Cooking Puns

Welcome to the Punpedia entry on cooking puns! 🍳🍴🍲 In this entry you’ll find everything from baking puns to oven puns to pots and pans puns, and everything in between.

You might also like to visit the Punpedia entries on food, cakepasta, pizza, curry, pie, and vegetables.

Cooking Puns List

Each item in this list describes a pun, or a set of puns which can be made by applying a rule. If you know of any puns about cooking that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page!

  • Cook: Other than the obvious definition it can also refer to “altering dishonestly”, as in “They cooked the numbers and were done for fraud” (The phrases “cooked the books” and “cooked the accounts” are synonymous). Some cooking-related idioms and phrases are: “What’s cooking?” and “Too many cooks spoil the broth”
  • Cooked: “If mum and dad find out we took their car last night, we’re cooked!” and “He has been drinking since lunch time – he’s cooked.”
  • Kooky → Cooky: The term “kooky” means strange or eccentric.
  • Back → Bake: As in “Bake in my day…” and “As soon as my bake is turned” and “At the bake of my mind” and “Bake to the Future” and “Bake in business” and “Bake in the saddle” and “Bake seat driver” and “Bake to school” and “Bake to the drawing board” and “Behind your bake” and “Come crawling bake” and “Behind my bake” and “Double bake” and “Get bake on your feet” and “Bake to bake” and “Kick bake and enjoy” and “Like water off a duck’s bake” and “Laid bake” and “Money bake guarantee” and “Never look bake” and “One step forward, two steps bake” and “Right bake at ya” and “Pat on the bake” and “Put your bake into it” and “Turn bake the clock” and “Wind at your bake” – There are many more baking puns like this to be made, but those should be enough to get you started.
  • Half-baked: This means “not completely planned or thought out”. For example: “Your half-baked cooking puns are going to make people angry.”
  • Break → Bake: As in “Bake out into a cold sweat” and “Bake the bank” and “Bake new ground” and “Ground-baking new research” and “Bake the mould” and “Make a clean bake” and “An even bake” and “And then all hell bakes loose” and “Bake a world record” and “Baking news!” and “Never bake your promises” and “Don’t bake their heart” and “Oh give me a bake.” and “Lucky bake“.
  • Chef: The saying “Too many chefs in the kitchen” refers to a situation where there are too many people trying to work on something such that the result is worse than if there had been less people. The phrase “chef d’oeuvre” (French: “chief work”) refers to a masterpiece, or an artist’s best piece of work. The phrase “chef de mission” (French: “chief of mission”) generally refers to the person in charge of a national team at an international sporting event.
  • Order: As in “Law and order” and “Luckily we managed to get out of there in short order (fast)” and “The pecking order” and “The machine is out of order.” and “In working order” and “In order to do that …” and “You’re out of order” and “That’s a tall order” and “You need to put your affairs in order” and “It’s a standing order, Sargent.” and “That’s bang out of order.” and “Gag order” and “It’s an order of magnitude bigger than we expected.” and “Order in the court!”
  • Boil: As in “It really just boils down to …” and “That man makes my blood boil” and “A watched pot never boils“.
  • Boil → Boyle: As in “Susan Boil” and “Robert Boil
  • Boy’ll (Boy will) → Boil: As in “That young boil go on to do great things if he can apply himself.”
  • Roast: A “roast” can refer to an event where a guest of honour is teased and made fun of (in good spirit). The saying “roast snow in a furnace” refers to a futile and often ridiculous task.
  • Rest → Roast: As in “No roast for the wicked” and “Roast assured that …” and “Roast on your laurels” and “And the roast is history” and “Oh give it a roast will you?” and “A cut above the roast” and “I roast my case”. Note: to rest on your laurels is to be so satisfied with your work that no further efforts are made.
  • Arrest → A roast: As in “You are under a roast.” and “He was charged with resisting a roast.” and “Citizen’s a roast.”
  • *rest → *roast: As in, “In the interoast of justice,” and “Make it interoasting,” and “Nearoast and dearoast,” and “Mud wroastling,” and “On the croast of a wave,” and “Imitation is the sinceroast form of flattery,” and “May you live in interoasting times.”
  • *rust* → *roast*: As in, “Roastle (rustle) up,” and “Upper croast (crust),” and “Don’t troast (trust) anyone,” and “Troast is a two-way street.”
  • Girl → Grill: As in “You go grill!” and “Boys and grills
  • Gorilla → Grilla: As in “The silverback grilla is native to this area.”
  • Guerrilla → Grilla: As in “The inhabitants used grilla warfare to drive out the enemy.”
  • Thrilled → Grilled: As in, “Grilled to bits!” and “We’re grilled to have you here.”
  • Bill → Grill: As in, “These are my grillable hours” and “A clean grill of health.”
  • Filled → Grilled: As in, “Grilled with happiness” and “Cream-grilled” and “A smoke-grilled room.”
  • Even → Oven: As in “Don’t get mad, get oven” and “Break oven” and “Oven handed” and “Keep on an oven keel” and “Oven at the turning of the tide” and “Oven as we speak” and “Oven if it kills me” and “Oven Stevens”. Note: to keep something on an even keel is to keep something in a steady, untroubled state.
  • *even* → *-oven-*: If a word contains “even”, it can usually be made into a silly oven pun: “It’s the main ovent (event)” and “The ovent horizon” and “It has been an oventful (eventful) day.” and “I’ll oventually get around to cleaning my garage.” and “My job has pr-oven-ted me from spending time on personal projects.” and “Pr-oven-tative medicine should be the focus.” and “Rovenge is sweet.” and “The developing world is still struggling with proventable diseases.”
  • *aven* → *oven*: As in, “Let’s look at other ovenues” and “Ovenge my death!” and “The Ovengers.”
  • *even* → *oven*: As in, “The main ovent” and “Yes, oventually” and “An ovening out” and “Your oventual downfall” and “Spread ovenly” and “Seven Eloven” and “It’s looking unoven.”
  • Kitten → Kitchen: As in “The internet is full of cute kitchen pictures.”
  • My crow wave → Microwave: As in “Microwave at me with its wing.”
  • Push → Poach: As in “Don’t poach your luck” and “Poach the boundaries” and “When poach comes to shove” and “Poach the envelope” and “They’re a bit of a poach-over“.
  • Branch → Blanch: As in “Our company needs to blanch out into other industries.” Note: blanching is a method of cooking where food is scalded with boiling water, then plunged into iced water to stop the cooking process.
  • Summer → Simmer: As in “The long, hot simmer.” and “One swallow does not make a simmer.” and “An Indian simmer“.
  • Skill at → Skillet: As in “I admire your skillet chess.”
  • Skilled → Skillet: As in “She was perhaps the most skillet chess player in her country.”
  • Pot: There are many idioms related to pots: “In the melting pot” and “Oh you fuss pot” and “Take a pot shot at (something)” and “Keep the pot boiling” and “Pot head” and “Pot luck” and “A pot of gold” and “A watched pot never boils” and “The pot is calling the kettle black”.
  • *pot*: If a word contains the “pot” sound (or similar) we can make a silly pot pun with it: poticular (particular), spotlight, jackpot, potentially, anticipotory, despotism, incompotability, omnipotent, perpotrators, nepotism, incompotent, meopotamia, potassium, repotition, potato.
  • Pan: “Flash in the pan” and “It panned out all right in the end.” and “Peter Pan” and “Pan in/out”
  • *pan*: If a word contains the “pan” sound (or similar) we can make a silly pan pun with it: chimpanzee, companion, expand, expansion, Japan, lifespan, panacea, pancreas, pandora, panic, panorama, pansiespanting, panther, spaniard, underpants.
  • You ten sil* → Utensil: This is a very specific type of cooking pun – “I’ll give utentsil-ver coins for your wagon.” and “I’ll give utensil-k garments for your horse.” You can obviously do this for other words that start with the “sil” sound like: cylinder, syllabus, silverware, silhouette, silicon, etc.
  • Burn: “Burn the candle at both ends” and “Burn a hole in your pocket” and “Burn your bridges” and “Crash and burn” and “Feel the burn” and “Slow burn” and “Burn yourself out” and “Energy to burn
  • Brother: As in, “Everybody and his brother,” and “Have you met my brother?” and “Big brother is watching you.”
  • Rise → Rice: As in “Rice to the challenge/occasion” and “Rice and shine” and “Rice from the ashes” and “The rice and fall of …”
  • Hate → Heat: As in “I heat to say it, but …” and “Heaters gonna heat.” and “I’ve got a love-heat relationship with cooking.”
  • Heat: “He’s packing heat” and “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” and “In the heat of the moment” and “The heat is on.”
  • Heed → Heat: As in “You’s better pay heat to your mother! She knows what she is talking about.”
  • Fire: As in “You’re fired.” and “In the line of fire” and “Don’t play with fire” and “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
  • Steam: “Blow off some steam” and “Build up a head of steam” and “Full steam ahead” and “Run out of steam” and “Under one’s own steam” and “Pick up steam“.
  • Seem → Steam: As in “It’s not as bad as it steams” and “I can’t steam to …” and “things are seldom as they steam” and “That steams a bit out of place”.
  • Esteem → Esteam: As in “Self esteam” and “She was esteamed by her peers”.
  • Seam → Steam: As in, “Bulging at the steams” and “Come apart at the steams.”
  • Scheme → Steam: As in, “In the grand steam of things” and “Pyramid steam” and “The best laid steams” and “The overall steam of things.”
  • Scream → Steam: As in, “Dragged kicking and steaming” and “We all steam for ice-cream” and “Steam bloody murder” and “Steam your head off.”
  • Stream → Steam: As in, “Fresh as a mountain steam” and “Changing midsteam” and “Swim upsteam.”
  • Team → Steam: As in, “Dream steam” amd Take one for the steam” and “A steam player” and “Steam spirit” and “Tag steam” and “Steam up with” and “There’s no ‘i’ in steam.”
  • Teem → Steam: As in, “Steaming down with rain” and “Steaming with life.”
  • *stam* → *steam*: We can sneak “steam” into words that have similar sounds, like so: “A testeament to” and “Rushed by the crowded steampede.”
  • *stem* → *steam*: As in, “All systeams go!” and Get it out of your systeam” and “Solar systeam” and “Buck the systeam” and “Self-sustaining ecosysteam” and “Racism is a systeamic problem.” Note: if something is systemic, then it affects the entire involved group, body or system.
  • *stim* → *steam*: As in, “Steamulate your senses” and “Being oversteamulated” and “A mentally steamulating environment” and “By my esteamates” and “Valuable testeamony” and “Don’t underesteamate yourself” and “Company testeamonials.”
  • Nuke: This term is often used to refer to cooking/heating something in the microwave, but it is also (obviously) short for nuclear bomb. Perhaps there is some context where this double meaning may be viable as a cooking pun.
  • Continent → Condiment: As in “The shifting of the condimental plates happens very slowly.” and “Originally, all the condiments were part of one supercondiment called Pangaea.” and “Condimental breakfast” and “The condimental shelf”
  • Embroiled: To “broil” something means to cook it via exposure to direct intense radiant heat. The term “embroiled” means to be involved deeply in an argument, conflict or difficult situation.
  • I’ll → Oil: As in, “Well, oil be” and “Oil say!” and “Ask me no questions, oil tell you no lies” and “Oil be back” and “Oil never tell” and “You scratch my back and oil scratch yours.”
  • Aisle → Oil: As in, “Walk down the oil” and “Cleanup on oil three.”
  • All → Oil: As in “Can’t we oil just get along?” and “Oil in a day’s work.” and “Oil part of life’s rich tapestry” and “It’s oil Greek to me.” and “It’s oil downhill form here” and “It’s oil fun and games until someone gets hurt” and “It’s oil gone pear shaped” and “It’s oil good” and “It’s oil good clean fun” and “It’s oil me me me” and “That’s oil well and good, but …” and “Oil kidding aside, …” and “Above oil, …” and “Against oil odds” and “Oil shapes and sizes” and “Oil that glitters is not gold” and “Oil the rage” and “Oil the world’s a stage” and “Oil things being equal” and “Oil thumbs” and “Oil’s well that ends well” and “At oil costs” and “By oil appearances” and “By oil accounts” and “Cover oil your bases” and “From oil corners of the globe” and “I haven’t got oil day” and “In oil honesty” and “In oil likelihood” and “It’s oil the same to me” and “Jack of oil trades” and “I don’t know oil the answers” and “Not oil it’s cracked up to be” and “He’s not oil there” and “Once and for oil” and “Don’t put oil your eggs in one basket” – And there are many more oil puns that can be made along these lines.
  • *oil*: Words which contain the “oil” sound (or similar) can be silly oil puns: spoiled, spoils, soiled, turmoil, toiletries, gargoil (gargoyle), foil, recoil.
  • Recipe: “That’s a recipe for disaster.” and “A recipe for success”.
  • Ingredient: As in “What’s your secret ingredient?”
  • Pep her → Pepper: As in “We need to pepper up with some music before her big race.”
  • Cake: As in “That’s the icing on the cake” and “It’ll be a cake walk” and “That takes the cake” and “It’ll be a piece of cake.” and “Shut your cake hole”.
  • Oven: “A bun in the oven“.
  • Often → Oven: As in “Do you come here oven?” and “Every so oven.”
  • Stuff→ Stove: As in “Don’t sweat the small stove.” and “It’s the stove of legends/dreams.”
  • Walk → Wok: As in “I’ll be back soon, I’m going to wok the dog.” and “It’ll be a wok in the park.” and “You’re woking on thin ice there, bud.”
  • Work → Wok: As in “Wok hard, play hard.” and “It’s a wok in progress.” and “All in a day’s wok.”
  • Fly → Fry: As in “A no-fry zone has been declared by the military.” and “Just a fry on the wall.”
  • Fry: There are a couple of frying-related idioms: “Small fry” and “Bigger fish to fry
  • Cry → Fry: As in “Don’t fry over spilt milk” and “A shoulder to fry on” and “Fry like a baby” and “A far fry from …” and “Fry fowl” and “Battle fry
  • Fried: As in “My brain is fried” and “I’m fried.”
  • Stew: As in “Now, now, don’t get in a in a stew.” and “Stew in your own juices”
  • *stew*: Words that contain the “stew” sound can be silly stew puns: stewpendous, stewardship, stewpid, stewdious, stewpor, stewpidity, costewme, stewdio, astewte, stewdent.
  • It’s too → s’tew: As in “S’tew bad the shoes don’t fit you.”
  • Bruise → Braise: As in “That’ll leave a braise…”
  • Breeze → Braise: As in “I’m fully prepared. The test will be a braise.”
  • Barbell → Parboil: This one’s very silly.
  • Parable →Parboil: As in “The Parboil of the Good Samaritan”.
  • Poor boy’ll → Parboil: As in “The parboil need some bandages for his knee.”
  • Serve: “You got served!” and “If memory serves” and “First come, first served” and “Revenge is a dish best served cold” and “Serve a purpose” and “Serves them right” and “Serve time” and “Serve and protect”
  • Timer: “Old-timer” and “Two-timer“.
  • Season: As in “’tis the season” and “In season” and “Out of season“.
  • Rest our aunt / Rest or rant → Restaurant: These are very specific cooking puns. Good luck finding a context in which they work!
  • Crackpot → Crock pot: A “crackpot” is a crazy person and a “crock pot” is a large, electric slow-cooking pot: “He’s a bit of a crock pot, that one.”
  • Sup → Soup: As in “Soup man, how’s it going?”
  • Sue p* → Soup*: As in “You can’t just soupeople willy nilly.”
  • *sup* → *soup*: If a word contains the “soup” sound we can of course make some silly soup puns: souperb, soupercomputer, soupercilious, souperficial, souperfluous, souperhuman, souperimposed, souperintendent, souperior, souperman, soupernatual, soupersonic, soupervise, soupremely, unsoupervised.
  • Dish: As in”Revenge is a dish best served cold” and “You can dish it out, but you can’t take it” and “Dish the dirt” and “The dish ran away with the spoon”
  • Hot: “All hot and bothered” and “Hot potato” and “Get into hot water” and “Hot and heavy” and “Hot on your heels” and “Hot pursuit” and “Hot-tempered” and “Hot under the collar” and “Hot topic” and “Strike while the iron is hot” and “Hot stuff” and “Full of hot air” and “Hot-wire a car”.
  • Groovy → Gravy: As in “That’s a gravy, smooth-sounding new funk album she has released.”
  • Grease: “Grease the wheels” and “Grease your palm” and “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” and “Grease monkey” and “Elbow grease“.
  • Greece → Greece: As in “The food in Grease is so good.”
  • Grace → Grease: As in “By the grease of god” and “A grease period” and “Saving grease” and “Fall from grease” and “Airs and greases” and “There but for the grease of god go I.” and “Amazing grease“.
  • Grass→ Grease: As in “You could hear the grease growing” and “Keep off the grease” and “A grease-roots movement.” Note: a grassroots movement is one that starts at a local level with the intention of affecting regional, national or international change.
  • Bank etiquette → Banquet-iquette: As in “Waiting patiently in line at the bank is just a part of good banquet-iquette.”
  • Male → Meal: As in “The meal of the species” and “Meal chauvinist pig”.
  • Super → Supper: As in “Supper man” and “Supper-duper”.
  • Buff eh? → Buffet: As in “Look at how much she’s bench pressing! Buffet?”
  • Down → Dine: As in “Never back dine” and “Dine the rabbit hole” and “It all boils dine to …” and “Boogie on dine” and “Bring the house dine” and “Calm dine” and “Dine for the count” and “Dine in the dumps” and “Dine the hatch” and “Dine to earth” and “Hold dine a job” and “It went dine the wrong way” and “Let your hair dine” and “The best – hands dine“.
  • Guessed → Guest: As in “I never would have guest.”
  • Chop: “On the chopping block” and “Chop and change”.
  • Dice: As well as the noun form (“she rolled the dice”), “dice” obviously can mean “chop into small cubes/pieces”.
  • Feel → Peel: As in “You can peel it in your bones.” and “I like the look and peel of the product.” and “I’m trying to get the peel for it.” and “These potato puns are making me peel unwell.” and “I peel a bit put out.” and “I’m peeling my age.” and “Peel the burn”.
  • Appeal → Appeel / A peel: “He’s so appeeling!” and “The court allowed one final a peel.” and “You need to a peel to their sense of honour.” and “I’m trying to appeel to your better judgement” and “They have 48 hours to appeel the decision.”
  • Pillar → Peeler: As in “You are a peeler of strength in our community.”
  • Whisk: “He was quickly whisked off stage” and “The waiter whisked the dish back into the kitchen”.
  • Risk → Whisk: As in “It’s too dangerous. Don’t whisk it. ” and “At your own whisk” and “Calculated whisk” and “You run the whisk of …” and “Whisk life and limb”
  • Curry: “Curry favour” and “Give someone a bit of curry“. Note: to curry favour is to attempt to align oneself with another.
  • Hurry → Curry: As in “I’m in a bit of a curry, can we talk later?” and “Curry up! We need to leave now!” and “Curry up and wait”.
  • Thongs → Tongs: The word “thong” may refer to bikini bottoms or to “flip-flops” depending on where you’re from. The term “tongs” refers to a kitchen tool used to grip and lift things (usually things that you’re frying).
  • Spoon: “We spooned to keep warm” and “She wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth” and “He spoon-feeds his students too much”.
  • Billion → Bouillion: As in “They justly spend bouillions of dollars on the new education reforms.” (Bouillion is a type of broth in French cuisine).
  • Feast: As in, “Bean-feast,” and “Feast your eyes on this,” and “Midnight feast,” and “A feast for the eyes.” Note: A bean-feast is a celebratory meal or party.
  • Fast* → Feast*: As in, “Feast as greased lightning,” and “As feast as his legs could go,” and “Bed and breakfeast,” and “Feast and furious,” and “In the feast lane,” and “Feaster than a speeding bullet,” and “Not so feast!” and “Pull a feast one,” and “Lightning feast.” Note: in the fast lane refers to a highly active and risky lifestyle.
  • Fest* → Feast*: As in, “No problem is so bad it can’t feaster awhile longer,” and “Going to the music feastival?”
  • Feasible → Feast-ible: As in, “I told you, that project isn’t feast-ible.” Note: if something isn’t feasible, then it isn’t possible or practical to achieve.
  • Fist → Feast: As in “I’ll rule with an iron feast.”
  • Serve: As in “Dude, you just got served.” and “My duty is to serve and protect.”
  • Menu: As in “That’s completely off the menu.”
  • Man, you → Menu: As in “Menu need to see someone about that.”
  • Flies → Fries: As in “Time fries when you’re having fun!”
  • Fork: As in “We’ve reached a fork in the road.” (There’s also an obvious swear word pun that can be made with fork.)
  • Season → Seasoning: As in “Seasoning’s greetings!” and “For everything, there is a seasoning.”
  • Take out→ Take-out: As in “I had to take-out my phone to check the time.” and “I had to take-out a loan just to pay the bill!”
  • Toast: As well as referring to cooked bread, this term can also refer to the raising of glasses at a gathering to honour something: “Let’s call a toast.” It also has a slang usage: “You are toast.” Meaning “I’m going to beat you” at some competition (or physically).
  • Coarse → Course: As in “Please don’t pun during dinner, Gerald. It’s very course humour.”
  • Course: As in “Is there a university course on cooking puns?” (“Course” can refers to a particular stage of a multi-stage meal.)
  • Thrilled → Grilled: As in “He was so grilled to see you!” and “I’m grilled to bits!”
  • Creep → Crepe: As in “That’s a bit crepey, man.” and “Yep, he’s a bit of a crepe.”
  • Source → Sauce: As in “That’s an unreliable sauce.” and “You should cite some primary sauces.”
  • Great → Grate: As in “Oh grate! Another food pun.” and “Grate minds think alike.”
  • Branch → Brunch: As in “Shall we call a truce? I’m extending an olive brunch here.” and “We’re brunching out into other industries.”
  • Loaf: As in “Stop loafing around! Get up and do something!” (To “loaf” is to waste time and laze about).
  • Come → Crumb: As in “Crumb to think of it…” and “Crumb to your senses” and “Crumb again?” and “Crumb hell or high water.” and “Crumb out of your shell” and “Crumb rain or shine” and “Do you crumb here often?” and “An idea whose time has crumb.” and “The best is yet to crumb.” and “What has crumb over you?”
  • Feed: As in “You’re just feeding people misinformation.”
  • Order: “Law and order.” and “These restaurant puns are out of order.”
  • In jest → Ingest: As in “Many a true word is spoken ingest.”
  • Done → Dine: As in “When all is said and dine” and “Dine and dusted.”
  • Din* → Dine*: If a word begins with the “dine” sound, we can make a dinner pun: dineosaur, dineamically, dineamite.
  • Sup: This term has a few traditional meaning related to food, including “to eat dinner/supper”, but it also has the obvious slang meaning “What’s up?” Thus we can make a sneaky supper pun, but it’d be very corny and heavily dependent on context: Person1: “‘Sup?” Person2: “What? Now? It’s only 3pm!”
  • Scoff: This term refers to eating greedily or to talking to someone in a mean and “mocking” manner. Example: “Are you scoffing at my cooking puns?”
  • Sue p* → Soup*: As in “You can’t just soupeople willy nilly.”
  • *sup* → *soup*: If a word contains the “soup” sound we can of course make some silly soup puns: souperb, soupercomputer, soupercilious, souperficial, souperfluous, souperhuman, souperimposed, souperintendent, souperior, souperman, soupernatual, soupersonic, soupervise, soupremely, unsoupervised.
  • Greedy ent* → ‘gredient: This one’s a bit of a stretch! Examples: “Those ‘gredient-erprising bastards!” and “The ‘gredient-titled youngers.”
  • Salty: Other than the obvious cooking-related definition, this term has several slang definitions including “being upset/angry”.
  • Assault → A salt: As in “He was charged with a salt with a deadly weapon.”
  • It → Eat: As in “Eat is not quite as eat seems.” and “Eat’s not the first time I’ve said this, but …”
  • *eat*: Any word that contains the “eat” sound (or similar) can obviously be made into a silly eating pun: cheating, beatle, athleat, aneatime (anytime), compleat, conceated, deceatful, deleat, discreat, eleat (elite), graffeati, fleat (fleet),  featus, heartbeat, Eatalian (Italian), greating (greeting), Peater (Peter), preatending, repeatedly, reatirement, streat, sweatheart, preatentious.
  • Eat: As in, “A bite to eat,” and “All you can eat,” and “Bet you can’t just eat one,” and “Eat a balanced diet,” and “Eat and run,” and “Eat dirt,” and “Eat humble pie,” and “Eat like a bird,” and “Eat my dust,” and “Eat someone alive,” and “Eat to live, rather than live to eat,” and “Eat your words,” and “Eaten up with jealousy,” and “Eating for two,” and “Good enough to eat,” and “Let them eat cake,” and “Man eater,” and “I’ll eat my hat.” Note: to eat your words is to regret or retract a previous statement.
  • *eet* → *eat*: Change the “eet” in certain words to “eat” – sheat (sheet), streat (street), sweat (sweet), discreat (discreet), feat (feet), fleat (fleet), sleat (sleet), beatle (beetle), teath (teeth).
  • *eat*: Use words with an “eat” sound – athl-eat (athlete), burreato, compl-eat (complete), comp-eat (compete), concr-eat (concrete), el-eat (elite), eat-ernal (eternal), incogneato, margareata, mosqeato (mosquito), pet-eat (petite).
  • Feed: As in, “Bite the hand that feeds you,” and “Bottom feeder,” and “Feed your mind,” and “Feeding frenzy.”
  • Bowl: As in “I was completely bowled over.”
  • Stew: This term can also refer to being in a state of anxiety and agitation. As in “Stew in one’s own juices.” and “I was in a bit of a stew.”
  • Carry → Curry: As in “I’m going as fast as my legs can curry me!” and “Keep calm and curry on.”
  • Even → Oven: As in “Oven my little brother knows that!” and “That’s not oven fair.”
  • Piece of → Pizza: As in “You want a pizza me?” and “That’s a pizza cake.” and “They all want a pizza the action.” and “That’s a fine pizza ass.” and “That’s a pizza piss.” and “He’s a nasty pizza work.” and “How long is a pizza string?” and “I’ll give him a pizza my mind!” and “You’re a real pizza work.” and “Pizza the pie”.
  • How → Chow: As in “Chow could you do this to me?” and “Chow are you feeling?”
  • Pass the → Pasta: As in “Can you pasta sauce please?”
  • Past her → Pasta: As in “I walked right pasta without realising.”
  • Passed away → Pasta way: As in “She pasta way last night.”
  • Flower → Flour: As in “Remember to stop and smell the flours.”
  • Adore → Adough: “I adough you.”
  • Don’t → Doughn’t: As in “Doughn’t fall for it.”
  • Though → Dough: As in “You look as dough you’ve seen a ghost!”
  • Hour → Flour: As in “We could go on for flours.” and “The plane leaves in one flour.” and “I’m on a flourly wage.”
  • Make → Bake: As in “I can’t bake head or tail of it.” and “Enough to bake you sick.” and “Bake believe” and “It’ll bake a world of difference.” and “Just trying to bake ends meet.” and “Bake a name for yourself.”
  • Making → Baking: As in “A legend in the bakin’” and “This is history in the baking” and “You’re baking a fool of yourself.”
  • Floor → Flour: As in “A cooking pun battle? I’ll mop the flour with you.”
  • Heard → Herb: As in “I herb it on the grape vine.” and “You herb it here first.” and “You could have herb a pin drop.”
  • Curb → Herb: As in “Herb your enthusiasm.” and “Drive up onto the herb.”
  • Spies → Spice: As in “I think I’m being followed by Indian spice.”
  • A prawn → Apron
  • Nice → Knife: As in “Have you met the chef? She’s a knife person.”
  • Least→ Yeast: As in “Last, but not yeast.” and “Yeast common denominator.” and “It’s the yeast I could do.”
  • East→ Yeast: As in “I’m heading over yeast for a holiday.”

Cooking-Related Words

There are many more puns to be made than could be documented in this Punpedia entry, and so we’ve compiled a list of cooking-related concepts for you to use when creating your own puns. If you come up with a new pun, please share it in the comments!

chef, bake, boil, roast, grill, oven, fry, stew, braise, overcook, parboil, stove, stove-top, kitchen, microwave, poach, blanch, cook up, broil, simmer, cooker, cook, griddle, chargrill, skillet, stir fry, baste, caramelize, marinade, eat, pot, pan, utensil, burner, burn, undercook, broth, rice, pasta, heat, barbecue, bbq, fire, culinary, steam, nuke, zap, frypan, onions, potatoes, pressure cooker, condiment, oil, baker, bread, recipe, ingredients, brochette, salt, salty, pepper, sugar, cake, dough, beans, serve, serving, vegetables, range hood, timer, spatula, raw, pastry, seasoning, restaurant, crock pot, ratatouille, soup, food, dish, dishes, cookbook, hot plate, hot, sizzle, savory, dinner, saucepan, cuisine, basil, gravy, hibachi, brazier, oregano, garlic, rosemary, teflon, grease, drizzle, banquet, meal, supper, feast, buffet, dine, menu, table, guests, spaghetti, lasagna, knife, chop, dice, al dente, batter, beat, blend, dissolve, grate, peel, puree, whip, stir, sauté, whisk, bowl, mix, fork, anglaise, plate, bouillion, spoon, chiffonnade, feed, toast, chopping board, scoop, tongs, can opener, sieve, chop sticks, measuring cups, wok, sauce, herbs, spices, curry, crumb, crumbs, apron, oven mitt, platter, cutlery.

Did this Punpedia entry help you?

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Vegetable Puns

Welcome to the Punpedia entry on vegetable puns, salad puns and related topics! 🍅🍆🌽🍄 Whether you’re looking for a name for your veggie patch, in a veg pun battle with your friend, trying to come up with some cute vegetable pickup lines, or just want to stock up on some vegetable word play for future use, I hope this entry serves you well.

As well as covering leafy vegetables (lettuce, cabbage, kale), roots, legumes and other vegetable-like foods are covered too, so you’ll see some potato puns, corn puns, onion puns, pumpkin puns, and all sorts of others based around those general topics.

You might also like to visit the Punpedia entries on food puns, fruit puns, cooking puns, corn puns and potato puns.

Vegetable Puns List

Each item in this list describes a pun, or a set of veggie puns which can be made by applying a rule. If you know of any puns about vegetables that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page!

  • Call → Kale: As in “Above and beyond the kale of duty.” and “His authenticity was kaled into question.” and “Kale it quits.” and “Kale the shots.” and “Kale of the wild.” and “Kale to action.” and “A judgement kale.” and “That was a close kale.” and “Wake-up kale“.
  • Gale → Kale: As in “It’s blowing a kale out here!” and “I slept well despite the howling kales outside.”
  • Keel → Kale: As in “Keep an even kale.” and “A yacht’s kale keeps it upright.”
  • Solid → Salad: As in “Salad gold.” and “As salad as rock.” and “Rock salad.” and “Make sure you’ve built a salad foundation.”
  • Sullied → Salad: To be “sullied” is to be defiled, tainted, stained or spoiled. Example: “The politician’s good name was salad by the media after the allegations were confirmed.” This one’s is a bit of a stretch!
  • Salah → Salad: The term “salah” describes the act of worship (5 times a day) in the Islamic religion. Example: “Salad is recommended 5 times a day.”
  • Salary → Celery: As in “I didn’t take the job. The celery was too low.”
  • Leak → Leek: As in “The information was leeked and a huge media storm erupted.” and “I’m just going to take a leek.” and “Be careful with that shopping bag! There’s a leek in it.” and “The dam sprung a leek.”
  • Leg → Leek: As in “It cost me an arm and a leek.” and “Shake a leek!” and “Without a leek to stand on” and “Haha just pulling your leek :)”
  • Lick → Leek: As in “Leek your lips.” and “Stand up for yourself. Don’t leek his boots.” and “Leek your wounds.”
  • Parcel → Parsley: As in “Let’s play pass the parsley!”
  • Leg room → Legume: As in “I always pay a little extra for the aeroplane seats with more legume.”
  • Choke → Artichoke: This is a corny one: “I almost artichoked on my food when she told me.” and “She was artichoked by emotion as she gave her speech at the funeral.”
  • Bumpkin → Pumpkin: As in “I’m a bit of a country pumpkin, but I’m getting used to the city.”
  • Heard → Herb: As in “I herb it on the grape vine.” and “You herb it here first.” and “You could have herb a pin drop.”
  • Curb → Herb: As in “Herb your enthusiasm.” and “Drive up onto the herb.”
  • *erb* → *herb*: If a word contains the “herb” sound (or similar) a cringe-worthy herb pun can sometimes be made: advherb, distherbance, distherbingly, exacherbate, aftherburner, countherbalance, hypherbole, knickherbockers, mastherbate, nonvherbal, refherbishment, rivherbankherbanization, vherbalize.
  • Plant: This can also mean “place in a fixed or specified position”, and “a place where an industrial or manufacturing process takes place”. Examples: “She planted herself squarely in front of him” and “The new automobile manufacturing plant is the biggest in the country.”
  • Planned → Plant: As in “I had plant to get there by 8pm” and “Do you have anything plant?”
  • Bland → Plant: As in “The hospital food was flavourless and plant as usual.” and “He gave a weak, plant smile.” and “It tastes a little plant. More herbs?”
  • Let us → Lettuce: As in “Lettuce eat!” and “Lettuce celebrate!”
  • Led us → Lettuce: As in “You’ve lettuce down the wrong path!” and “But it lettuce to the wrong conclusion.”
  • It’s/Its → Oat’s/Oats: As in “Oat’s about time!” and “Look at oats cute little face!”
  • Maze → Maize: As in “It’s a complicated maize to navigate.”
  • Mace → Maize: Another term for “pepper spray” is “mace”. It can also refer to a medieval spiked club weapon.
  •  Amazing→ Amaizing: As in “Truely amaizing.” and “Amaizing Grace.” and “I’m amaized!” and “To my utter amaizement …” (Maize is another name for corn)
  • *mise → *maize: As in, minimaize (minimise), surmaize (surmise), victimaize (victimise), compromaize (compromise), customaize (customise), maximaize (maximise).
  • Baggage → Cabbage: This one is lovely and corny: “I’m carrying around a lot of emotional cabbage.” or “Please place personal items in the overhead cabbage compartment.”
  • Until → Lentil: As in “It ain’t over lentil it’s over!” and “It’s all fun and games lentil someone gets hurt.”
  • Care at → Carrot: As in “I don’t carrot all.”
  • Not re-enter → Nutrient-er: As in “You should nutrient-er the discussion after that terrible contribution.”
  • Beat → Beet: As in “Let’s not beet around the bush.” and “If you leave now, you’ll beet the rush.” and “Can you hear my heartbeet?” and “You deserve a beeting for that.” and “Damn, these are some fine beets you’re playing!” and “There’s always deadbeets hanging around that park at night.” and “He’s not crazy – just a little offbeet.” and “We pride ourselves in our unbeetable service.” and “I’m feeling fairly upbeet today :)” and “Diabeetes is a pun, but it’s insensitive.”
  • Between → Beetween: As in “Beetween you and me …” and “With your tail beetween your legs.” and “Read beetween the lines.” and “Beetween a rock and a hard place.”
  • Bead → Beet: As in “Tiny round beets are dangerous for children.”
  • Repeat → Rebeet: As in “I’m not going to rebeet myself.” and “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to rebeet it.” and “I warned him rebeetedly.”
  • Pizza → Beet-za: As in “I always buy my beetzas from the same beetzaria.”
  • *pit* → *beet*: If a word contains the “pit” sound, a terrible beet pun can sometimes be made: cabeetal city, hosbeetalisation, palbeetations, abeetizing, precibeetation, serendibeetous, inhosbeetable.
  • Pete → Beet: As in “His name is beet.”
  • Peed → Beet: This one is a stretch: “I laughed so hard I nearly beet my pants.”
  • Corny: As in “Very corny vegetable puns”
  • Con* → Corn*: Very corny corn puns can be made with some words that start with the “con” sound (or similar): corntract, corncern, corntain, cornference, corntext, corncerned, corntrast, cornfidence, corndition, corntinue, cornsider, corntry, cornclusion, cornduct, cornversation, cornstruction, cornflict, corntribution, cornsent, cornsist, cornclude, cornservation, corntest, cornception, cornsequences, corsult, corncert, cornventional, corncrete, corntinent, cornfine, cornsistantly, cornstitutional, cornvey, cornsiderably, cornsitituent, corntempt, corncede, cornfess, cornfrontation, corngregation, corntroversial, cornsensus, cornsultancy, cornquest, cornvicted, corngratulate. See this list for more.
  • Have a car though → Avocado: As in “I don’t ‘avocado.”
  • Her before → Herbivore: As in “I met herbivore at the gym.”
  • Turn up → Turnip: As in “Turnip the music!” and “It’ll turnip somewhere.”
  • Been → Bean: As in “We’ve all bean there.” and “You know, I’ve bean thinking…” and “Bean there, done that.” and “He’s a has-bean.” and “The die has bean cast.” and “I’ve bean had.” and “She’s bean in the wars lately.”
  • Unbeknown(st) →Unbeanown(st): As in “Unbeanownst to me, she made some enquiries.”
  • *peen* →*bean*: If a word contains the “peen” sound we can make some silly bean puns: Phillibeano (Phillipino), beanalize (penalize), unhappbeaness (unhappiness), subbeana (subpoena). Note: a subpoena is a witness summon.
  • Enough →Beanough: As in “Beanough is beanough.” and “Beanough to make you sick.”
  • Enormous →Beanormous: As in “Your vegetable garden is beanormous!”
  • Beam → Bean: As in “Bean me up, Scotty!” and “Tractor bean.” and “Balancing bean.”
  • Bin → Bean: As in “It was in the bargain bean – 30% off!” and “Please put your rubbish in the bean.”
  • Pin → Bean: This one’s a bit of a stretch. Examples: “Bean the tail on the donkey.”
  • Deal → Dill: As in “What’s the big dill?” and “I’m kind of a big dill around here.” (“Dill” is a herb, and is often short for dill-pickle – a cucumber that has been preserved and given the flavour of the dill herb)
  • Pickle: “We’re in a bit of a pickle here.”
  • Much room → Mushroom: “It’s only a little elevator, there isn’t mushroom in here.”
  • Wheat: As in, “Separate the wheat from the chaff.” Note: to separate the wheat from the chaff is to separate the valuable from the worthless.
  • Wait → Wheat: As in “Wheat a second…” and “I am lying in wheat.”
  • White → Wheat: As in, “A wheater shade of pale,” and “A wheat knight,” and “Wheat as a ghost,” and “Wheat as a sheet,” and “Great wheat shark,” and “Like wheat on rice,” and “Little wheat lie,” and “Men in wheat coats,” and “Not everything is black and wheat,” and “Wheat water rafting.” Note: like white on rice refers to a very close situation.
  • Sweet → Swheat: As in, “Home swheat home,” and “Swheat dreams,” and “Swheat nothings,” and “A swheat tooth,” and “Swheaten the pot,” and “Swheaten the deal,” and “Swheatheart,” and “Take the bitter with the swheat,” and “Short but swheat.”
  • Sweat → Swheat: As in, “Blood, swheat and tears,” and “Beads of swheat,” and “Break out in a cold swheat,” and “Don’t swheat it,” and “Running with swheat,” and “My new swheater,” and “Swheating bullets,” and “Swheat it out.”
  • Weight → Wheat: As in, “Pull your wheat,” and “Punching above your wheat,” and “Throw your wheat around,” and “Watch your wheat,” and “A wheat off my mind,” and “Worth your wheat in gold,” and “A dead wheat.”
  • *ate* → *wheat*: As in, evacu-wheat (evacuate), fluctu-wheat (fluctuate), and gradu-wheat (graduate).
  • What → Wheat: As in “Wheatever, man.” and “Wheat are you up to today?”
  • We t* → Wheat: As in “Wheat talked about this last night.” and “Wheat took our time.”
  • We’d → Wheat: As in “Wheat love for you to join us!”
  • Please → Peas: As in “Do as you peas.” and “Pretty peas?”
  • Pee → Pea: As in “Brb, really need to pea.”
  • Peace → Peas: As in “World peas.” and “Inner peas” and “Peas of mind” and “Rest in peas.” and “War and Peas” and “Keep the peas” and “Peas be with you”
  • Piece → Peas: As in “Peas by peas” and “Peas of mind” and “Peas of cake” and “Real peas of work” and “Peas of pie” and “Real peas of work” and “Speak your peas” and “How long is a peas of string?”
  • *peas*: There are a few words with the “peas” sound in them: centerpeas (centerpiece), earpeas (earpiece), Greenpeas (Greenpeace), masterpeas (masterpiece), mouthpeas (mouthpiece), peasfully, peaskeepers, peastime, Peasa (Pisa), timepeas (timepiece).
  • *pea*: If a word contains the “pea” sound, you can make a terrible pea pun by adjusting the spelling and emphasising the “pea” part: appealing, appease, bumpea (bumpy), centipeade, champeaon, champeaonship, compeate, copearight (copyright), creepea (creepy), dopea (dopey), encyclopeadia, entropea, escapea, espeaonage, Ethiopean, Europeaan, expeadient, frumpea, grumpea, hippea, happea, happeaest, homosapean, impead, loudspeaker, peacock, peafowl, peak, peadiatric, peanalize, philipeano, peano (piano), peaqued, recipeas, recipeantsm repeal, repeat, scorpeaon, speacies, peaple (people), speach, speaker, speachless, therapea.
  • Snap a piece → Snap a peas: This plays on “snap peas” – a very common type of pea: “Can you snap a peas off for me peas (please)?”
  • Remain → Romaine: “Romaine” is a type of lettuce. Examples: “Everyone romaine calm.” and “It romaines to be seen.”
  • To my toes → Tomatoes: As in “I got a shiver from my head tomatoes.”
  • Tomorrow → Tomato: As in “Here today, gone tomato.”
  • Tube of → Tuber: As in “Can I please purchase a tuber hand cream?”
  • All up in your → Jalapeño: As in “Jalapeño business.” and “Jalapeño grill.”
  • Serial → Cereal: As in “There’s a cereal killer on the loose.”
  • Surreal → Cereal: As in “The view from the summit was cereal.” and “I love impressionism and cereal art.”
  • Grain: As in “I’m going to go against the grain here and say …” and “There’s a grain of truth in what he’s saying.” and “I’d take it with a grain of salt.”
  • Grainy: Other than referring to grain (the crop food, of course), this can refer to a texture or to a low resolution photograph: “Your profile picture is a bit grainy.”
  • Ingrained: As in “It was ingrained in me from a young age.”
  • Again → A grain: As in “Come a grain?” and “Never a grain.” and “Time and time a grain.” and “Now and a grain.”
  • Rain → Grain: As in, “Right as grain,” and “Chasing grainbows,” and “Come grain or shine,” and “Grain on my parade,” and “Make it grain,” and “Graindrops keep falling on my head,” and “Graining cats and dogs,” and “Singin’ in the grain,” and “Somewhere over the grainbow,” and “Spitting with grain.” Notes: to chase rainbows is to go after unrealistic things. To rain on someone’s parade is to ruin a happy moment for them.
  • Grey → Grain: As in, “Fifty shades of grain,” and “A grain area,” and “Grain is the new black,” and “Grain matter,” and “Shades of grain.” Note: shades of grey refers to the complexity of a situation.
  • Brain → Grain: As in, “All brawn and no grains,” and “Beat your grains out,” and “Grain dead,” and “Grain fart,” and “Grain teaser,” and “Grain wave,” and “Grainstorming session,” and “Got it on the grain,” and “Hare grained,” and “A no-grainer,” and “Pick your grains,” and “Rack your grains,” and “It’s not grain surgery.”
  • Grind → Grain-d: As in, “Bump and grain-d,” and “Daily grain-d,” and “Grain-d down,” and “Grain-d to a halt,” and “Nose to the grain-dstone,” and “Don’t like the bastards grain-d you down.” Note: to have your nose to the grindstone is to work hard.
  • Gain → Grain: As in, “Capital grains,” and “Grain an advantage,” and “Ill-gotten grains,” and “No pain, no grain,” and “Nothing ventured, nothing grained.” Note: a capital gain is a profit from the sale of a capital asset (like stock or real estate).
  • *gain* → *grain*: As in, “Agrainst all odds,” and “Agrainst the clock,” and “Bar-grain basement,” and “Come a-grain?” and “A fool’s bar-grain,” and “Here we go a-grain,” and “More than you bar-grained for,” and “Now and a-grain,” and “A race agrainst time,” and “You can say that a-grain,” and “Back agrainst the wall.”
  • *ray* → *grain*: Change the “ray” sound in some words to “grain”: grain-ciously (graciously), engrainve (engrave), grain-dation (gradation), grain-dient (gradient), immi-grain-tion (immigration), ingrain-dient (ingredient).
  • I love → Olive: As in “Olive you so much!” and “Olive silly food puns!”
  • Or live → Olive: As in “Live like a king olive on a shoe string.”.
  • All of → Olive: As in “Sending olive my love to your family.”
  • Time → Thyme: As in “All in good thyme.” and “Better luck next thyme.” and “We just need to buy some thyme.”
  • Platter → Plait her: “I love to platter hair – it’s therapeutic.”
  • Dip: As in “Take a dip” and “Dip your toe in.” (Playing on the “crackers and dip” form of “dip”)
  • I am → I yam: As in “I yam who I yam.”
  • Yankee → Yamkee: As in “The Newyork Yamkees are up 3 points!”
  • Mint: “All of the items are mint condition.”
  • Mean’t → Mint: As in “We were just mint to be.” and “You weren’t mint to eat it!”
  • *ment → *mint: Words that end in “ment” can be simple cheesy “mint” puns: governmint, developmint, momint, managemint, departmint, agreemint, environmint, investmint, employmint, equiptmint, commint, assessmint, requiremint, improvemint, appointmint, settlemint, experimint, establishmint, implemint, announcemint, punishmint, measuremint, dissapointmint, advertisemint, encouragemint, embarrassmint, segmint, argumint, pigmint, tormint, paymint, ornamint, sedamint, vehemint, shipmint, treatmint, statemint, merrimint. See this list for more.
  • Clothes → Cloves: As in “I’m only half-cloved” and “The emperor’s new cloves.”
  • Love → Clove: As in “I clove you so much!” and “Clove is in the air.”
  • Garret → Carrot: A “garret” is an attic, loft or roof space.
  • Root: As in “I’m rooting for you!” and “Money is the root of all evil.” (The term “root” is also a synonym for sexual intercourse in some countries/regions)
  • Rude → Root: As in “A root awakening.” and “He has no manners – very root.”
  • Green: This can obviously refer to the colour, but it can also refer to someone who is inexperienced or naive: “A green recruit fresh from college.”
  • Funnel → Fennel: “Fennel” is a herb. Example: “They were all fenneled into the same career by the specialist college.”
  • Final → Fennel: As in “It’s the fennel count down.” and “You have the fennel say.” and “It’s my fennel offer.”
  • Squash: As in “Don’t squash the poor bug!” and “We need to squash the competition.”
  • Roo bar → Rhubarb: In Australia a car’s “bullbar” is often called a “roo bar” (“roo” is short for “kangaroo”).
  • Saw → Seed: The past tense form of “see” is of course “saw”, but we can be make a silly seed pun if we “conjugate” “see” like we normally do with regular verbs: “seed”. Examples:  “I came, I seed, I conquered.”
  • Seedy: This is a describing word for someone or something that is morally questionable, foul, or dirty. Examples: “So many seedy people hanging around that place.”
  • Seed: As in “But it planted a seed of hope.” and “We got more seed capital from investors.”
  • Properly → Broccoli: This one’s a stretch! Example: “If you’re going to do it at all, you might as well do it broccoli.”
  • Leave → Leaf: As in “Absent without leaf.” and “Leaf no stone unturned” and “Leaf your options open.” and “Love them and leaf them.” and “That’s going to leaf a mark!” and “I’m leafing tomorrow morning.”
  • Love → Leaf: As in “I leaf you so much!” and “Leaf is in the air.”
  • Laugh → Leaf: As in “Leaf all the way to the bank.” and “Leaf in your face.” and “Leaf your head off.”
  • Leaves: As in “She leaves without a trace.”
  • So → Soy: This simple soy pun works best if the word after “so” begins with a “y”, but it still works without it. Examples: “Soy you think you can dance?” and “It’s soy sad.” and “There’s only soy much you can do.”
  • Say → Soy: As in “What did you just soy?” and “To have the final soy.” and “Needless to soy, …” and “Never soy never.”
  • Soil → Soyl: As in “That tofu pun was hilarious – I almost soyled my pants.” and “Fertile soyl.”
  • *soy*: Other words containing the “soy” sound can also be soy puns: ellipsoyd (ellipsoid), sinusoydally (sinusoidally).
  • So you been → Soya bean: As in “Soya bean up to much lately?”
  • Corn → Can: As in “Corn’t we all just get along?” and “Appearances corn be deceptive.” and “Bit off more than you corn chew.” and “Corn you believe it?” and “You corn count on me.”
  • Gone → Corn: As in “Here today, corn tomorrow.” and “It’s all corn pear-shaped.” and “Corn, but not forgotten.”
  • Pulse: This term can refer to a couple of different things. First, the pulse of your veins caused by your heart-beat, or more generally, any short burst or vibration (e.g. of sound, electricity, etc.). Second, it is a synonym of “legume” which refers to produce like chickpeas, lentils, and beans.
  • But any → Botany: As in “You expect me to be impressed, botany body can do that.”
  • Culture → Agriculture: A very corny one: “I was feeling homesick and experiencing agriculture shock.”
  • Too bad → Tuberd: As in “You want some? Tuberd, it’s all mine.” and “Tuberd the shoes don’t fit you.”
  • *uber*: Words that contain the “uber” sound (or similar) can sometimes be potato puns: extuberant (exuberant), tuberis (hubris), protuberances, tuberty (puberty).
  • Guarding → Garden: As in “A soldier was garden the entry.” and “The manager was always garden his reputation by blaming others.”
  • Esteemed → E-steamed: As in “Many of these qualities are e-steamed by managers.” and “Contemporary Japanese ceramics are highly e-steamed.”
  • Raw: As in “That was a raw deal.” (a bad deal)
  • Brussels: It’s the name of a region in Belgium, but is also well known as part of the phrase “Brussels sprout” which is a well known vegetable which likely originated there.
  • She weed→ Seaweed: As in “I just got a new pet rabbit and seaweed on my carpet.”
  • Produce: When the emphasis is on the “prod” part of this word, it refers to things that have been grown on a farm. You might be able to make vegetable puns with this in the right context.
  • Crop: As in “If you crop the photo it’ll look better.” and “The cream of the crop.” and “I always ask the hairdresser for a crop.”
  • Crop up: To “crop up” means to appear unexpectedly and/or suddenly, and thus could be a pun on “crop” which is a cultivated grain, fruit or vegetable.
  • Crap → Crop: As in, “A load of crop,” and “Bunch of crop,” and “Cut the crop,” and “The cropper,” and “Full of crop,” and “Do bears crop in the woods?” and “Don’t crop where you eat,” and “A piece of crop,” and “You scared the crop out of me.”
  • Scrap* → S-crop*: As in, “S-crop iron,” and “Bow and s-crope,” and “S-crope along,” and “S-crope the bottom of the barrel,” and “S-crope through,” and “S-crope together,” and “Table s-crops.”
  • Cop → Crop: As in, “Crop an attitude,” and “Crop out,” and “Crop shop,” and “It’s a fair crop,” and “Undercover crop,” and “Crop onto something,” and “A dirty crop.” Notes: to cop an attitude is to behave rudely. A fair cop is when you acknowledge that you’ve been caught doing wrong.
  • *cop* → *crop*: As in, “Under the microscrope,” and “Scrope out,” and “Cropycat,” and “Carbon cropy.”
  • *crop*: Emphasise the “crop” in certain words to make some corny Thanksgiving puns: acrophobia, microphone, acropolis and outcrop. Notes: Acrophobia is an extreme and irrational fear of heights. An acropolis is a citadel.
  • Cartoon → Cardoon: This is thistle of the sunflower family that is often called an “Artichoke thistle”. It has edible leaves and roots. Example: “Disney has some of the most famous cardoons in the world.”
  • Okay→ Okra: As in “Are you feeling okra?” (Terrible! 😀 By the way, okra is a plant the has edible green pods)
  • Rocket: As well as the obvious definition, “rocket” refers to a type of leafy salad vegetable.
  • Law → Slaw: As in “Slaw and order.” and “I am a slaw abiding citizen.” and “The slaw of diminishing returns.” and “The slaw of the jungle.” You could also use “slaw” to replace “it’s law” – perhaps add a preceding apostrophe like so: ‘slaw
  • A thousand islands: “Thousand Island” is a popular salad dressing. If you can somehow work “thousand island” into your prose, you’ve got yourself a salad pun.
  • Dressing: As in “Oh stop dressing it up!” and “Are you dressing up for Halloween?”
  • Sprout: This is a general term for “to emerge and grow rapidly”, but has obvious vegetable-based connotations (and probably origins). Example: “He thought he’d sprout wings and fly.”
  • Iceberg: A popular type of lettuce, and also (obviously) a big chunk of ice floating in the ocean.
  • Fresh: This is a term that is strongly associated with vegetables and so could probably qualify as a vegetable pun if used in the right context (though it’s a bit of a stretch!). Phrases like “a fresh start” and “a fresh pair of eyes” may be useful.
  • Bulb: As in “Can you change that light bulb for me?”
  • Stalk: “The spy stalked the target for days before getting enough intel.”
  • Pretty good → Rad-ish: When something is “rad” it’s awesome, cool or really good. If something is “rad-ish” then it’s just pretty good (and not overly so).

Vegetable-Related Phrases

Common phrases, idioms and cliches which are related to vegetables can be used for some subtle and witty word play. Here is a list of the vegetable themed phrases that we’ve found so far:

  • as easy as shelling peas
  • as red as beetroot
  • carrot and stick
  • cauliflower ear
  • cool beans
  • cool as a cucumber
  • couch potato
  • sofa spud
  • dangle the carrot
  • (to play) hot potato
  • fine words butter no parsnips
  • full of beans
  • I yam what I yam
  • sprout wings and fly
  • spill the beans
  • know your onions
  • not worth a hill of beans
  • cultivate your garden
  • it ain’t rocket science
  • in a pickle
  • keep your eyes peeled
  • like two peas in a pod
  • he has a green thumb
  • small potatoes
  • separate the wheat from the chaff
  • take a leaf out of my book
  • turn over a new leaf
  • the cream of the crop
  • whatever tickles your pickle
  • you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip
  • plant a seed of doubt
  • plant the seed
  • seed money / seed capital / seed round
  • the grass is always greener on the other side

Vegetable-Related Words

There are many more puns to be made than could be documented in this Punpedia entry, and so we’ve compiled a list of vegetable-related concepts for you to use when creating your own puns. If you come up with a new pun, please share it in the comments!

tomato, lettuce, beet, plant, onion, herb, spinach, pumpkin, potato, veggie, vegan, vegetarian, artichoke, cardoon, veg, legume, okra, cucumber, celery, asparagus, eggplant, salad, yam, bamboo shoot, bean, casava, produce, garlic, leek, mushroom, cabbage, radish, carrot, root vegetable, root, greens, fennel, squash, rhubarb, plantain, seed, turnip, chicory, kale, broccoli, leafy, leaf, leafy vegetable, soy, corn, avocado, sweet potato, cauliflower, herbal, soya bean, pulse, watercress, pea, parsnip, botany, agriculture,  tuber, beans, zucchini, garden, maize, cuisine, steamed, organic, wheat, cereals, grains, vegetation, capsicum, raw, soybean, tofu, onions, brussel sprouts, seaweed, beetroot, thyme, lentil, pea pod, runner bean, caesar salad, coleslaw, salad bar, bell pepper, croutons, bean salad, shallot, pickle, peel, aubergine, courgette, salsify, vegetative, green bean, snap peas, broad bean, salad dressing, slaw, rocket, waldorf salad, ranch dressing, thousand island dressing, chicory, greek salad, lemon grass, spring onion, cherry tomato, celtuce, cos lettuce, sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, alfalfa, arugula, butterhead lettuce, head lettuce, iceberg lettuce, chard, parsley, cassava, pickled, green, healthy, vitamins, fibre, fresh, green pepper, acorn squash, basil, black-eyed peas, capers, celeriac, chick peas, chinese cabbage, collard greens, cress, daikon, dandelion greens, endive, fava bean, ginger, gourd, chilli peppers, jicama, kohlrabi, lima bean, mung bean, mustard greens, olive, pattypan squash, peppers, radiccho, rutabaga, scallion, sorrel, spuds, succotash, string bean, swiss chard, taro, tomatillo, vegetable, wasabi, water chestnut, herbaceous, irrigation, bulb, leaves, nature, nutrition, nutrient, vegetable patch, cabbage patch, stalk, jalapeno, crop, clove.

Vegetable Jokes

If you’re looking for some very corny vegetable jokes, you’ve come to the right place. All of these one-liner-style vegetable jokes use puns in their punchline. Some are phonetic puns, others are based on a slang phrase or cliche related to vegetables.

  • Why did the cucumber blush? – Because it saw the salad dressing!
  • What do you call an angry pea? – Grump-pea.
  • Why did the potatoes argue? – Because they couldn’t see eye-to-eye.
  • How did the farmer fix his jeans? – With a cabbage patch!
  • Why did the tomato get embarrassed? – Because it saw the chick pea.
  • Which vegetable do Sailors ban from their ships? – Leeks.
  • What did the lettuce say to the celery? – Quit stalking me!
  • What is small, red and whispers? – A hoarse raddish.
  • What is green and goes to summer camp? – A Brussel scout!
  • What do root vegetables wear to bed? – Yammies!
  • What do you call a retired vegetable? – A has-bean.
  • When is a vegetable too fresh? – When he insults the farmer.
  • Why do fungi have to pay double bus fares? – Because they take up too mushroom!
  • What’s the difference between broccoli and boogers? – Kids don’t eat broccoli.
  • Why shouldn’t you tell secrets in a cornfield? – There are too many ears.
  • What’s a vegetable’s favourite martial art? – Carot-e!
  • What’s the coolest vegetable? – A rad-ish!
  • Why did the chef quit? – They cut his celery.
  • What did the sweet potato say to the pumpkin? – I yam what I yam.
  • What does a nosey pepper do? – Gets jalapeno business!
  • How do you fix a broken tomato? – Tomato paste.

Vegetable Pun Images

Below is a collection of vegetable-related visual puns and meme-type images. If you’ve created your own visual vegetable puns or found one that we’ve missed, please post us a link in the comments section 🙂

Did this Punpedia entry help you?

Did you find the vegetable-related pun that you were looking for? If so, great! Otherwise, please let us know what you were looking for in the comments, below! Are you looking for puns for text messages, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or some other social media platform? Would you like to see more funny vegetable pun images? Or perhaps you just want more vegetable puns for your photo captions? Whatever the case, please let us know, and help us improve this Punpedia entry. If you’re got any vegetable puns (image or text) that aren’t included in this article, please submit them in the comments and one of our curators will add it as soon as possible. Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂