A southern favorite, okra is sliced and cooked in bacon drippings and Vidalia onion, garden or canned tomatoes and a can of Rotel tomatoes for a little extra kick.
Smothered Okra with Bacon and Tomatoes
Definitely another southern favorite for us veggie lovers that's made in a variety of ways depending on the household - though I'll betcha a dollar that soon as I post this link over on the Facebook page I'll get a few proverbial and unfortunate "yucks."
There's always at least one person who feels a need to express their dislike of okra, one of those veggies folks seem to either love or hate. Seems there's not much of an in-between. Me? I happen to be a lover.
Also known as okra gumbo, I like to start mine with bacon so that I can use the drippings to saute the onions and okra - and when they are available, absolutely use sweet Vidalia onions.
Okra can be fresh or frozen, it really doesn't matter and frankly I almost always have frozen since they are convenient to have on hand. With a very short shelf life, most of us who grow them, put at least some of them up that way anyway and I find frozen okra to be just as delicious, so use what you have access to.
I keep it pretty simple from there, tomatoes - fresh if you have 'em, canned and diced if not - a little bit of garlic and a few simple seasonings - a bit of salt and pepper, sugar and of course, my favorite Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning {affil link}, though you can substitute what's available to you, or omit it if you prefer not to have the heat.
I'm startin' to see Slap Ya Mama showing up mentioned on a few other blogs. I like to think that I started a trend there! It really is a very good general purpose Cajun seasoning and as y'all know, I use it a lot. One of our Facebook readers even found some way up in Oregon y'all! Now how about that?
I also like to add in a can of Rotel for the extra kick too, but you can omit that if you prefer and add extra tomatoes. Some folks even like to add in other veggies to their okra and tomatoes, like maybe a bit of green bell pepper or corn in their okra and tomatoes - kinda like I do my summer succotash. As always, I say make it yours!
Here's how I make my Smothered Okra with Bacon and Tomatoes.
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and cut the bacon into the skillet. Cook until crisp, remove the bacon and set aside, leaving the drippings in the skillet. For these photos, I had some already cooked bacon in the fridge so I just chopped that up.
Reduce heat to medium and add the onion, cooking and stirring about 5 minutes until softened.
For the garlic, I'm using this freeze dried version from Litehouse. I use fresh garlic a lot but this is great to have on hand too and they have a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, herb blends and even ginger!
Add the garlic.
Add the sliced okra (if frozen you do not need to thaw) to the skillet and cook, turning occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
Add in the tomatoes and Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chilies) with all the juices, hot sauce, sugar, if using, salt, pepper and Creole or Cajun seasoning. For these pics my tomatoes were already played out and I didn't feel like running to the store, so I'm using a can of stewed tomatoes along with the diced Rotel.
Give it a stir.
Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, cover and let cook for 10 minutes.
Remove cover and continue cooking for 15 minutes longer, stirring often, until veggies are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
Stir in the chopped cooked bacon and taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Serve immediately.
Very good as a side dish, or as a main course served over rice.
My husband aka "The Cajun" isn't a fan of okra cooked like this, though he'll eat it like crazy deep fried, or in a gumbo, so this dish will sustain me as a meal for days, while he consumes the other leftovers!
Are you a lover of okra too? What's your favorite way to eat it?
I love it stewed like this, especially in the late summer, and I even love it steamed, but I really love it either skillet fried, or my favorite way, dredged in buttermilk and deep fried the best, personally.
Imagine that!
For more of my favorite okra recipes, check out the collection on my Pinterest page!
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