I have a super lovely recipe, a common enough one but I love it, so am sharing one of a Goan Okra (or Goan Bhindi) that I’ve started making these days. Before that, a little story!
Okra or the ladies finger as we called it while growing up in India, is a low carb vegetable. I was super excited when I discovered I could eat it all and not worry about the carbs. I never liked the vegetable as a child coz well, it was slimy. Very few of us love it as kids I would think. My mom made it just two kinds. The slimy kind and the charred kind. Yes, the slimy one I’d hate mixing it with rice, and the charred kind was tolerable coz it was creepy though a bit more crispy than we would have liked.
Then I fell upon Bhindi masala. The North Indian cuisine and loved the flavors with the bread.
Then I went about creating my own variations using different spices and now as an adult, I love the vegetable. It cooks quick and goes well with both rice/bread. I speak primarily of cooking it in the Indian style.
I knew the southern parts of the US used/cooked it, and I foud primarily stews /fries and creoles, which was a lot like how we would cook it too, except that we in India used different spices and flavors.
Nutrition facts of Okra:
Raw Okra Boiled/Cooked Okra
RECIPE FOR GOAN OKRA WITH FRESH COCONUT
I fell upon this dish at a Goan acquaintance’s place and it made perfect sense with how the dish is made in that part of the country. It’s the coast, and hence a lot of fish and yes, coconut! This recipe is way simple, has a sharp taste of spices and the coconut soothes it all down. Goes great with rice/rotis/bread (which also mean the low carb breads/pita etc)
Okra shrinks considerably on cooking, so use accordingly.
1 pound of okra washed, dried, and chopped fine.
In a pan, add 1 tbsp of oil (I use coconut oil) and add 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds. Let them splutter, add your cut okra and let it cook on high, stirring continuously. Then add 3 green chilis, sliced long and a few pieces of ginger also sliced long. This is so it is easy for you to pick them off after the dish is done. 🙂
Add some Amchur – dried mango powder to the pan and mix it well. Amchur or anything tangy or sharp will cut the slimy nature of the vegetable so the pieces stay separate. If you can’t find mango powder, think along those lines and see if you can substitute anything else.
By now the pieces would be softer and almost cooked. If not hang around some more and reduce heat, but whatever you do, do not add or sprinkle water or shut the pan. It will get pulpy in no time, so 🙂
Grate fresh coconut – about 2 tbsps of it or if using frozen, thaw some.
Once the okra is cooked, add salt now, mix and remove from heat. Add the coconut and mix well and serve with whatever you would like to eat with. Done!
Start to finish less than 15 minutes. The longest time you’d take is to chop them!
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OTHER OKRA RECIPES:
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If you like this recipe and you’d like to check out the other low-carb recipes I have, click the link below. This is part of the #AtoZChallenge that’s running around blog circles this month and I’ve been making my way through the alphabet.
Other Low-Carb Recipes and The Alphabet ones
