But quick cooking will preserve more of its healthy nutritional benefits. If you can tolerate the slime factor (or if you love it!) this is actually enhanced by contact with water in those classic stewed dishes. Just remember to add another thickener to your gumbo if you’ve prepped your harvest with another cooking method first, to reduce its gooeyness. You may also prepare soaked or freshly picked okra by baking, roasting, or grilling it for a crisp texture, to be eaten that way or added to slow-cooked soups and stews. Cornmeal-battered fried okra? Yes, please!
Pictures of okra free#
If you’re not a fan of a heavy cornmeal coating, feel free to substitute half of it with flour. Some folks use an egg batter before dredging, and others use milk or buttermilk. Many people, especially in the American South, prepare the vegetable by frying it in a dredge of cornmeal. Gently rinse and pat dry before use in recipes.ĭon’t be surprised if your red types turn green, or at least a paler shade of red, during cooking. To reduce the viscous quality of okra’s slimy mucilage, try soaking it in vinegar or lemon juice for about 30 minutes, or parboil it. However, with a few cooking tricks, you can make them not only palatable, but delicious. Slimy, seed-filled pods just aren’t for everyone. People seem to love or hate okra, with no middle ground. If you’re growing in a warm climate, you may cut plants to the ground mid-season to let them grow up again for a fall crop. This is also a good way to save seeds from open-pollinated varieties that will produce replicas of parent plants when sown next growing season. If you leave a generous length of stem, you may bunch your stems, wrap them with twine, and suspend them upside down to dry in a cool, dry location for use in everlasting floral arrangements. The pods become woody, the spines firmer, and the stems harder to cut. The longer they grow, the tougher they are. It may be tempting to leave fruits on the plant to see how large they’ll get, but don’t – unless you plan to use them in a floral arrangement, or dry them for seeds. Keep this knowledge in mind for your chosen variety (note it in your gardening journal!) and pick the rest when they’re 2 to 2 1/2 inches long instead.Įach time you pick, you encourage more growth, so harvest regularly.īecause okra roots have a fragile hold on the ground, it’s best to snip rather than snap the stems cleanly above each pod, leaving a bit to grasp. If you find that they’re already woody when you pick at three inches, toss this harvest into a dish that’s going to be cooked low and slow, which may help to soften them a bit. Even so-called “spineless” varieties may have some setulose growth, so don’t be surprised if you encounter these fine protrusions on pods, stems, and leaves.
Pictures of okra skin#
Wear gloves and handle the pods as little as possible, to prevent softening before use and skin irritation. Some larger varieties may be able to hang around on the plant a little longer before they get tough.
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And they often grow quickly, within a few days after flowering.Ĭheck on them daily, and when they reach about three inches in length, they should be at the peak of flavor and tenderness, ready to harvest. Late summer bloomers like cosmos, zinnias, and calendula are good choices.When your chosen varieties approach maturity, pods begin to form. Flowering annuals are good okra companions to help attract pollinators that will visit the okra flowers.Okra's tall plants, which can grow up to six feet, can also provide some shade for this somewhat tender herb if summer days get hot. The strong fragrance of basil repels a number of pests that like okra, including flea beetles, stinkbugs, spider mites, aphids, and whiteflies. Planting basil near your okra is also beneficial.
![pictures of okra pictures of okra](https://infonet-biovision.org/sites/default/files/plant_health/cropsfruitsvegetables/3321.jpg)
Plant on the east side of the okra so the melons benefit from the morning sun, or on the west side for afternoon sun leaving plenty of room for the vines to run. Melons can be a good okra companion because, like cucumbers, they need ample sun and water.Pepper plants will repel cabbage worms, which can be a destructive nuisance to okra plants.Don't plant them too close, as cucumbers vines spread and also need a large amount of sun to ripen. Cucumbers love water and rich soil, as does okra, so these will do well side by side.The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.