20 Delicious Foods Beginning with the Letter W!

You would believe that the number of meals that begin with W is limited. After all, W is well down at the bottom of the alphabet, far below more common letters like E, T, S, and A.

However, indeed, the list of foods that begin with W is extensive and diverse! We have everything from Wakame to Worcestershire sauce and will go into each of them.

What exactly are you waiting for? Let’s learn about the finest dishes that begin with the letter W!

20 Foods Beginning With the Letter W

1. Wakame

Wakame, an edible seaweed that is a well-known component of Japanese cuisine, begins our list of foods that begin with the letter W. It is often used in salads (if you’ve ever eaten seaweed salad, you’ve had wakame!) Miso soup, for example. Being a marine vegetable, the taste of wakame is saline, savory, and oceanic. Wakame is often offered as dried strips that must be soaked in warm water before usage.

2. Waldorf Salad

Waldorf salad, named after the historic Waldorf-Astoria hotel where it is supposed to have been developed, has graced restaurant menus and kitchen tables for over 100 years. The original Waldorf salad recipe calls for just red-skinned apples, celery, grapes, and mayonnaise.

Toasted walnuts became popular at some time throughout the years, and some individuals even started using raisins instead of fresh grapes. When adding raisins in your Waldorf salad, soak them in warm water for 15-30 minutes to plump them up before tossing them into your salad!

3. Walnuts

Speaking about walnuts, they are one food that begins with the letter W and deservingly so! Archeological sites in Europe have discovered roasted walnut shells dating back to 6000 B.C.E., indicating that walnuts are a very old food source. Apart from being a significant component in meals like our new pal Waldorf salad, they also play important roles in classics like walnut cake, banana bread, and coffee cake. Each crunchy mouthful is rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fats, making walnuts an excellent snack on their own.

4. Wasabi

Wasabi is the rhizome (underground stem) of a plant in the Brassicaceae family, which includes broccoli, cabbage, horseradish, mustards, and radishes. Wasabi is a key ingredient in Japanese cuisine, and it is widely used to create and serve sushi.

It may surprise you to hear that the majority of wasabi marketed outside of Japan contains 0% wasabi! Rather, it is horseradish that has been colored to seem like fresh wasabi. Although still pungent, the taste of true wasabi is more herbal and fragrant than the nose-burning, sinus-clearing crap given as wasabi in most places. Although fresh wasabi stems are difficult to get by outside of Japan, real wasabi paste or powder may be found online or at specialist stores.

5. Water Chestnuts

The water chestnut is an aquatic plant found in freshwater marshes. The tuber is the plant component known as the water chestnut. It is neither a nut nor a fruit. Water chestnuts are distinctive in that, unlike other vegetables, they retain their crispness even after cooking. Water chestnuts are thus a great option for stir fries and noodle meals where the delicious crunch will be appreciated and enhanced!

Water chestnuts are most often found canned, however fresh water chestnuts may be found in some stores depending on where you reside. Get some if you ever come across any. Their sweet sweetness and nutty flavor will blast canned alternatives out of the water.

6. Water Spinach

Water spinach is a leafy green that thrives happily in water or extremely moist soil. It is not a form of spinach, nor is it even in the same family as spinach. Since the stems are hollow, they float and swing in the moderate motions of a stream or marsh.

Water spinach leaves and stems are completely edible; but, as the plant becomes larger, the lowest section of the stem becomes fibrous and may need to be clipped and removed. The most common method to consume water spinach is stir-fried in a wok, possibly with a dash of ginger or garlic to complement the greens’ sweet, fresh taste.

7. Watercress

Watercress has a pleasant, peppery taste that is startling for such a delicate small green leaf! Watercress, as the name implies, grows in water, where the roots may stay buried while the leaves climb up through and break the water’s surface. This green vegetable is often eaten fresh and has a flavor and culinary use similar to arugula. Make a simple salad of watercress and thinly sliced red onion with a little mustard vinaigrette dressing.

8. Wheat Flour

Wheat flour is one of the most adaptable foods that begin with the letter W, since it forms the basis of so many diverse dishes, including breads, pastas, baked products, and many sauces that depend on wheat as a thickening. Wheat is one of the six genuine cereal grains and is hence a major food source in many nations throughout the globe. Wheat flour comes in a variety of forms, some of which are better for creating cakes and other baked products, while others are better for baking bread. At the grocery store, you could see all-purpose flour, self-rising flour, cake flour, and whole wheat flour.

9. Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass, a staple of health food shops everywhere, is an extra-super superfood! Wheatgrass is the immature, brilliant green shoots of the wheat plant that are collected before any wheat kernels (which are subsequently processed into wheat flour) are created. This implies that wheatgrass, while being a wheat plant, is gluten free. Wheatgrass juice is the most common method to gain the health benefits of wheatgrass, but the shoots are also edible whole!

10. White Chocolate

White chocolate is manufactured from simply the fat component of the cocoa bean, known as cocoa butter, and is derived from the same cocoa plant as other forms of chocolate. The separation of this cocoa butter is a natural component of the chocolate production process and was originally a discarded byproduct until Nestle decided to combine sugar and milk solids, resulting in the creation of a new delightful sweet. White chocolate has the same melt-in-your-mouth buttery feel as milk or dark chocolate and may be used to make truffles and white chocolate brownies!

11. White Rice

Rice is another of our six cereal grains (we now have two on our list!) Each grain of rice is essentially a grass plant seed. A grain of rice consists of a thick outer hull, a layer of fibrous bran, the germ (which will ultimately sprout into a new plant), and the endosperm in its natural condition (which feeds the new plant as it begins to grow). Except for the outer hull, which is completely inedible, brown rice preserves all portions of the grain. White rice, on the other hand, has these components removed so that only the starchy endosperm remains, which is then polished to produce the pristine white grains we know as white rice!

12. White Wine

White wine is an alcoholic beverage that is made from fermented grapes. White wine is prepared from white grapes that have had their skins and seeds removed prior to fermentation, while red wine is made from black or red grapes that have retained their skins and seeds.

White wine’s light and flowery features make it ideal for both sweet and savory foods! Make a delicious white wine sauce to spread over gently seared fish or boil it with spices to use as a fruit poaching liquid for an elegant dessert.

13. Whiting

Whiting is a sort of fish, or more precisely, many varieties of fish that are collectively referred to as whiting. The species that make up the whiting group vary greatly and may include Alaskan pollock, hake, and Southern kingfish, to mention a few. All whiting will have soft white meat with a flaky texture and mild taste, similar to cod fish. Whiting is a wonderful fish for frying since it cooks fast and retains its texture nicely, but it is also good for baking and sautéing!

14. Wild Boar

Wild boar, which were formerly solely found in Europe and portions of Asia, are now widespread on every continent except Antarctica. The flesh of wild pig is comparable to that of farmed pork, but it is thinner and has a more gamey taste. Cooking most cuts of wild boar (with the exception of tenderloin) at a low and moderate temperature allows the tough connective tissues to break down without drying up the meat. Wild boar is not typically seen in supermarkets, although it is accessible from a variety of meat providers as well as specialist butcher shops.

15. Wild Rice

Wild rice, like conventional rice, is produced from the seed of a specific variety of grass. Wild rice grains are longer and darker in color than regular rice grains, with a harder hull and a nuttier taste. It has more texture than white or even brown rice, which makes it a popular option for long-cooking foods like soups and stews. Wild rice takes significantly longer to absorb water due to its thick outer covering, so plan on cooking it for 40-60 minutes.

16. Winter Melon

Winter melons, also known as wax gourds or ash gourds, are huge fruits with waxy, pale skin and thick white flesh. The flavor of this melon, or lack thereof, is sometimes compared to that of cucumber. Watery, somewhat sweet, and little grassy, this melon is not very flavorful and hence tends to absorb the tastes of whatever it is cooked with.

These melons are most often used in Cambodian, Chinese, and Filipino cuisines, where they are turned into soups, stews, stir fries, and candied for sweets. Winter melons are often found in Asian grocery shops, but you’re uncommon to find a complete melon elsewhere! Winter melons are so enormous that they must generally be chopped up before packing and selling.

17. Winter Squash

Winter squash is so called not because of the season in which it grows, but because of its capacity to preserve for so long after the fall harvestall through the winter! Winter squash is thicker, sweeter, and has a nutty taste. It also has a very thick skin, which allows it to remain fresh for many months after harvesting. Winter squash varieties include spaghetti squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, and pumpkins. Butternut squash is one of the most frequent of them, having a taste comparable to sweet potatoes and an incredibly adaptable buttery texture.

18. Wintergreen

Wintergreen thrives in two major parts of the world: Southern Asia and Eastern North America, where it is known as boxberry and checkerberry. Wintergreen may seem to be simply another shrub or ground cover at first sight, but brush up against the leaves and you’ll be rewarded with the refreshing, crisp aroma of wintergreen. The leaves are completely edible, as are the brilliant red berries, which have a minty crisp flavor! Wintergreen may be used to flavor mint ice cream, drinks, tea, and preserves.

19. Wolfberries

If you’ve never heard of wolfberries, you may be familiar with their more popular moniker, goji berries. These beautiful red gems are the fruits of an Asian shrub and are widely utilized in culinary and traditional medicine owing to the high quantities of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals contained in the berries.

Fresh goji berries are rare (but not impossible!) to obtain at your local market or farm, but there are many different choices that will give the sweet-sour taste and nutritional advantages of wolfberries. You may look in your freezer for frozen whole berries or puree, or try dried wolfberries! Wolfberry powder is also widely available and ideal for including into nutritious drinks and smoothies.

20. Worcestershire Sauce

This tongue twister of a sauce would be missing from any list of dishes beginning with W! The list of components that comprise this flavorful, umami-rich condiment is just slightly more complicated than its name. The exact formula varies by brand, but Worcestershire sauce often incorporates vinegar, garlic, anchovies, molasses, tamarind, sugar, and cayenne pepper. This concoction of ingredients yields a deep, black, highly flavored sauce that can be used to season anything from meatloaf and stir fries to vinaigrettes and stews.

Foods That Start With W: Final Thoughts

When it comes to meals beginning with W, there are lots of new ingredients to learn about, as well as a couple you’re probably already familiar with. White rice and wheat flour are already staples in most people’s diets, but wakame and winter melon may be unfamiliar to you and definitely worth trying!

In any case, we hope this list of foods that begin with W serves as inspiration for your next meal or dish. Tell us what you come up with!