Crispy Roasted Okra

Roasted, tender, steamy, crispy okra fries. It’s the easiest, most crowd-pleasing okra dish, and it’s actually healthy. I mean, it’s practically just the vegetable, only it tastes better than it should.

Personally, I love okra. Gelatinous texture? Bring it on! Let’s make a bullet point list of mouth-watering okra recipes, shall we?

• I love okra battered in cornmeal and fried all golden.
• I love it in Indian cuisine where it gets a crunchy texture that melts on your tongue.
• I’ll scarf down the okra gumbo and okra and tomato dishes typical in soul food.
• When I’m feeling plain-Jane, I’ll made okra, cut and steamed, in my bamboo steamer, where it picks up a sweet, smooth flavor.
• My mouth also waters over the African versions of okra soup where shrimp go for a deep dive in a savory okra mash.

But what attracts me time and again to roasted okra is that it’s a great vehicle for dip. Pair it with a Cajun remoulade sauce, and each fry becomes but a mini schooner sailing a sea of spice. Place it next to a burger and baked sweet potato, and you just might mistake a pile of these babies for Checker’s fries. Well, that might be a stretch, but you get the point.

Most importantly, it fits into a new way of eating our household has been trying out. I don’t know if you’ve been tracking, but the more recent dishes on Pith and Rind belong to a Shrine to Carbs. I’m talking three cheese biscuits, beignets, butter pecan ice cream, banana pudding. No regrets. Decadent desserts made for a charmed life.

But recently, there’s been a food revolution in our kitchen: More whole food items, fewer packaged snacks. More fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, fewer empty carbs. More lean proteins, less oil. I also recently started eating meat again after about a decade of vegetarian fare. (I feel great, thanks for asking!) But surprise, surprise, when you eat meat, you can’t continue dousing your food with oil, like an arsonist dousing a house in gasoline, or like my dad dousing charcoal briquettes with lighter fluid. The result? My boyfriend and I both lost hella weight in a healthy, gradual way. Now we’re lean, mean, low-cholesterol machines.

Growing okra

Here in Tampa, okra grows consistently and steadily through the hottest months of the year. This makes sense. The plant was originally brought to the U.S. by African folks, who had long cultivated it in tropical and subtropical temperatures. They and their descendants created the cuisines we now now as Southern food, soul food, and Cajun or Creole food, all of which feature okra in various ways.

Okra is one of my favorite new plants I’ve grown in a raised bed this year. It’s high-yield plant, with some harvests resulting in full servings of battered and fried okra. Other weeks, I’d cut some okra pods off to add to a stir fry here, or a vegetable dish there. Besides, the plant is major eye candy. A member of the hibiscus family, it produces big beautiful blossoms and fanlike leaves. Even when the rest of your garden bed is cowering in 90-degree heat, okra makes the whole thing feel like a lush rainforest.

Here are a few gardening tips for how to plant and grow okra:

• Plant okra 10 inches apart from each other.
• Okra loves fertile ground, so soil rich in organic matter, compost, or slow-release fertilizer is best.
• Pick okra pods when they’re a few inches long. Any bigger than that and they get tough and inedible. Hopefully, you won’t also have to learn this the hard way…
• Use gloves to pick okra, and use kitchen scissors to cut through the stem. They have tiny spines which feel kind of like microscopic splinters. Yeah, not nice.

For more information on growing okra in Florida, check out my favorite gardening website.

Recipe variations:

Oil: As always, adjust as you see fit. I usually spray my roasted okra with olive oil. (0 calories for a quarter-second spray…what about a 10 second spray? 😏) For my fat-philic vegetarians and vegans out there, you could also go crazy on the oil, tossing them in a bag with a big ol’ glug.

Spices: Here I just sprinkled on some smoked paprika and salt. But you could add Garam Masala, chicken seasoning as seen on Healthier Steps, Creole seasoning, or even a tablespoon of flour or cornstarch for a crispier fry.

Timing: You can adjust the oven temperature depending on how crispy you want your okra and how much time you have on hand. I usually roast mine for 22 minutes at 425 degrees, but you could also roast them for 30 minutes at 400 degrees or 15 minutes at 450. Everyone’s oven is different, though, so make sure you check your fries to prevent charcoal twigs. Shake your pan every now and again. You could even flip them or rotate who gets the edge.

Enjoy your veggies, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

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