Okra dish

Baked Okra

I made a baked okra dish recently. Okra has this problem that unless it is cooked right, it can get sticky. Either it should be dry before putting it in oil or you need to fry it for a while and in a good amount of oil if you want cooked okra that is not sticky. But I found that baking the okra gives good cooked okra that is not sticky and doesn’t need a ton of oil.

Pre heat oven to 425F

Okra – I don’t know how much okra I used that day – let’s say about 50 okras! Cut into 1 or 1.5 inch pieces.

Tomatoes – 2 – cut into small pieces (Vine ripened tomatoes preferably)

Onions – 2 medium – cut into medium size pieces

Ginger and Garlic – optional – according to taste – one or two pods of garlic chopped fine and ½ inch of ginger – I use big pieces so I can take it out!

Hand full of finely chopped coriander.

Cut all three vegetables, ginger, garlic, coriander and keep in a flat glass pan. Add 2 or 3 table spoons of oil, add chilli powder (depending on how hot you like it), salt .

Mix it all well. I added MDH garam masala powder (just 1 tea spoon to give some masala flavor but not too much). Spread it evenly flat on the pan.

Keep it in the oven for 15 min. Check if it is cooked. Keep 5 min longer if it could be cooked a little more. I judge it based on how the tomatoes look. If they look nicely cooked and mashed, then it is done. Mix it well.

It tasted quite good. Goes well with rotis. And it was easy to make – I just cut the veggies, added the powders and mixed it and 20 min later it was ready. I didn’t have to add it one by one or stir it or anything. And okra was not at all sticky. I find that if I wash the okra a couple of hours before cutting it , the water dries out and dry okra is easier to cook.
Okra always reminds me of how my mom (and several other moms I knew) used to tell me to eat more okra because it makes you good at mathematics! :)