Okra ?

Fry it in olive oil of course.

I just boil it. (well, okay, simmer)

I do prefer the whole baby okra for that though. Bigger pods tend to be tougher, which aren't as nice to eat whole.

I also like to put a sliver of unsalted butter on top of my serving, which doesn't kill my daily calorie count or fat grams goal quite as much as you might think. (On the other hand, I do almost all my own cooking, so have a good bit of control over how much fat I use in other things.)

Another relatively low cal thing is to make 'okra and tomatoes', which at our house means dumping a pound of frozen cut okra in a sauce pan with a 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes. Add a few dashes of creole seasoning (and hot sauce, if you like it really spicy) and simmer away. IIRC, I tend to add some water to it, just to make sure it doesn't stick.

If you want to get fancy, saute a half a medium onion in a teaspoon of olive oil first, then dump the other stuff on top. If you want something sort of gumbo-like, add some protein (shrimp would be my choice) and simmer to blend the flavors. (Gumbo purists like to argue about what makes gumbo truly gumbo. With okra, without tomatoes, with file, with sausage, without sausage ... . As for me, I just like the stuff. )

Most of the food magazines seem to think that okra and tomatoes has all sorts of other stuff in it, and it's true that sometimes I add some sauteed celery and bell pepper in there too, but honestly, I usually don't bother. (and no way do I ever put corn in my okra and tomatoes, though I know others do it.)

If you really must saute your okra first, try it in a relatively small amount of a tasty olive oil in a nonstick pan.

(ooh! sorry to ramble!) .

anyone have a special way to make okra so it ain't slimy

The only way that I have had okra is fried ( don't throw things...I haven't had fried okra in years :laugh: :laugh: )

My sister in law eats okra, and simmers it on the stove......what is up with the slimy???? :laugh: :laugh: ugh.....soooooooooooo gross!

What the heck is okra?

Here's a link to a food thesaurus page about 'edible pods', the top photo is of okra:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Pods.html