Naij.com Recipe Of The Month: Easy Steamed Okro

Editor’s note: The rains are still here and the harvest is bountiful. As New Yam festivals are celebrated across the country, Naij.com contributor, Ifeyinwa Nzeka suggests a recipe for a type of soup that goes well with pounded yam. 

It is yam season and even though “poundo” yam seems to be the more popular yam swallow these days, I am sure that you will agree that it still remains second best to reeeaallll pounded yam!

It’s funny though that even this real pounded yam is also classified in some quarters, where machine pounded yam is seen as inferior to yam pounded with a mortar and pestle! Beht why? Is it not the same yam with the only difference being the apparatus? Must blood, sweat and tears go into it before it is considered “original”? Some of us too like suffer!

READ ALSO: 10 Facts You Should Know About New Yam

Whether it be machine pounded or pounded using a mortar and pestle, consider making some reeeaalll pounded yam this season! In which case, if you are living upstairs in an apartment building and you decide to go with the mortar and pestle option using the full sized mortar and pestle to pound yam and you proceed in your kitchen without a thought as to how this affects your neighbors downstairs, hmmm, “OYO” is your case (in Clara Ikemba’s voice from “The Meeting”)!

Pounding yam in a mortar.

Pounded yam is a delicacy when served alongside a wide variety of soups. Some of our favorite soups for pounded yam being edikang ikong, efo riro (or any vegetable soup for that matter!), egusi, nsala, banga, ogbono, okro, native soup, fisherman’s soup, oha, ofe owerri and many more.

Sometimes though, you want a quick and easy soup to send home your pounded yam or your preferred swallow with! This steamed okro recipe is easy, quick and healthy and you may choose to serve it on its own with swallow or with some stew on the side. Whichever way you choose, you will find this recipe satisfying.

READ ALSO: READ How 80s Song Inspired Drinking Pepper Soup

It starts with you getting some okro washed and chopped. Mushrooms are rinsed very quickly to avoid it soaking in water and then they are sauteed in a frying pan with a little vegetable oil. The mushrooms are optional and can be substituted with some shrimp, smoke mackerel (titus), smoked chicken that’s been shredded or small cubes of your preferred cooked meats. The mixed bell peppers (red, yellow and green or either) are also chopped as well as half of a yellow pepper (yellow scotch bonnet).

Bell peppers

The okro is quickly steamed in a little water to which stock cubes, salt, crayfish and scotch bonnet has been added. After a few minutes, the mushrooms and mixed peppers are added, stirred in and taken off the heat.

Okro

The okro is cooked but crisp and tastes fresh, the peppers are sweet and the earthy flavor of the mushrooms and hotness from the yellow scotch bonnets just brings this all together and makes it oh so satisfying!

Ifeyinwa Nzeka for Naij.com

Ifeyinwa Nzeka is a Cordon Bleu trained chef, hospitality practitioner and blogger who is passionate about Nigerian food and cuisine.

 

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