Okra Soup Improv

Indian Okra was affordable this week, so I got about a pound and a half and decided to make Okra soup. Here it is in the pot: 

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp of Panch Puran
• 2 onions cut up fine
• 3+ cloves of raw garlic
• a fresh tomato
• 15 Oz pack of diced tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper cut up
• Okra cleaned, and cut in 1" pieces
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 3 serrano peppers
• 1 pint of vegetable broth
• 1 king mushroom julienned
• 1/2 block of Tempeh cut up in 1/2" thin chunks (1/8"thickness)
• 1.5 lbs of fingerling potatoes
• 1 bunch of spinach
• 1 head of black garlic
• salt or green salt to taste
• more pepper, if desired

The above list is a bit arbitrary. I did not have scotch bonnets on hand. But for my taste this was hot enough and it might have been wrokable for a lot of folks who cannot handle heat. The end product had zing, without being overly hot.

Appetizer

While cooking the soup, I made my appetizer of

triscuits with a drizzle of honey, a clove of black garlic crushed, and a nacho slice of jalapeño:

Preparation:

• Lightly roast the panch puran to release the aroma
• Caramelize the onions with the veggie broth, by evaporating 2 tbsp of broth at a time - the steam cooks the onions.
• Add the garlic by the time it is soft. then add in the mushrooms and the peppers, and the Okra chunks, the cut-up potatoes as well as the black garlic, peeled.
• Add the rest of the broth, you can use more water if needed.
• Use a bit of salt, or green salt, etc. and more pepper to taste.

You can add more water and use things like yondu, or Braggs Liquid Aminos, or Tamari, Shoyu, Marmite, or Better than Bouillon etc. to finish the flavor. You could also use a tbsp of Tientsin vegetables.

Basically, by using panch puran and black garlic to build the foundation for the flavor, you should not have to worry about making it too salty, for you already have a beautiful umami flavor.