Food for about five I need to cook (6)
I believe the answer is:
endive
'food' is the definition.
(endive is a kind of food)
'about five i need to cook' is the wordplay.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'five' becomes 'v' ('V' can be a synonym of 'five').
'to cook' indicates anagramming the letters.
'i'+'need'='ineed'
'ineed' anagrammed gives 'endie'.
'v' going within 'endie' is 'ENDIVE'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for endive that I've seen before include "Portion of salad" , "Chicory-type salad vegetable" , "Type of chicory" , "Plant used in salads" , "Salad plant with crisp curly leaves" .)