N3 vocabulary: meals, ingredients and cooking

Japanese cooking instructions distinguish 揚げる (fry), 炒める (stir-fry), 茹でる (boil food in water), 煮る (cook in liquid), 蒸す (steam) and 炊く (cook rice or other grains). Pair those methods with ingredient names and flavour descriptions, and a recipe becomes a sequence of actions rather than a collection of translations of “cook”.

These words connect the ingredients, preparation and meal

This N3 vocabulary set teaches 22 spelling-and-reading entries. Some name what goes into a dish, some specify what you do to it, and others describe its flavour or your appetite. Three reading boundaries also matter: 注ぐ has two readings for pouring, 生 has separate なま and せい entries, and 辛い（つらい） does not describe spicy flavour.

Start from the N4 kitchen words 米, 味噌, 味, 苦い and 焼く. Those remain prerequisites, rather than additional words claimed by this lesson. The N5 ingredients and taste lesson supplies the culinary 辛い（からい） and 薄い that help with comparisons below.

Level boundaries: Kikusho's September 2026 inventory places these entries in its N3 section, but its retained lists disagree. 揚げる, 酢, 炊く, 煮る, 混ぜる, 剥く and 蒸す also appear at N2; 炒める and 茹でる also appear at N1. The two baseline lists descend from Jonathan Waller's vocabulary collection and count as one source family. Agreement between them is not independent confirmation. A separately published JapaneseTest4You page labels 辛い（つらい） N3, but that does not establish every word's placement or the provenance of its list. The JLPT has no official exhaustive vocabulary syllabus.

Retain the word class and a phrase you can use

The tables separate the senses taught here from broader dictionary entries. A liquid oil in a pan is the intended 油 sense; an aroma from dinner is the intended 香り sense. None of those choices claims to exhaust the word.

Ingredients, flavour and appetite

Word	Reading	Class	Meaning here	Useful phrase
油	あぶら	noun	oil	油を入れる: add oil
栄養	えいよう	noun	nutrition, nourishment	栄養のバランス: nutritional balance
香り	かおり	noun	aroma, pleasant scent	チーズの香り: the aroma of cheese
濃い	こい	i-adjective	strong or concentrated in flavour	味が濃い: the flavour is strong
材料	ざいりょう	noun	ingredients; materials more broadly	材料を用意する: prepare the ingredients
食欲	しょくよく	noun	appetite	食欲がある: have an appetite
酢	す	noun	vinegar	酢を少し入れる: add a little vinegar
チーズ	ちーず	noun	cheese	チーズを切る: cut the cheese
豆	まめ	noun	beans or peas	豆を煮る: cook beans in liquid

材料 does not mean only food: the same noun can name materials for making something. In a recipe, its surrounding actions select “ingredients”. Likewise, 豆 is a category, not the name of one particular bean. チーズ keeps its long vowel: チズ loses a sound from the word.

栄養 and 食欲 answer different questions. 栄養のバランスを考えます。（えいようのバランスをかんがえます。） means “I consider nutritional balance.” 今日は食欲がありません。（きょうはしょくよくがありません。） means “I have no appetite today.” One concerns nourishment; the other concerns wanting to eat. Neither sentence diagnoses an illness or makes a claim about how nutritious a particular food is.

Preparation and pouring

All the verbs below are taught in their transitive kitchen senses: someone acts on a food or liquid. An ichidan verb drops its final る for the polite stem; a godan verb changes its final syllable.

Word	Reading	Class	Meaning here	Useful phrase
揚げる	あげる	ichidan verb	fry in hot oil	鶏肉を揚げる: fry chicken
炒める	いためる	ichidan verb	stir-fry, sauté	野菜を炒める: stir-fry vegetables
炊く	たく	godan verb	cook grains, especially rice	ご飯を炊く: cook rice
煮る	にる	ichidan verb	cook in liquid; simmer, stew	豆を煮る: simmer beans
混ぜる	まぜる	ichidan verb	mix, stir together	酢と油を混ぜる: mix vinegar and oil
剥く	むく	godan verb	peel; remove a skin or shell	じゃがいもの皮を剥く: peel potatoes
蒸す	むす	godan verb	steam food	野菜を蒸す: steam vegetables
茹でる	ゆでる	ichidan verb	boil food in water	麺を茹でる: boil noodles
注ぐ	そそぐ	godan verb	pour liquid	カップにお湯を注ぐ: pour hot water into a cup
注ぐ	つぐ	godan verb	pour into a container, often when serving	お茶をつぐ: pour tea

With polite endings, compare 煮ます（にます）, 蒸します（むします） and 注ぎます（そそぎます／つぎます）. The shared kanji in the last pair does not make the spoken forms identical. Writing つぐ in kana can preserve the intended reading when context would allow either.

The cooking method selects the verb

揚げる and 炒める both use oil, but a stir-fry is not the same preparation as deep-fried chicken. 混ぜる supplies mixing without promising heat: you can mix a dressing in a cold bowl. 蒸す puts steam to work rather than immersing the food in water.

茹でる and 煮る overlap in the broad idea of heating food in liquid. A noodle instruction typically uses 茹でる; a recipe for fish simmered with soy sauce typically uses 煮る. Treat that as a practical recipe distinction. Do not turn it into “茹でる never involves salt” or “煮る always takes longer”. The source definitions do not support those absolutes.

炊く is especially useful with rice. ご飯を炊きます。（ごはんをたきます。） means “I cook rice.” Daijisen also records a western Japanese use for simmering vegetables, so “炊く can only have rice as its object” would be too strict. Learn the central collocation first, then recognise the regional extension when it appears.

One dressing gives several of the nouns a sentence:

材料は酢と油です。よく混ぜます。
ざいりょうはすとあぶらです。よくまぜます。
The ingredients are vinegar and oil. Mix them well.

For the flavour, このソースは味が濃いです。（このソースはあじがこいです。） means “This sauce has a strong flavour.” 濃い describes intensity or concentration here, rather than automatically calling something spicy, delicious or physically thick. A thin liquid can still have a strong flavour.

Three reading boundaries prevent the wrong meaning

生（なま） and 生（せい） are separate entries

Word	Reading	Class	Sense and collocation
生	なま	noun / descriptive word	raw, unprocessed: 生の野菜, raw vegetables; 生で食べる, eat raw
生	せい	noun	life, living: 生を受ける, be born; 生と死, life and death
辛い	つらい	i-adjective	painful, distressing, hard to endure: 辛い経験, a painful experience

生の野菜が好きです。（なまのやさいがすきです。） means “I like raw vegetables.” なま is the food reading in this phrase. In an appropriate drinks context, 生 can also abbreviate draft beer; it does not make every appearance of the character a beer order.

せい belongs outside the culinary pattern. この町で生を受けました。（このまちでせいをうけました。） means “I was born in this town.” 生を受ける is a more literary expression than ordinary 生まれる. This entry appears in the assigned set, so its genuine sense is shown rather than replaced with a convenient food translation. One retained source row attaches the raw/draft gloss to せい incorrectly; Daijisen's separate なま and せい definitions resolve the reading and sense.

辛い（つらい） describes difficulty, not spicy flavour

毎日の長い通勤が辛いです。（まいにちのながいつうきんがつらいです。） means “The long commute every day is hard on me.” The adjective describes a burdensome experience. It does not turn 通勤 into a flavour.

For spicy curry, the familiar reading is からい: 辛いカレー（からいカレー）. The dictionary distinguishes these adjective readings. The つらい entry is taught here as a boundary; からい remains the earlier lesson's food adjective. English “bitter” can describe emotional suffering, but that does not make つらい interchangeable with the taste adjective 苦い.

注ぐ（そそぐ／つぐ） overlaps when serving drinks

カップにお湯を注ぎます。（カップにおゆをそそぎます。） means “I pour hot water into the cup.” 父にお茶をつぎます。（ちちにおちゃをつぎます。） means “I pour tea for my father.” Here カップに names the destination, while 父に names the recipient.

Both readings can express pouring a drink into a container. Do not invent a water-versus-tea rule. そそぐ has broader meanings, including a river flowing into a bay and directing effort toward something; the dictionary's つぐ entry is narrower. Those broader uses cannot all be transferred merely because the two verbs share a spelling. The N3 lesson on polysemous verbs develops the habit of retaining an object and sense together with other headwords.

A recipe and a package give you different words to keep

On your next recipe, look for the preparation verb and its food object: 麺を茹でる or 野菜を蒸す gives you an action you can picture. On a shopping package, look instead for the ingredient and its reading. A dinner comment may add 香り, 濃い or 食欲. The menu-reading guide helps separate dish details from portion and price information.

A recipe photo in Kikusho can preserve the exact preparation phrase. Before saving the drafted card, check whether its meaning says frying, steaming or mixing, and whether the reading matches the phrase you photographed. Keeping 生の野菜 together is especially useful: the surrounding noun protects なま from being replaced by an unrelated reading during review.

Practice

Attempt the eight questions as one exercise. The solutions follow the final prompt.

Question 1. In the cooking instruction 野菜を蒸す, how is 蒸す read?

A. むく

B. むす

C. にる

D. たく

Question 2. A recipe's ざいりょう list names what you need to make the dish. Which spelling represents that word?

A. 資料

B. 食欲

C. 材料

D. 栄養

Question 3. You are deep-frying chicken in hot oil, rather than sautéing it in a lightly oiled pan. Complete 鶏肉を＿＿.

A. 揚げる

B. 炒める

C. 茹でる

D. 混ぜる

Question 4. A recipe asks you to simmer fish in a seasoned cooking liquid. Which phrase best states that preparation?

A. 魚の皮を剥く

B. 魚を蒸す

C. 魚を切る

D. 魚を煮る

Question 5. After smelling dinner, you want to eat. Complete いい香りで、＿＿が出てきました with the word for appetite.

A. 酢

B. 食欲

C. 栄養

D. チーズ

Question 6. このソースは味が濃いです most directly says which of the following?

A. The sauce has a strong flavour.

B. The sauce contains raw vegetables.

C. The sauce is necessarily spicy.

D. The sauce has been steamed.

Question 7. Which sentence uses 生 read せい in the life/birth sense?

A. 生の野菜を買いました。

B. この魚は生で食べます。

C. 生を一杯注文しました。［draft beer］

D. 私はこの町で生を受けました。

Question 8. Which reading and meaning fit 辛い in 毎日の長い通勤が辛いです?

A. からい: spicy

B. にがい: bitter in flavour

C. つらい: hard to endure

D. こい: concentrated

Answers and explanations

Answer 1: B. 蒸す is むす, steaming the vegetables. むく is the peeling verb 剥く, にる is 煮る and たく is 炊く. Similar short readings still belong to different preparations.

Answer 2: C. 材料 is ざいりょう, ingredients in this recipe. 資料 is しりょう, reference material or data. 食欲 names appetite, and 栄養 names nutrition. They are real words, but neither spells the requested headword.

Answer 3: A. 揚げる identifies frying in hot oil. 炒める would describe the pan preparation explicitly excluded by the prompt. 茹でる uses boiling water, while 混ぜる says mix without establishing any cooking method. The stated technique makes one answer fit.

Answer 4: D. 魚を煮る matches simmering fish in liquid. 剥く removes a skin, 蒸す cooks with steam and 切る means cut. The question describes the preparation, rather than asking which actions could ever be performed on fish.

Answer 5: B. 食欲が出てきました says an appetite has developed. 香り supplies the pleasant smell in the opening phrase. 栄養 concerns nourishment; 酢 and チーズ are ingredients. None of those three names the desire to eat.

Answer 6: A. 味が濃い describes strong flavour. That can accompany sweetness, saltiness or other flavours; it does not force the spicy reading of option C. Rawness and steaming are separate claims the sentence does not make.

Answer 7: D. 生を受ける reads せいをうける and expresses being born. In A and B, raw food takes なま; in C the stated draft-beer context also takes なま. The spelling alone does not choose the sense. Option D is a life expression, not a culinary use of せい.

Answer 8: C. A burdensome commute is 辛い（つらい）, hard to endure. からい supplies the spicy food reading in the comparison, while にがい and こい are readings of different adjectives. The context is about the experience of commuting.