Okra recipes that celebrate summer

Although notions of seasonality can really feel valuable at instances — particularly in our grocery shops the place you will get most something you need all year long — I nonetheless prefer to punctuate the seasons with a binge on sure fruits or greens to essentially drive house the sensation of the place we’re within the yr. And because it’s summer season, which means, for me, it’s an okra bonanza.

I already eat the vegetable year-round — as I wrote in an ode to my favourite inexperienced vegetable — however in the course of the months of August and September, it strikes from aspect to important dish.

For a straightforward, one-skillet dinner in the course of the week, I really like this chicken and okra dish, each elements braised in a wealthy tomato paste-enriched broth spiked with slices of caramelized lemon and pops of briny olive. Or, if I wish to change the ratio of veggies to meat, I make my charred okra and corn salad, which will get additional taste from a spicy sausage French dressing, after which will get toppled over salted contemporary heirloom tomatoes for a distinction of hot-and-cold and spicy-and-sweet.

When it’s a veggies-only sort of night time, a quick stir-fry of okra with contemporary corn suits the invoice. It comes collectively in lower than 20 minutes and is precisely the kind of factor you wish to pile right into a bowl and eat whereas enjoyable with a chilly glass of wine in your yard patio.

For a cocktail party dish that may be ready forward of time, I’ll make my crunchy roast okra with golden labneh. You coat the okra in a candy and smoky spice rub and let it roast till it’s caramelized and crisp. The labneh — imbued with a golden hue due to turmeric, in addition to serrano chiles, garlic and ginger — might be made days forward and the 2 introduced collectively on the final minute earlier than serving.

And when you have a surplus of pods in any case that cooking is finished, the perfect factor you are able to do with them is to make this tart relish with tomatoes. It’s a condiment I grew up consuming by the spoonful on cornbread, peas, hen, steak — you identify it, the relish goes nicely with it. Make it this summer season and also you’ll see that okra all the time provides you precisely what you wished it to offer.

Braised Okra and Hen With Caramelized Lemon and Olives

Sephardic cooking traditions of Morocco, in addition to North African tagines and Mediterranean stews, affect this braised dish of hen and okra. Typically such dishes are flavored with preserved lemons however right here, common lemons, caramelized within the hen’s rendered fats, add brightness to the sauce, thickened with tomato paste.
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Cook dinner time: 45 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Instances)

Charred Okra and Corn Salad With Spicy Sausage French dressing

This dish is improbable scorching, nevertheless it nonetheless tastes nice after a few hours sitting at room temperature. The warmth and spices within the sausage add a ton of taste to the candy corn, peppers and inexperienced, toothsome okra. Use the ripest tomato yow will discover for the perfect taste. And if you happen to like, add chunks of mozzarella, feta or goat cheese to the salad on the finish earlier than serving.
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Cook dinner time: 40 minutes.

(Ben Mims / Los Angeles Instances)

Stir-Fried Okra With Corn and Purple Chiles

Scorching oil blisters okra and wicks away its slime virtually instantaneously on this fast stir-fry. The okra combines with one other late-summer staple, corn, and fiery crimson chiles, scallions and garlic. A contact of brown sugar highlights the sweetness within the corn, whereas soy sauce and toasted sesame oil improve the okra’s umami depth.
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Cook dinner time: 25 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Instances)

Crunchy Roast Okra With Golden Labneh

This dish makes use of the excessive warmth of the oven to rid the okra of its moisture and hydrate the brown sugar and spice rub, which cools to a crunchy, crackling shell. It’s served over labneh coloured gold by turmeric and flavored with chiles, garlic and ginger for a spicy distinction to the candy, smoky okra.
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Cook dinner time: 50 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Instances)

Okra and Tomato Relish

Though this relish makes the many of the summer season bounty of okra, I exploit canned tomatoes right here, as my mom did, for his or her vibrant crimson coloration and intense taste. However you may completely use contemporary heirloom, vine-ripened and even cherry tomatoes as an alternative; merely swap them out for a similar weight because the canned ones.
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Cook dinner time: 45 minutes.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Instances; prop styling Nidia Cueva / For The Instances)