1 Gallon of Okra Seeds

[Gary350]

What food group are okra seeds?

I am thinking about making a pot of garden vegetable soup or stew. I have a whole gallon of okra seeds, I might throw in a cup of okra seeds like I would beans or corn or peas or rice.

I don't know anything about eating okra seeds?

I wonder if they need to be soaked and cooked like dried beans?

[Barkleythadog]

I would think it would be like beans corn or rice which are seeds too you could tryit and see you'll never know till you go

[ArtB]

Okra grows on stalks about six ft tall here and most folks bread it and fry it. My favorite way is to boil it in salted water 'til tender. Use it a lot in soup & stews also.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah, but Gary was asking about eating just the seeds, not the actual okra.

Mother Earth news had a little article

https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-foo ... z2yEpLMiQZ

about eating okra seeds raw or stir fried, but they were talking about tender white seeds and said not as good if the seeds get fully mature.

[ArtB]

Yes you are right,I misread it! Guess you could eat just the seeds but you eat them either way right? I was thinking he was gonna plant them! Duh

[Gary350]

Okra grows on stalks about six ft tall here and most folks bread it and fry it. My favorite way is to boil it in salted water 'til tender. Use it a lot in soup & stews also.

YES okra is GOOD. I never liked okra until I moved to Tennessee. Most people don't know how to cook it. When I lived in Southern Illinois and Michigan few people grew okra because they hated the stuff. It makes you itch and after cutting it, the slimy stuff is like Elmer's Glue on your fingers and hands.

Southern style cooking is the only way I like okra. Harvest it when it is small and tender. Put about 2 cups of flour in a large bowl, 2 tablespoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper and mix well. Slice okra in 1/2" long pieces then throw it into a bowl of buttermilk immediately and stir well enough to coat the outside surface about 10 seconds. Then drain off the buttermilk as quick as you can. Throw the okra into the bowl of flour and still well. Slice more okra and repeat above several times until you have all the okra you want in the flour. Stir the flour well every 5 minutes for 45 minutes, make sure pieces are not stuck together. Dump 2 cups of okra into a colander shake well to remove all the loose flour. Put about 1" of oil in a large 10" cast iron skillet heat on high until it starts to smoke then add the okra and stir well while it cooks. When it turns golden brown or floats to the surface it is done. Remove and drain off the hot oil on paper towels. Okra doesn't get any better than this.

I usually plant a 20 ft row of okra. I till about 5" of peat moss into the row then sow the seeds in a row. Roots grow fast in the loose soil and the plants are 7 to 8 ft tall and bush out very large. I have to us a step ladder to harvest okra every day. If I miss an okra pod it will get as large as a 12" banana. Okra gets ripe slow at first then a month later it is getting ripe faster than we can eat it so I let 1/2 of the row go to seed. At the end of the season the other 1/2 of the row goes to seed too. I often have 2 to 3 gallons of okra seeds but I only need about 100 seeds to plant next garden season.

Health food stores have all kinds of roasted seeds but no okra. If you put millet in a pop corn popper it pops just like pop corn but it is so small you have to eat it with a spoon, wonder what okra would do in a pop corn popper. I checked Louisiana style cooking no okra seeds there either. I have thrown okra seeds into just about every type of soup, stew and chili I can think of. I have never heard of okra seed soup I though maybe someone else had.

[gumbo2176]

I've NEVER heard of just eating the okra seeds, especially dried ones. Okra seeds wind up in all of our cooking, but that is because there are so many of them in each pod, but they are fresh, white and plump when cooked, not dried, gray and brittle.

You have raised an interesting question. When I first saw the title I thought you were going to plant at least an acre or more of the pod plants, not trying to figure out a way to consume them. Have you ever eaten grilled okra? If not, give it a try. Everybody that has tried it cooked this way loves it.

You can either put them on the grill loose or make "rafts" by using 2 skewers to hold the pods together. Just brush them with olive oil, season with sea salt, black pepper and some garlic powder and grill them until tender.

I have a lady friend that has 2 young daughters than they fight over who's getting the last of it when I give it to her to cook------------and these are kids that usually shy away from vegetables.