What it means
آب پز کردن (âb-paz kardan) means to cook something by boiling it in water. The compound breaks into three native Persian elements: آب (âb, water), پز from پختن (pokhtan, to cook), and کردن (kardan, to do). Together آب پز functions as an adjective or noun meaning water-cooked or boiled, and adding کردن makes it a verb. The most common everyday use is تخم مرغ آبپز (tokhm-e morgh-e âb-paz), a boiled egg. A contrast worth knowing is بخارپز (bokhâr-paz), which means steamed rather than submerged in water.
How to use it
- تخم مرغ رو آب پز کردم. (Tokhm-e morgh ro âb-paz kardam.) “I boiled the eggs.”
- هویج رو آب پز کن برای سوپ. (Havij ro âb-paz kon barâye sup.) “Boil the carrots for the soup.”
- چند دقیقه طول میکشه تا سیبزمینی آب پز بشه؟ (Chand daqiqe tul mikeshe tâ sib-zamini âb-paz beshe?) “How many minutes does it take for the potato to boil?”
- گوشت رو آب پز کردیم تا نرم بشه. (Gusht ro âb-paz kardim tâ narm beshe.) “We boiled the meat so it would become tender.”
Cultural note
آب پز کردن is one of the most fundamental cooking methods in Persian home kitchens, used for soups, ash, and preparing ingredients for salads such as olivieh. Boiled eggs in particular appear at the Persian new year table, Nowruz, as one of the symbolic items on the haft-sin spread. The simplicity of the technique makes it a common method in everyday meal preparation across all regions of Iran.