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Primero se pela la patata y, a continuación, se corta.

Primero se pela la patata y, a continuación, se corta.
First you peel the potato and then you cut it.
From Lesson 287:Organizing what you say (en primer lugar, por un lado)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Primero se pela la patata y, a continuación, se corta.

Why does this sentence use se pela instead of tú pelas if the translation says 'you peel'?
In Spanish, recipes and general instructions usually use the passive se structure. While English often uses a generic 'you' (as in 'you peel the potato'), Spanish uses se + the third-person verb. It literally means something closer to 'the potato is peeled'.
The English translation says 'you cut it', but I don't see a word for 'it' in the Spanish sentence. Why is it missing?
Because this sentence uses the passive se structure, la patata is technically the subject of both verbs: 'the potato is peeled and then [the potato] is cut.' Since it is the subject rather than the direct object, you don't need an object pronoun like la for 'it'.
Could I use luego or después instead of a continuación?
Yes, both luego and después work perfectly here to mean 'then'. A continuación is just another very common way to say 'next' or 'following that', which is especially popular in step-by-step instructions.
I learned that potato is papa. Why is it patata here?
In most of Spain, patata is the standard word for potato. Papa is used in Latin America, as well as in parts of southern Spain and the Canary Islands.

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