Should I get a thin, flat bottomed wok to stir fry large amounts of veggies on an electric stove? Currently I stir fry veggies in a flat non-stick frying pan. It's OK but it doesn't have much volume so I can't cook a large amount of veggies unless I do so in batches, which I don't want to because I'm lazy. I want to throw in a bunch of veggies once, cook them, and be done. I understand that this may have a negative impact on flavour but I'm more interested in convenience.

To deal with this I want to get a wok, basically just to act as large frying pan. My first question is, will this be better than just using a big pot? My intuition is that the curved sides will mean more veggies touching lower, hotter parts of the container, and easier stirring. But maybe this is baloney.

I have an electric stove, and that's not going to change. So I'm going to get a flat-bottomed wok. My understanding is that the wok should get nice and hot and that this is more difficult on an electric stove. The woks I've seen have a wide variety of thicknesses. Should I be getting a really thin wok so that the wok heats up faster and transfers heat more quickly? Again, I'm primarily thinking of convenience. I don't want to stand around waiting for the wok to heat up. However I am fairly prone to burning the things I cook.

Similarly, should I aim for a wok made from a particular material?

Side note: I'm vegan and my wife is vegetarian, so we're not going to use this for meat at all.
I'll try address your questions:


Firstly, woks should always be thin. The point of a wok is to get extremely hot at the bottom, without heat being conducted much up the sides. Thin is best for this
The problem with this in your case, is that a small amount of your vegetables will be touching the bottom and cooking, while most will be sitting on top, or in contact with the sides, just getting warmed slightly.
The point of a stir fry is to slightly char the vegetables as they get tossed around the pan, moving between hot and cooler parts, so that they cook evenly, but get a good browning at the same time. The problem is that this is really only suited to smallish amounts of food, unless you have an enormous wok and burner/stove.
As you have indiciated that convenience is more important to you than flavour/cooking quality, I would suggest a large, flat, heavy bottomed frying pan (fine with straight or curved sides). This will cook large amounts of veg best, without cooling down too much when you add them, and the larger bottom surface will mean more veg is getting contact with the hottest surface


I wouldn't normally recommend a plain frying pan for stir fries, but I think this is the best option in your case. The outcome will not be the same as a stir fry - might be more moist and less browned, but should suffice for convenience's sake