An Ayurvedic Okra Dal

Here is one more Okra recipe - by now I've made 4 different Okra dishes in the last few days, all because I bought a half a bushed of Okra for $3.99, and I ate some of what I made, but I froze a lot. That all goes into the idea of cooking cycles, now I have a ton of these Okra dishes, and it will make my cooking easier for months. You could just have some brown rice with a portion of this Okra Dal, some other vegetable, like spinach or zucchini or broccoli, or whatever, and a salad, and you have a meal fit for a prince.

Okra Dal (Ayurveda)

Get rid of the oil - all Ayurvedic recipes use oil, so that is the first thing to get rid of, and I tend to make up for the taste with some more onions and garlic.

View on geniuskitchen.com

Ingredients

2-3 onions, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced.
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon of caraway (optional)
2 cinnamon sticks, broken up, or you can use some flat cinnamon and crush it with a mortar and pestle.
12-16  ounces red lentils
1 teaspoon ground coriander and/or
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro chopped fine
1⁄2 teaspoon chili powder (or more, to taste)
1⁄4 teaspoon ground turmeric
4 1⁄2 cups water
1 large tomato, halved
24 okra (ca. 1 lb), topped and tailed, and cut in 1/2" sections
liquid aminos to taste

 

Preparation

• Caramelize the onions in a large saucepan and cook with the cumin seeds and cinnamon over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until the onion is beginning to brown.
• Add the lentils, coriander, chili powder and turmeric. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the water and then add the tomato and okra.
• Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes, until the okra and lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.

Okra Tomato Stew

OK, so the other day I scored a 1/2 bushel of Okra for $3.99 and this has me cooking ahead.

There are tons of recipes and youtube videos around, and converting them to a #WFPB alternative is easy.

Basic Okra Recipe

Here is one nice video, which you can easily convert to #WFPBNO (No Oil - EVER!)

 

How to cook Okra and make an UNhealthy vegan dish

This recipe would be easy to make, and substitute the oil as follows:

• Cut up the onion. Don't drag your knife sideways across the cutting board as the video shows - you will be destroying the edge of your knife very quickly.
• Dry roast it for 5 minutes at 425F (medium/high) without stirring.
• Stir fry it for another 5 minutes at 425F, while adding 2-3 icecubes of veggie broth
• Follow the rest of the recipe.

 Ok, I have so much Okra, I am making this dish as well.

Her ingredients, with comments:

Okra/Lediesfinger- 500gm Onion- 1 medium or large - double up - see below.
add some chilis
Garlic- 3 or 4 cloves Turmeric powder- 1 tsp Cumin powder- 1tsp Salt- 1/2 tsp - use some liquid aminos instead Oil- 30ml - double up on the onions instead

I remove the oil and double up on the onions. That's all. 
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So here's the main dish - the promised Okra Tomato Stew:

Okra Tomato Stew

Okra Tomato Stew #WFPB variant

 

View on tasteofbeirut.com

 

Ingredients

• 1 Bag of frozen okra (14 ounces) or the fresh okras
•  1 red onion, chopped or a small bag of pearl onions (6 ounces)
•  Tomato sauce (14 ounces) or fresh tomatoes, peeled and cut (diced)
• some cilantro - I use about 10+ sprigs of cilantro and cut them up good
• 1 teaspoon of allspice or seven-spice mix, or panchpuran
• 1 Tablespoon of mashed garlic (mash with a teaspoon of salt till pasty), alternatively some garlic/ginger paste
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

 

Preparation

• Chop the onion and dry roast it in a sauce pan, for 5 mins at 425F, while mincing the garlic.
• Add the minced garlic and stir fry for 5 more mins at 425F, while adding 2-3 icecubes of veggie broth
• Add the okra (still frozen) to the onions and stir-fry for 5 minutes or so.
• Add the garlic paste to the okra, then the tomatoes (or tomato sauce) and lemon juice and allspice or panchpuran.
• Cover the saucepan and let the mixture simmer for 45 minutes, making sure it does not burn at the bottom.
• Add the cilantro if you're using it
• Uncover the last five minutes of cooking to let more liquid evaporate and turn off the heat.
• Serve at room temperature with some pita bread.

NOTE: To save time I use the frozen okra that is available at the Middle-Eastern store imported from Egypt; it is already prepped and requires no additional chopping. If you are using fresh okra, cut off the tip of the pod, dry with paper towels and stir-fry in olive oil; then proceed with the recipe.
The original recipe omits the cilantro, but I think it is delicious and really makes this stew a winner!!!

In an earlier post I discussed Okra in Lentil Sauce:
https://starlingaveplantbased.blogspot.com/2017/08/and-another-brilliant-wfpb-supper-at.html



Have at it folks.