{"id":35719,"date":"2022-07-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/?p=35719"},"modified":"2024-11-12T16:20:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T00:20:32","slug":"is-okra-good-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/blog\/is-okra-good-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Okra & Is it Good for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever grown okra, you\u2019ll notice something unusual about the plant \u2014 it\u2019s got some of the deepest and most tenacious roots of any garden annual. Removing old plants after harvest season is some of the toughest work a grower can do.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a good metaphor for okra\u2019s complex culinary and cultural history. Rooted in Africa, okra traveled<\/a> to the Americas and the Caribbean with the slave trade, its seeds literally woven into the hair of captive African women and girls. Once in the US South, the plant thrived in its fertile soils and long hot summers, even as many of the humans who cultivated and subsisted on it were forced to endure the brutalities of slavery<\/a>. Today, okra is a staple of US Southern cuisine, where it is often served pickled, stewed with tomatoes, grilled, roasted, and \u2014 most commonly \u2014 mixed with celery, bell peppers, and onions in bowls of gumbo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Okra grows eagerly in tropical and subtropical climates and offers many nutritional benefits. Despite these wonderful traits, okra isn\u2019t universally appreciated, largely because of its unusual interior texture, which is sometimes described as sticky or slimy (especially when cooked). Some people are unfamiliar with it, don\u2019t find it appetizing, or haven\u2019t gotten the hang of cooking it in a way that works for them.<\/p>\n

And some health-conscious plant-eaters may avoid okra because they associate it with deep frying, either solo or in hush puppies, or with animal products such as sausage gumbo.<\/p>\n

Yet okra has a lot of potential, in terms of nutrition, health, culinary pleasure \u2014 and even environmental healing. In this article, we\u2019ll explore what okra has to offer.<\/p>\n

What Is Okra?<\/h2>\n
\"Okra
iStock.com\/kckate16<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Okra<\/a> (Abelmoschus esculentus<\/i>) is a six-foot-tall annual herb in the mallow family. Its relatives include such diverse cousins as cotton, hibiscus, and hollyhock. The okra you see in the grocery store or at the farm stand is the seed pod, which can grow up to a foot long once mature.<\/p>\n

Okra is picked and eaten, though, when the pods are still unripe and tender, and typically between three and six inches long. (Any longer and they get very fibrous, and not even lots of cooking can soften them up.) Okra has a unique texture and slightly sweet flavor.<\/p>\n

The big thing about okra pods is that they exude a mucilaginous juice (some say slime) once cut. Some folks are really turned off by this texture, and as a result, miss out on lots of okra goodness. (Spoiler alert \u2014 later in this article you\u2019ll see how to prepare okra in a totally slime-free manner.) But it\u2019s partly due to its mucilaginosity (sorry, spell checker, I like the word, and I\u2019m sticking with it) that okra has become such a key part of many cuisines in the US South \u2014 the juice helps cooks out by thickening stews, such as gumbos, inexpensively and deliciously.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve never tried it, I can try to explain what okra tastes like by saying it\u2019s a cross between asparagus and eggplant<\/strong>, but that totally doesn\u2019t do it justice. So I hope this article will convince you to give it a try, so you can come up with your own description.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not sure who first cultivated okra<\/a> \u2014 Southeast Asia, India, and Africa are all contenders, as each region has a long culinary history with the pod. One likely theory posits that okra originated from the Abyssinian area that now includes Ethiopia, a portion of Eritrea, and the eastern, higher part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. From there, okra may have spread first into Egypt, and then Arabia, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and eastward.<\/p>\n

Cultural Importance of Okra<\/h2>\n
\"Agriculture:
iStock.com\/AlexLiew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Okra arouses strong feelings, and not just because of its texture. Its history in the Western hemisphere is a story replete with love and hope, cruelty and suffering, oppression and self-determination. Long before it found its way to the Americas and the Caribbean via the slave trade, okra was (and still is) a staple food in many African cultures. In fact, the word \u201cokra\u201d comes from \u201cnkuruma<\/a>,\u201d<\/strong> the name of the vegetable in the Twi language spoken in a region of West Africa that is now known as the Republic of Ghana.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cgumbo<\/a>,\u201d which originally was a synonym for okra but later referred to any dish in which okra appeared, derives directly from the Angolan word for okra, \u201cngombo.\u201d Oral history accounts tell of enslaved African women bringing a number of important seeds to the Americas \u2014 including not just okra, but also rice and other vegetables and grains \u2014 by hiding them in their braided hair. To see how this might have been accomplished, check out this video of Maroon women in the Republic of Suriname demonstrating a hair braiding technique passed down from their ancestors to hide seeds:<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Know Your Caribbean (@knowyourcaribbean)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n