How to Eat Okra

Okra has been a staple in the Garden on Marais for years. It is prized for its ease of cultivation and its hardiness in the summer heat. We plant different varieties. This year’s crop includes Red Burgundy, and a strain gifted to us by a neighbor, Mr. Ed’s okra, on its third generation. It is a summer warrior, giving pod after pod no matter how hot the weather gets. But, okra can be a bit off-putting if you have never eaten it before.

One of the most valuable things about okra is the juice it produces, which is slimy like mucus and thickens soups. The texture takes some getting used to. But there is a way to prepare it so that the juice mixes and blends with the ingredients surrounding it, creating (not a slimy mess) but a wonderful, tender, thick, stew-like substance.

The key is patience.

We recommend this recipe for smothered okra, which, after hours of slow roasting in an oven, produces a smoky, acidic, and thoroughly delicious dish.

There is a deep, rich history to okra, which you can find notes about here. Suffice it to say that this unassuming vegetable’s arrival in America has roots in the blight of slavery. But there is a hope contained within, the hope of industrious generations who must have cultivated this plant from seeds carried on slave ships. They could not know what would become of them, the seeds, how they would spread. How they would grow, summer after summer.

Slow. Patient. Hope spreads.