wortliste.

Want a real German recipe to practice reading, matched to something you'd actually cook? Ask your teaching agent.