You will surely agree that food is an essential part of our lives. After all, who doesn’t like a good plate of delicious food? Whether it’s to go grocery shopping, understanding new recipes, reading menus in Spanish or talking about your favorite foods, knowing how to name food in Spanish is an indispensable step to mastering this language.

That’s why we bring you this super post where you will find all the vocabulary you need to name food in Spanish. We will cover the main food groups and some popular foods in Hispanic countries that are not well known to English speakers (although they should be). You will also find verbs that will be useful to describe certain culinary activities, as well as the terms that describe each meal time.

Let’s get this cooking!

Cereals and grains in Spanish: los Cereales, los Granos

Grains are a fundamental part of the typical Latin diet, especially corn. In most Hispanic countries you will find a special corn-based dish. Here is a list of grains in Spanish as well as their by-products to get the vocabulary down.

Legumes in Spanish: las Legumbres

These wonderful sources of vegetable protein are not only very nutritious, but also very tasty. There are a lot of legumes and in Latin America they are very popular. Here is a list of the most common legumes.

Fruits in Spanish: las Frutas

This is a long one, but it doesn’t hurt to know the name of the fruits in Spanish. One really awesome thing about Latin America is the wide variety of fruits that are available.

In fact, you may come across some that you may not have known about before, such as the achachairú fruit, which only grows in Bolivia. You should definitely give new fruits a try when you’re traveling!

Fruits are so popular that you can often find a wide variety of juices on restaurant menus. Check out our dedicated post for full explanations on drinks in Spanish. For now, you’ll find a juicy list of fruits in Spanish to expand your food vocabulary.

Vegetables in Spanish: las Verduras

We all know that vegetables are essential for a healthy diet. In Latin American dishes they are indispensable to give them that flavor or “sazón” that makes you lick your fingers. Here is a list of the most common vegetables. Although mushrooms are not technically vegetables, we include them in this group.

Meat in Spanish: la Carne

In this section we will look at the main sources of animal protein. We also include seafood and meat products such as sausages. Note that it says “carne de…” to describe the meat source. However, if you are at a restaurant, you can just say that you want to eat “cordero”, for example. Let’s fire up the grill!

Dairy Products in Spanish: los Productos lácteos

In this section we will cover the main milk derivatives, from yummy cheese to delicious ice cream.

Spices and Condiments in Spanish: las Especias, los Condimentos

Seasonings are very important to prepare even the simplest dishes in Latin culture. If you want to learn how to name foods in Spanish, knowing the names of spices is a must. So here we bring you a list of the most popular spices in Spanish.

Desserts in Spanish: los Postres

This section could not be missed. Below you will find a delicious list of the most common categories of sweet foods, including sugar itself. Yummy!

Food in Spanish: Mealtimes

In addition to knowing how to name all these foods in Spanish, knowing a little more about how to talk about mealtimes and the verbs used for each one might come in handy for you. As you’ll see below, in Spanish there is a verb for each meal, and we even have a verb for afternoon snack time, which we call la merienda! Let’s take a look at that vocabulary to learn how to talk about food in Spanish.

Conclusion

Wow, that was a long ride. If you made it this far, congratulations! You now know how to name a lot of foods in Spanish. Of course, you don’t have to memorize it all, but knowing that there’s a comprehensive list of all the Spanish food vocabulary you need can take a load off your shoulders.

Before we part ways, let’s review everything we covered in today’s post, shall we?

We looked at the major food groups, starting with cereals and grains. Then we looked at legumes, fruits and vegetables. We continued with meats and dairy products and culminated with food names in Spanish with spices and desserts.

Finally, to close with a flourish, we saw the name of each of the mealtimes and the Spanish verbs used for each one. We hope you enjoyed this post, and recommend bookmarking it for whenever you need to practice your food vocabulary.

See you next time! ¡Buen provecho! – Enjoy your meal!