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Okra. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books |
It doesn't seem like summer in the South until a friend gives you a bag full of fuzzy, prickly okra pods. Like squash and zucchini, okra comes into season and home gardeners go from craving the funky vegetable to wondering what on earth they're going to do with it all. And that's where I come in, because I never turn down homegrown produce, especially okra. Stewed gumbo style with bacon and tomatoes and served over rice, it's classic mid-summer comfort food. It also takes well to roasting, a method that's perfect for a handful or a pound of pods, whatever you can get your hands on.
I first picked up the method for cooking okra from Southern cooking legend
Nathalie Dupree,
formerly of Atlanta, now living and writing in Charleston, South
Carolina. Nathalie slices the pods, coats them with olive oil and roasts
them in a hot oven. The result, depending on how thick you slice it, is
a crispy okra chunk or chip that's a perfect summer side dish.
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Roasted okra chips. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books |
Roasted Okra
1 pound okra pods
2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt, preferably fine-grained "popcorn salt"
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice okra in chunks or more thinly
for a chip, place in a bowl. Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil over
the okra, toss and season lightly with salt. Spread on baking sheet and
roast for up to 10 minutes, checking often to make sure they don't burn.
Remove from oven, let cool slightly, season carefully - it's so easy to over-salt these! - and serve.
This post is part of #LetsLunch, a monthly Twitter party on a given food subject. This month's theme is vegetables to celebrate Washington Post Food and Travel Editor Joe Yonan's newest cookbook,
"Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook" (Ten Speed Press, $24.99).
Annabelle‘s Farmer’s Market Gazpacho at
Glass of Fancy
Cheryl's Egg-Drop Broccoli in Ginger-Miso Gravy at
Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
Eleanor‘s Green Beans Two Ways at
Wok Star
Grace‘s Vegetable Tempura at
HapaMama
Jill‘s Fusilli with Corn Sauce at
Eating My Words
Joe‘s Guaca-Chi at
Joe Yonan
Linda‘s Chocolate-Zucchini Twinkies at
Free Range Cookies
Linda‘s Gateway Brussels Sprouts at
Spicebox Travels
Lisa‘s Totally “Free” Veggie Soup at
Monday Morning Cooking Club
Pat‘s Umami-Laden Green Beans at
The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook
Vivian‘s Kangkong (Water Spinach) with Fermented Beancurd, Chili and Garlic at
Vivian Pei
Text and images copyright 2013, Lucy Mercer.