Okra is tasty Southern food delicacy

Okra is a maligned Southern food. Tom and Barbara Womack, owners of Homestead Hill Farm near Middlebrook, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley, say: 

“Okra is one of those things you either love or you hate. There are few who have tried it who feel truly ambivalent about it. Since okra is a member of the mallow family, there is a mucilaginous quality of which to be aware. It means ‘it might be slimy!’” 

No, no, no. In the Carolinas, where okra is considered to be a fine Southern delicacy, we might describe okra as naturally and wholesomely “slippery or slick.”

Southern cooks know that okra’s mucilage, “a compound of sugars and proteins in the plant, is what makes okra a great thickening agent for dishes like gumbo and succotash” as well as okra stews, said Paige Burns of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension office in Rockingham, N.C., which serves Richmond County.

 Two late, great Southern writers added to the mystique of okra. One was poet and novelist James Dickey, a native of Atlanta, once told an interviewer: “If God had made anything better (than okra), He’d have kept it for Himself.”

Another, columnist and storyteller Julia Reed of Greenville, Miss., contended: “So few people eat okra that it never even makes it onto the lists of Top 10 hated foods.”

 

Cookbook author John DeMers, who is a native of New Orleans, is an okra food expert. He wrote: 

“Historians tell us that okra originated…in the part of Africa that today includes Ethiopia, Eritrea and the eastern, higher part of the Sudan. The vegetable found an early following among the Egyptians living in the fertile valley of the Nile.” 

Okra thrives in the southern U.S. climate, soaking up heat and humidity. Paige Burns said that “okra is in the mallow family, along with its cousins – ornamental hibiscus and cotton and cocoa. The okra flower is quite ornamental itself.” 

Okra’s ribbed pods are generally green and delicately finger-shaped. “Okra is best when picked when small and tender,” she said. “Under an inch long, it can be eaten raw or cooked with its cap on. Larger than that, you may want to slice off the cap high enough up so that the inner seeds don’t spill out.”

 

“As with any other vegetable,” Burns said, “there is a peak point at which to harvest. If you want to use the okra for boiling, it must be tiny…no more than two inches long. Fried okra and some other applications allow for larger fruits.” 

Did you hear that? Burns’ flip-flop choice of words here poses the ultimate question: Is okra a vegetable or a fruit? 

Sarah Toney, co-owner of Free Range Farm near Fayetteville, W.Va., in the New River Gorge, said scientists consider okra to be a fruit, but chefs call it a vegetable. 

“In the culinary world, okra is described as a vegetable,” Toney said. “Chefs use a less scientific criteria to classify fruits and vegetables, one that is based on sweetness and sugar content.”

“Fruits have a more delicate flavor. They have a softer texture and are sweet or tart in taste. Fruits are more likely to be featured in desserts, jams, smoothies or other sweeter dishes. Whether or not you can make a pie from it can be a big deciding factor as well,” she said. 

“Vegetables are harder, with a somewhat bitter taste. They are used in savory dishes and soups. In the kitchen, okra is a vegetable as it is low in sugar and usually used in more savory dishes. Like my southern favorite – fried okra,” Toney said. 

“Okra is delicious and has a lot of nutritional value. Okra is rich in fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate and thiamine. It is also low in calories, has next to no fat and is a good source of antioxidants, so no matter if you think okra is a fruit or a vegetable, keep on eating it and keep on growing it,” she advised.

But heed Paige Burns’ final words of wisdom: “If the okra pods are bigger than your hand, give them to the chickens (or add the okra to the compost pile); they’ll be too tough, stringy and woody for people to eat.”