How to I level cooking in the beginning? (Early game spoilers)

Hey guys, I’m new to the game and am at the part where I need to go through the portal in sector 3. Before I went in a pop up said to bring food cause I might be there for a bit. Well I tried to make soup but it won’t let me add any ingredients because you have to have cooking skill 3 to be able to do that. I hunted peccory forever just so I could make the sausage links and I barely got any cooking experience for that and it took forever to get two peccory chops. Am I missing something? How do I level cooking if I can’t put anything into the cooking pot?