Hoy voy a cocer garbanzos con espinacas para la cena.

Voy a + infinitive is a very common way to talk about a planned or near-future action in Spanish.

• Hoy voy a cocer... = Today I’m going to cook/boil...
• It sounds natural for something you intend to do soon.
• Coceré is also possible, but it sounds more like a straightforward future statement and can feel a bit more formal or less immediate.
• Cuezo would mean I cook / I am cooking, so it would suggest a present action or habitual meaning depending on context.

So in this sentence, voy a cocer fits the idea of a plan for later today.

This is a fixed future structure in Spanish:

• ir + a + infinitive
• literally: to go + to + verb
• meaning: to be going to do something

So:

• voy = I go / I am going
• a = part of the structure
• cocer = to boil / to cook

Together, voy a cocer means I’m going to cook/boil.

That a is not optional here. You need it in this construction.

Cocer is more specific than cocinar.

• cocer usually means to cook by boiling, or more generally to cook something in heat until done
• cocinar means to cook in a general sense

With garbanzos (chickpeas), cocer is very natural because chickpeas are typically boiled/simmered until tender.

So:

• voy a cocer garbanzos = I’m going to boil/cook chickpeas
• voy a cocinar garbanzos = I’m going to cook chickpeas

The second one is not wrong, but cocer is more precise here.

Sometimes, but not with exactly the same nuance.

• hervir means to boil
• cocer means to cook, often by boiling until the food is done

If you say voy a hervir garbanzos, it focuses on the boiling process itself.
If you say voy a cocer garbanzos, it focuses on cooking them properly until edible.

For food like chickpeas, cocer is often the more natural choice.

Spanish often omits the article when talking about ingredients or foods in a general, non-specific way.

So:

• cocer garbanzos = cook chickpeas
• con espinacas = with spinach

This sounds natural when you mean some chickpeas and some spinach, not a specific previously mentioned batch.

If you were referring to specific ones, you might use an article:

• Voy a cocer los garbanzos que compré ayer.
• Lo haré con las espinacas del huerto.

So the lack of article here makes the ingredients sound general and unspecific, which is very common.

Con and y are not interchangeable here.

• con espinacas = with spinach, meaning spinach is part of the dish or accompanies the chickpeas
• y espinacas = and spinach, which sounds more like you are listing separate items

So:

• garbanzos con espinacas suggests a combined dish
• garbanzos y espinacas sounds more like chickpeas and spinach as two coordinated elements

In cooking contexts, con is often used to show an ingredient pairing.

Because para expresses purpose or intended use.

• para la cena = for dinner
• It answers the question: What are the chickpeas and spinach for?

Por would not sound natural here.
In this sentence, the speaker is saying the food is being prepared for the purpose of dinner.

This is a very common use of para.

Spanish often uses the definite article with meals where English does not.

So:

• para la cena = for dinner
• durante el desayuno = during breakfast
• antes de la comida = before lunch

This is normal Spanish usage. English and Spanish simply differ here.

That said, meal words do not always take an article in every structure, but in para la cena, the article is very natural.

Yes. Spanish word order is flexible, especially with time expressions like hoy.

All of these are possible:

• Hoy voy a cocer garbanzos con espinacas para la cena.
• Voy a cocer hoy garbanzos con espinacas para la cena.
• Voy a cocer garbanzos con espinacas hoy para la cena.

The most natural version is usually the original one, with hoy at the beginning, because it sets the time frame right away.

In everyday Spanish, espinacas is very commonly used when talking about spinach as food.

So:

• con espinacas = with spinach

Even though English usually treats spinach as an uncountable noun, Spanish often uses the plural espinacas when referring to it as an ingredient or prepared vegetable.

Espinaca does exist, but it is less common in this kind of sentence. It can refer more to the plant, a leaf, or be used in certain regional or technical contexts.

For ordinary cooking talk in Spain, espinacas is very natural.

In standard Spain Spanish, cocer is pronounced approximately:

• ko-THER

More precisely:

• the first c before o sounds like k
• the second c before e sounds like the th in think in most of Spain

So in Spain:

• cocer ≈ ko-THER

In many parts of Latin America, that second c would sound like s, so it would be closer to ko-SER.

It is regular in some forms, but it has a spelling/stem change in others.

For example:

• infinitive: cocer
• yo cuezo
• tú cueces
• él/ella cuece

But:

• nosotros cocemos
• vosotros cocéis

So a learner might notice that the sentence uses the infinitive cocer, but if you conjugate it in the present, you often get cue- forms.

That is why cuezo exists, not coco.

Yes, that is grammatically correct.

The difference is mainly in tone:

• voy a cocer = very common, conversational, planned/near future
• coceré = simple future, often a bit more neutral, formal, or detached

In everyday spoken Spanish, especially when talking about plans for later the same day, voy a cocer is usually more common.

Con espinacas is a prepositional phrase introduced by con.

It tells you what the chickpeas will be cooked with. In other words, it adds information about the ingredients or accompaniment.

Structure:

• Hoy = time expression
• voy a cocer = verb phrase
• garbanzos = direct object
• con espinacas = ingredient/accompaniment phrase
• para la cena = purpose

So con espinacas is not the main object; it modifies the cooking idea by adding the ingredient pairing.