Okra

a Savor the South cookbook

By Virginia Willis

120 pp., 5.5 x 8.5, bibl., index

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-1442-7
    Published: March 2014
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-7751-4
    Published: August 2023
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-1443-4
    Published: March 2014
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-4479-8
    Published: March 2014

Savor the South Cookbooks

Buy this Book

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Passionate okra lovers crave this bright green, heat-loving vegetable, whether fried, grilled, steamed, roasted, boiled, broiled, pickled, raw, whole, sliced, or julienned. With Okra, Virginia Willis provides "the key that unlocks the door of okra desire" to okra addicts and newcomers to the pod alike.

Topping eight feet, with gorgeous butter-yellow flowers that ripen into the plant's signature seed-filled pods, okra has a long association with foodways in the American South. But as Willis shows, okra is also an important ingredient in cuisines across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Featuring gardening tips, a discussion of heirloom varieties, and expert cooking directions (including a list of "top ten slime-busting tips"), Okra brilliantly showcases fifty delectable recipes: twenty-six southern dishes, ranging from Southern-Style Fried Okra to Gulf Coast Seafood Gumbo, and twenty-four authentic global dishes, from Moroccan Lamb and Okra Tagine with Preserved Lemons to Cuban Pork with Yellow Rice, Okra, and Annatto Oil.

About the Author

Chef and food writer Virginia Willis hails from Atlanta and is the author of Bon Appétit, Y'all, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all, and the James Beard Award–winning Lighten Up, Y'all.
For more information about Virginia Willis, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"Virginia Willis can do magic with okra, frying it crisp, turning it into gumbo and also shares African, Mediterranean, Caribbean and Indian recipes for this odd vegetable. This book is a must for okra lovers, but also those, like me who don’t have a clue how to prepare it."--Cooking with Amy food blog

“50 delicious recipes, both southern and worldwide, and just about everything else you would ever want to know about okra.”--Foodsite Magazine

“Intriguing.”--Edible Charlotte

“[A] splendid series.”--Los Angeles Times

"Okra can be a challenge even for good cooks. Thank goodness there's a great cook like Virginia Willis here to help those of us who love to eat it but have been challenged by cooking it.”--Los Angeles Times

"Okra is a marvelous and original cookbook that not only fulfills the purpose of the Savor the South® cookbook collection, but very well could accomplish the messianic mission of its author: turning all okra haters into lovers, at last. The recipes promise lip-smacking satisfaction, are coherent and clearly structured. The book is enhanced by helpful how-to tips, interesting serving suggestions, and stories about where the recipes come from and why one simply must make them. Let the okra loving begin!"--Ronni Lundy, author of Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken: The Heart and Soul of Southern Country Kitchens

Multimedia & Links

Visit the author's website, virginiawillis.com.

Follow the author on Twitter @virginiawillis.

Keep up with the Savor the South series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SavortheSouth.