Okra Salad

Edited to read: Ok. I am joining in. And sending this dish to Harini for her “Recipes for the rest of us – Starters”. Though it has ingredients which ask for precise measurements, you can cheat and just use pinchfuls instead

I never knew okra salad till I came across Suvir Saran’s crispy Okra Salad from Food & Wine. I made a couple of minor changes & now it is our v. favorite staple to serve for barbecue lunches or for a quick summer salad. It’s light, tasty, full of goodness & just simple to put together. The operative words though are ‘put together’ because the cutting up takes a little time – but no pain, no gain right?

What We Used:

1 1/4 teaspoons garam masala *
1/4 teaspoon amchoor powder *
1 pound young okra—halved lengthwise and cut into long, thin strips
1/4 big red onion, very thinly sliced (3/4 cup)
1 medium tomato—cored, seeded and sliced into thin strips (I didn’t core or seed them & they looked nice anyways)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Oil

Salt

Small bowl – 1

Large bowl – 1

Cookie pan – 1

* These can be bought at the local Indian store. Here is some great info for Garam Masala (hooray for wiki)

& Amchur Powder is just dried unripe mango, that you can also get at the local Indian store

How We Did It:

1. In a small bowl, combine the garam masala with the amchoor powder.
2. The original recipe asks for fried okra strips but I prefer pan frying it with less oil. I took a large skillet, heated a bit of olive oil, worked in the okra strips and pan fried them for a couple of minutes, till they were crisp. Or alternatively, you could heat the oven to 350 °F, spread the okra strips on a cookie pan, and leave it in the oven for 10 minutes. They come out crispy, though they may not look as goldenish but hey, they still taste as good. Sprinkle with some of the spice mixture and salt.
3. In a large bowl, gently toss the fried okra with the red onion, tomato, cilantro and lemon juice. Season the salad with more of the spice mixture and salt and serve immediately. And that’s really about it !

Advertisement