Greek Okra and Tomatoes
I learned this recipe from a Greek mom years ago. I've not made it in forever! But my neighbor gifted me some okra yesterday, so I decided to break out an oldie but a goodie! You can make this without the feta, but I think it's needed to further cut the heavy tomatoes.
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh okra (about 4 cups cut), cut 1/4" on bias
- 1 16oz can crushed tomatoes or whole, crushed by hand
- 1 small white onion, diced (about 1/2-2/3 cup)
- 5 cloves garlic, minced (about 1.5 Tbl) More, if desired! This is a garlic forward dish.
- 1/3 cup EVOO plus some for finishing
- 1 lemon, zest and juice, 1 Tbl reserved 1 large or 2 small; about 2Tbl juice
- S/P to taste
- 1 tsp oregano, dried to taste
- 2 tsp L&P worcestershire sauce
- 2-3 Tbl crumbled feta optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- Mix together all ingredients and pour into a casserole dish sprayed with food release (PAM).
- Sprinkle feta on top of casserole.
- Bake for 1.5 hours and check for doneness of veg. This may take 2 hours, depending on your casserole dish depth. You are looking for all the veg to be soft and cooked through.
- Add reserved lemon juice and a couple of turns of EVOO to casserole after you take it out of the oven.
- Check for seasoning and serve.
Notes
I served this with meatballs and it was perfect. It would be great with dolmathes as well.
This casserole is a little tricky to get the tomatoes balanced. Try to get the flavours of the oregano, L&P, lemon juice and S/P very close before you cook. If you're using feta, check seasoning with that since it adds some salt.
If your casserole dish is a flat square one, the cooking time will be less. I was using a deep oblong dish, so it took a full 2 hrs. This is a braise, so don't rush it.
The tomatoes and lemon juice should cut the slime of the okra nicely. What you should end up with is a thick casserole, but not slimy. I think this is one of the best ways to prepare okra aside from the Southern way of frying it.