Lowcountry Okra and Tomato Soup from ‘Southern Soups & Stews’
This week, we’re spotlighting recipes from Southern Soups & Stews: More Than 75 Recipes from Burgoo and Gumbo to Etouffée and Fricassee by Nancie McDermott (Chronicle Books), a collection of hearty, crowd-pleasing dishes from around the American South. Try making the recipes at home and let us know what you think!
Lowcountry Okra and Tomato Soup. (Photograph by Leigh Bausch)
Lowcountry Okra and Tomato Soup
Serves 4
In the history of Southern cooking, this dish goes way, way back. Its essential ingredients, okra and tomatoes, comprise the original combination of crops connecting West Africa and America. This dish simmered away in cast-iron pots over open fires as well as in hearth kitchens indoors, from Williamsburg and Charleston through the Piedmont regions of North Carolina, Georgia, and beyond. Known and beloved in the Lowcountry as “okra soup,” it also goes by “okra gumbo” and “stewed okra.” It can be drier or juicier, depending on the proportion of tomatoes, cooked for hours over low and slow coals. Bacon or fatback is its standard start, but olive oil and garlic make a lovely version. Start with vine-ripe juicy tomatoes and petite pods of okra in the summertime, but know that a winter version made with canned tomatoes and frozen chopped okra brings wonderful flavor to your cold-weather menu. Cornmeal-based bread is not an official requirement here, but I find the pairing so pleasing that it’s simply a matter of which kind: Corn Cakes or Skillet Cornbread?
2 tablespoons bacon grease, lard, or vegetable oil
½ cup chopped onion
2 cups chopped okra, fresh or frozen
2 cups peeled chopped canned or fresh plum tomatoes, with juice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
In a large, heavy skillet, heat the bacon grease over medium heat until a bit of onion sizzles at once. Scatter in the onion and cook, tossing it often, until it is softened, shiny, and fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the okra, tomatoes, salt, and pepper and stir to combine all the ingredients evenly. Bring them to a gentle boil and then adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring and scraping to keep the stew from sticking, until the okra is tender and the tomatoes have formed a thick, pleasing red sauce, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot or warm.
Reprinted with permission from Southern Soups & Stews: More Than 75 Recipes from Burgoo and Gumbo to Etouffée and Fricassee by Nancie McDermott (Chronicle Books).
Southern Soups & Stews. (Photo: Leigh Beisch)
For more awesome soups to inspire you this fall, visit our Soups & Stews Pinterest board and get to pinning!
More soups to cozy up to:
Chicken Soup That Really Will Warm the Soul
Butternut Squash Soup from ‘My Kitchen Year’
Black-Eyed Pea Stew from ‘Southern Soups & Stews’
