A Hearty Southern Vegetarian Dinner

In my attempt to start planning and eating healthy meals, I recently commissioned an organic produce delivery from Cavite.

Shino delivers to Pasay every week (Wednesdays). You can choose between a 4.5Kg or 6Kg basket. The 4.5 kg basket lasts us 1.5 weeks. Plus I usually get my organic eggs from him. He's currently on vacation in Japan so I don't have any fresh organic vegetable delivery for June! You can tweak the amount of vegetables included to suit your family's weekly menu. During my first few orders, I over-ordered the okra so I had to look for some recipes so the okras won't go to waste. Stan was not exactly a fan of okra so the dish had to be tempered with something palatable to him. Quick google search for okra led me to several recipes. But it was this Okra and Tomato Soup recipe by Diana Rattray that caught my eye:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 green onions, with most of green, sliced
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1 rib celery, sliced
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 8 to 10 ounces okra, about 3 to 4 cups sliced
• 1 cup corn kernels (canned or frozen thawed)
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
• dash freshly ground black pepper
• salt, to taste

PREPARATION:

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil and butter over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic, and celery; sauté, stirring, until celery is tender. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, sliced okra, corn kernels, Cajun seasoning, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until okra is tender. Add salt to taste.
Serves 4.

Now, where to get the Cajun seasoning.. more googling led me to this:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup salt
• 3 tablespoons granulated garlic or garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons ground black pepper, freshly ground if possible
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon paprika

Preparation:

Combine all seasonings and mix to blend thoroughly. Pour into a small jar with cover; seal tightly.

The soup was a hit!! I also found a package of cornbread mix and had Tata cook it for dinner. The cornbread was a bit dry but Stan (and Naima) really loved the okra soup. We had it on that day when it was raining really hard. No reason to cut down my okra order. I just love googling recipes --> and Southern food rocks :D