#219 Cooking in English

Speak English Now through mini-stories with teacher Georgiana

Hi, everybody! I am Georgiana, your English teacher and founder of SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help you speak English fluently.

In this episode, I'd like to include some food and cooking vocabulary.

And with a mini-story, you will improve your English fluency.

You’ll see, it’s like having a conversation with another person.

You know, when I enter the kitchen, the first thought that I have is… Why am I here? Yeah. I'm hungry. That's why. Now I remember. :)

I open the refrigerator and start scanning for some delicious food.

Since I don't buy ready-made food, I usually stare at the fridge for some minutes until it starts beeping. Then I close it and open it again to continue scanning.

And I'm not saying my refrigerator isn't well organized; it's just that I'm looking for something that I can prepare in 1 minute, or preferably even less.

Many times, I end up making a green smoothie. That's a fast and easy way of getting all the needed nutrients. And plus, smoothies are delicious.

By the way, a smoothie is a thick drink that you can make using fruits, vegetables, greens, seeds, milk, ice, etc.

Like I said earlier, I usually end up making a green smoothie. Don't panic. It's green but really yummy.

I add some water or milk, one avocado, 1/2 cup of pineapple, 1/2 frozen banana, 2 cups of spinach, and 1/2 cup of ice cubes. I put it at speed 10 for 45 seconds, and the smoothie is ready. Delicious!

By the way, in case you were wondering, I use a Vitamix blender to prepare my smoothies.

And I don't use it only for that. I also make frozen desserts with it, soups, I can make flours with it, almond milk, batters, dough, nut butter, juices, dips, etc. It's very versatile.

Whenever I'm not in the mood for a smoothie, and I want to eat healthy and fast, I use a pressure cooker or a frying pan.

A frying pan is simply a metal pan with a handle that we use for frying foods.

A pressure cooker is an airtight pot where the food is cooked quickly under steam pressure.

I love using a pressure cooker because whatever I throw into the pot comes out delicious. I'm not here to promote any brands, but I'm really happy with my Instant pot cooker.

The Instant Pot is not only a pressure cooker. It's multi-functional, and I use it all the time. I even bought one for my mom, and she loves it!

And you know what I like using it for? For making yogurt. Yes! I started making yogurt, and it was super simple and just delightful.

I also use this machine for cooking rice, pasta, potatoes; you can steam with it, and keep food warm after cooking.

I usually steam vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, etc.

So, how do I steam with the Instant Pot? I place some water in the pot, and then I add a basket where I put the veggies. Make sure you don’t add any salt into the water while you are steaming because it delays the evaporation. I just add the salt once it's cooked.

Get the transcript here: https://speakenglishpodcast.com/podcast/