Help! What Do We Do With All This Okra?

Planting seven times as much okra this year has resulted in an overabundance! So what do we do with it all?

We started a little backyard garden about a year and a half ago. The first thing we quickly learned is that gardening in Florida Zone 9B is very different than gardening up north.

Up north, you grow most of your vegetables over the summer months. But here in our area, that’s the worst time to try to grow anything. The heat, sun intensity, pests, and diseases are all at their peak from June to September.

This made sense when we learned that our climate is similar to places like the Caribbean, North Africa, and Thailand, while the climate in the northern growing zones is more like the European countries. In the U.S., we are accustomed to eating the varieties that are grown there.

Seasoned Florida gardeners recommend planting tropical or semi-tropical varieties that do well in our climate, like Seminole pumpkins, Everglades tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and okra. So those were our first attempts at growing something last summer.

Unfortunately, we still had a lot to learn. The tomato plants succumbed to spider mites, the pumpkins never developed any female flowers, and the sweet potato harvest was minimal. But we did succeed with the one okra plant we tried. We watched in amazement as it grew to over five feet tall and started blooming with beautiful white flowers that eventually turned into pods.

The problem was, we didn’t get enough pods from one plant to do much. Okra doesn’t last long after it’s harvested (maybe 2-3 days in the fridge at most), so we couldn’t save it up until we had enough for two or three servings. We enjoyed some small batches of fried okra a couple of times.

This summer we decided to grow more plants. We sowed seeds for six plants of a new variety we were trying. And just for fun, we planted one more plant using seeds we saved from last year. Altogether, seven okra plants, or seven times as much as we had last year. “That oughta do it,” we told ourselves.

Now we’re asking ourselves what to do with all this okra!

These plants are prolific, to say the least. One day, there will be a few small pods forming, and the next day they are six or seven inches long. Which is really getting too big as they tend to get woody if they’re bigger than about three or four inches long.

We were excited at first. Now we know that if the Zombie Apocalypse hits, we can at least grow okra (and sweet potatoes) over the summer season to feed ourselves. The flowers, seeds, and leaves of the plants are all edible in addition to the pods.

And okra is very nutritious! It provides a number of vitamins and minerals, and may also boost heart health, help to manage blood sugar, decrease the risk of colorectal cancer, and strengthen bones.

But back to the main question, what to do with okra…

Well, apparently we’ve been missing out on a whole lot of deliciousness until now. Famed Southern chef Emeril Lagasse has almost forty recipes that include okra on his website. And a quick Google search reveals there are a lot more ways to use okra than fried or in gumbo. So we’re exploring our options.

Our favorite last year was fried okra. Served with a delicious remoulade sauce for dipping, this is a quick and easy snack we’ve enjoyed many times.

You don’t even need a recipe for these. Just cut the okra into half inch slices, mix up some flour with salt, pepper, and a little corn meal (if you like them crunchy, otherwise plain flour will do), heat up about a half inch of vegetable oil in a small pan, and fry away.

Many people dip the okra pieces in beaten egg, milk, or buttermilk before dredging in the flour mixture. You can use any of these–or skip them altogether. The coating will stick to the okra without them.

If you like a little spice, add some cayenne pepper or Cajun seasoning to your coating mix. The only rule is to serve the fried okra immediately. That isn’t hard in our house, as we are usually eating them before they get to the table.

In the interest of our continuing quest to eat healthier, we also tried roasted okra.

This was another tasty way to cook the pods. It is actually easier, quicker, and takes less clean-up than frying them. Served with that same dipping sauce (see recipe below), roasting might become our favorite method for cooking okra.

All you do is cut off the ends of the pods and then halve them the long way. I coat them with a little olive oil and some Cajun seasoning, spread them out on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper, and bake them at 450°F for about twenty minutes. Two things to note: shake them up a couple of times while they’re roasting, and make sure they’re all cut to about the same size/thickness. That way they will all get to the same level of crunchy goodness at the same time. These would be a great nibble for your Golden Hour celebration.

The other day, while researching new recipes, I read that okra can be frozen.

What a game-changer this could be! I read different opinions as to whether or not frozen okra can be fried or roasted without coming out mushy. But I’m giving it a try. I figure the worst that can happen is we can use the okra in soups or stews. And there are a lot of recipes I’ve seen that look like they would come out just fine with thawed, frozen okra. Like Classic Okra and Tomatoes, Mediterranean-Style Bamya (with warm pita bread, yum!), or Authentic New Orleans Gumbo.

But, wait! You can pickle okra? Hmm…

Tell us about your experiences with okra. Do you love it or hate it? And we’d be thrilled to hear how you use it or preserve it. Comment below!