Okra tastes even better with a sauce

It took me a while to realize that okra tastes better with a liquidy sauce - but of course!  With its penne-like cavity, it's the perfect vegetable to go with a sauce that would squirt on your palette when you bit into the okra.  My favourite sauce is curry with coconut milk and tomatoes.  

Cut up your vegetables.  In this case, I used okra, egg plant, zucchini, red pepper, onion and tomatoes.  Slice the okra ~1.5 inch long at an angle.  Do the same with the other vegetables.  Add curry to hot oil in a pan and get ready for the burst of flavour from the heat.  Quickly add chopped onions.   Then add the other vegetables and a cup of broth.  After simmering for 5 minutes, add coconut milk and cook for another 5 minutes or until vegetables are soft.  Add salt or soy sauce to taste.


 


Another sauce I like is tomato sauce with herbs.  In this case, I used okra, green/red pepper, celery and onion.  Again heat oil in pan, add onions then the other vegetables except tomatoes.  Transfer to a cast iron pot.  Heat more oil in pan, add tomatoes, when it's almost soft, add half a can of tomato paste and a cup of broth.  Add herbes de provence (mix of savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, oregano) then pour the sauce onto the vegetables in the pot.  Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes and you've got a tasty vegetable stew with the okra soaking up the tomato sauce and the celery adding the crunch!