How to Use a Wok for More Than Just Stir-fry

Woks are one of the kitchen’s most versatile pieces of cookware, yet so often they go underused, seeing the light of day when Asian or stir-fry dishes are on the menu and spending the rest of the time taking up a lot of space in the cabinet.

I’ve found several instances where the thin construction, gentle curve, or non-stick seasoning of a wok make cooking more convenient:

(1) Popcorn Popping

The wok’s near-hemispherical shape allows for use of less oil than a traditional stove-top pan, and the crowded bottom means popped kernels lift themselves out of the oil and away from the heat, for a light texture and less burning, without having to crank a “Whirly-Pop” pan’s handle.

(2) Omelets

When making the egg for pad thai I discovered what many far-Eastern cooks must already know, that a lightly-oiled searing-hot flat-bottomed wok makes an omelet quickly and perfectly. A round-bottomed wok probably works just as well. Doesn’t an omelet pan resemble a truncated wok, anyway?

(3) Steaming vegetables

The only expandable steamer basket I own happens to be too small for most of my large pots. Instead of buying a new one, I steam in my wok. Its wide-open construction makes accessing the results easy, and it’s breadth means I can steam many items at once. It’s especially convenient when steaming large artichokes, which always seem to be an inch too big to pack into layers in a pot.

(4) Gumbo and other roux-based dishes

I know people who don’t mind the taste of burnt roux, and I’m not one of them. Large bottoms and tight corners make it easy to make a mistake in a traditional pot, but the same curves that make stir-frying a cinch in a wok make cooking a dark Louisiana roux an order of magnitude easier.

(5) One pot meals
How many one-pot meals call for frying something at the bottom of a soup pot? This can be awkward. Try it in a wok.

(6) Toasting

Woks heat up quickly and are easy to stir, with nothing getting stuck near the edges. What more could you ask for when you need to toast nuts or spices?

(7) Frying a whole fish

Turning over a whole fish in a wok is a rolling motion, not the dramatic and difficult flip needed in a skillet.