Thursday, August 1, 2013

Recipe: Roasted Okra

I know, I know.  I was raised in the South and fried okra is second only to sweet tea on my list of comfort foods.  I mean, y'all,  it is just so crunchy, salty, hot, and good.

But so very bad.

As happens about once a year, (because of the abundance of fried okra and Mexican food in my repertoire) the hubs and I have embarked on a "healthy eating revolution" (a.k.a. diet) and, though it is going remarkably well and not nearly as hard as I expected, I miss some stuff.

Fried okra being one of them.  Chips and salsa being the other.

And to make things worse?  My backyard garden just happened to start producing okra in abundance the very week we agreed to this stupid diet.

Ok, it's not stupid.  It really is working, but when I smell fried anything as I drive down the road my tastebuds beg for just.one.bite.

So the pile of okra in the fridge was building and I had to make a decision.  Give it away (which would be nice, but I didn't feel nice today), fry it and let the kids eat it (which would have been torture), pickle it (I'm on a canning kick...4 jars of salsa in the pantry, 2 in the fridge, and many more to come!  But not a huge fan of pickled okra), or find a new way to cook it.

I broke out the handy-dandy I-phone, tapped on the Allrecipes.com app, and searched "okra" and, what do you know, but the first recipe that popped up was for roasted okra!

Roasted okra?  I was skeptical...not wanting to end up with a slimy mess.  But I read the recipe and the reviews looked good so I figured it was worth a shot.  Of course, I tweaked it a little.  She just used salt and pepper but I love my Lawry's Seasoned Salt so there ya' go.

Oh, sweet deliciousness.  If I had a picture I would show it to you but we ate it too fast!  Even DJ, my anti-vegetable-just-give-me-steak boy liked it!  So, since I've had my okra fix and feel nice again I thought I would share it with you.

Roasted Okra:

Lots of okra, stems cut off and sliced in half lengthwise.
Olive oil
Lawry's seasoned salt.

(Is this easy or what??)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Arrange the okra halves, seed side up, on a cookie sheet, then drizzle with olive oil.  (I used my handy-dandy Misto to spray mine.)  Season with salt and then pop in the oven for 15 minutes.

Eat immediately!  It is best piping hot!

Now, if I manage to find a diet-approved (no carb) tortilla-chip recipe you can rest assured I will share it.  If you have one, I'm all ears!






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