Чтобы сделать блины, сначала нужно смешать муку, кефир и немного сахара.

Чтобы here means in order to or so as to.

So:

• Чтобы сделать блины = To make pancakes / In order to make pancakes

This is a very common way in Russian to express purpose.

Compare:

• Я пришёл, чтобы помочь. = I came to help.
• Чтобы выучить русский, нужно много практиковаться. = To learn Russian, you need a lot of practice.

In this sentence, чтобы introduces the goal or purpose of the action.

Сделать is the perfective form, while делать is imperfective.

Here, Russian uses сделать because the idea is to make a finished batch of pancakes, not just to be engaged in the process in a general sense.

• делать = to do / to make, as a process or repeated action
• сделать = to do / to make, with completion

So:

• Чтобы сделать блины = To make pancakes in the sense of successfully producing them

This is very natural in Russian when talking about achieving a result.

The comma separates the purpose phrase from the main clause.

Structure:

• Чтобы сделать блины, = subordinate clause of purpose
• сначала нужно смешать... = main clause

Russian normally puts a comma after a чтобы clause when it comes first.

So the sentence is divided like this:

• Чтобы сделать блины,
• сначала нужно смешать муку, кефир и немного сахара.

Нужно means it is necessary, one must, or more naturally in English here, you need to.

Russian often uses impersonal constructions like this, with no explicit subject.

So:

• нужно смешать = it is necessary to mix
• more natural English: you need to mix

This is very common in instructions and recipes because Russian often avoids saying you directly.

Because Russian often leaves the subject unstated in general instructions.

In English, recipes often say:

• First, you need to mix...

In Russian, it is very normal to say simply:

• Сначала нужно смешать...

This means something like:

• First, it is necessary to mix...
• First, you need to mix...
• First, one must mix...

All of these are possible translations depending on style.

Because нужно is followed by an infinitive.

This pattern is very common:

• нужно + infinitive
• можно + infinitive
• нельзя + infinitive

Examples:

• Нужно работать. = You need to work.
• Можно войти? = May I come in?
• Нельзя курить. = No smoking / You must not smoke.

So нужно смешать literally means it is necessary to mix.

Because мука is the direct object of смешать, so it goes into the accusative case.

Dictionary form:

• мука = flour

Accusative singular:

• муку

This happens because мука is a feminine noun ending in -а.

Typical pattern:

• nominative: -а
• accusative: -у

Examples:

• вода → воду
• сметана → сметану
• мука → муку

So:

• смешать муку = to mix flour

Because кефир is a masculine inanimate noun, and for those nouns, the accusative singular is usually the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: кефир
• accusative: кефир

That is why you see:

• смешать кефир

This is very common with masculine inanimate nouns:

• чай → пить чай
• суп → есть суп
• кефир → смешать кефир

Because after немного Russian normally uses the genitive case.

So:

• немного = a little / a bit of
• сахар = sugar
• сахара = genitive singular of сахар

Therefore:

• немного сахара = a little sugar

This is a very important pattern. After words like много, мало, немного, Russian usually puts the next noun in the genitive:

• много воды = a lot of water
• мало времени = little time
• немного сахара = a little sugar

Grammatically, it is accusative plural, because блины is the object of сделать.

However, for inanimate plural nouns, the accusative form is usually the same as the nominative form.

So:

• nominative plural: блины
• accusative plural: блины

That is why the form does not change.

Сначала means first or at first.

In this sentence, it tells you the first step in a process:

• сначала нужно смешать... = first, you need to mix...

Its position is flexible, but placing it near the beginning is very natural in instructions.

For example, Russian could also say:

• Чтобы сделать блины, нужно сначала смешать...

That also works. The version in your sentence emphasizes the sequence right away.

Yes. Надо and нужно are often very similar in meaning.

So this would also be natural:

• Чтобы сделать блины, сначала надо смешать муку, кефир и немного сахара.

Both mean roughly:

• To make pancakes, first you need to mix flour, kefir, and a little sugar.

Very roughly:

• нужно can sound a bit more neutral or formal
• надо can sound a bit more conversational

But in many everyday contexts, they are interchangeable.

Russian punctuation here works much like English list punctuation.

In the list:

• муку, кефир и немного сахара

the commas separate earlier items, but normally there is no comma before и when it simply means and joining the final item.

So this matches English:

• flour, kefir and a little sugar

If you use the Oxford comma in English, you might expect one before and, but standard Russian does not put a comma there in a simple list.

The structure is:

• Чтобы сделать блины = purpose
• сначала = first
• нужно смешать = need to mix
• муку, кефир и немного сахара = the things being mixed

So the full order is:

1. purpose
2. sequence word
3. modal/impersonal predicate
4. infinitive
5. objects

Russian word order is fairly flexible, but this order sounds natural and clear for instructions. It is especially common in recipes and how-to explanations.