Cooking Okra, A New Way!
Growing up visiting my grandparents in Mississippi, they ALWAYS cooked a ton of vegetables! I am talking, a massive amount. My grandfather grew his own vegetables ranging from butter beans, corn, tomatoes, okra, squash, peppers, eggplant, etc.
I remember sitting with a big stainless-steel bowl, helping my grandmother shuck butter beans while we watched the Atlanta Braves play baseball.
Although I loved eating vegetables, the one vegetable I would NOT eat, was okra…unless, it was fried! Mmmmmm…fried okra! I could eat an entire bowl like it was popcorn.
My grandparents liked to boil their okra. To me, that was like eating snot! YUCK! Fried = little pieces of heaven.
Baked/Broiled
The other day Natasha and I were walking through the grocery store and saw a container full of organic okra. So, we decided to find a new way to prepare the okra (we aren’t frying our food anymore).
The fun aspect of eating lots of vegetables is preparing them in new/different ways. Our “ah ha” moment…we would split them in half, bake them, and then broil for a few moments to give them that toasted/fried taste.
After a quick wash, splitting them down the middle (Natasha likes the stems left on, but not I), sprinkling with olive oil/pink salt/black pepper…they were thrown in the oven.
Roughly 15-20 minutes later, we had some amazing tasting okra. I really liked the dichotomy of the crunchiness combined with the “sliminess”.
Give it a go, and let me know what you think! The following pictures are the other veggies we prepared to go with the okra: yellow squash, spaghetti squash, and portabella mushrooms/onions.
Yellow Squash and okra
Spaghetti Squash
Portobello Mushrooms/Vidalia Onions
