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Hoy he cocido huevos para la ensalada.

Hoy he cocido huevos para la ensalada.
Today I've boiled eggs for the salad.
From Lesson 192:Roasting, boiling and tasting (asar, cocer, probar)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Hoy he cocido huevos para la ensalada.

Why does the sentence use he cocido instead of the simple past?
In Spain, the present perfect (he cocido) is used for past actions that happen in a time period that isn't over yet. Because the sentence includes hoy (today), you use this tense rather than the simple past (cocí).
I thought 'to boil' was hervir. Why does this sentence use cocer (cocido)?
Both verbs mean to boil, but they are used differently. Cocer is used when boiling food in order to cook it, like eggs, pasta, or vegetables. Hervir usually refers to the liquid itself reaching a boiling point, as in hervir agua (to boil water).
Why do we use para instead of por for 'for the salad'?
You use para because the salad is the final destination or purpose of the eggs. If you used por, it would literally mean you boiled the eggs 'on behalf of' or 'because of' the salad, which wouldn't make sense here.
Why is there no article before huevos?
Just like in English, you drop the article in Spanish when talking about an unspecified quantity of a plural noun. If you were talking about specific eggs you had already mentioned, you would say los huevos.

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