Water chestnut is a prominent ingredient in Chinese cuisine. In Chinese recipes, it is used in a stir-fry along with other vegetables, but they can also be part of a classic bacon appetizer, and add a welcome crunch to a creamy spinach dip. To bring a vegetable side dish from average to interesting, add sliced water chestnuts toward the end of the cooking time.

Canned water chestnuts is widely mixed into a dish - mainly for texture, as in stir-fries, stuffing, soups, and dumpling fillings.

Water chestnuts require a long frost-free growing season (about seven months), which means that they are only grown in semitropical areas. The harvest season in China is from Nov till Feb.