Bhendi Subzi/ Okra Stirfry

Bhendi/ Okra/ Ladies Finger is a vegetable that you either completely hate it or you love it. Luckily my kiddos like it as much as us, so I make variety of dishes with it. Okra is has same nutrition as kiwi it seems! It goes in regular curry, special sweet and sour curry, stuffed kind and then this simple subzi or stirfry. And as I am writing this, I realized that I don't have a single Okra recipe on my blog. That's strange considering I do buy okra pretty regularly and never had probably thought of clicking pictures to actually post. This particular dish is my mom's recipe.

Now one thing you have to be careful with this vegetable is that when you wash and cut, HAVE to make sure that it's dry. Yes, completely dry. My older sister had told me that first time she made this dish, and she didn't now about drying. So she cut them immediately after washing it. Later all they had was one big blob of slimy stuff. So when you wash it, make sure to pat them dry (really dry) with a towel. I usually wash and lay them down on towel, let them hang out for about 10 minutes and then pat dry. Just cut the top off and you are good to start chopping.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cooking Time: 20 min | Serves: 6

Ingredients:

Bhendi - 1 lb
Onion - large, chopped
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
Urid daal/ Split black gram - 1 tsp.
Garlic - 4 pods, crushed and chopped
Chili Powder - 1 tsp.
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp.
Tomato - 2 large, cubedGrated Coconut (optional) - 2 tbsp.
Salt - to taste (About 1 tsp.)
Oil - 1 tbsp.

Method of Preparation:

~ Chop the completely dried okra and keep it aside.
~ In a wide pan or kadai, heat oil and add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add the urid daal.
~ Now add garlic, fry for few seconds and add the chopped onion. Add a pinch of salt and fry until onion turns translucent.
~ Keep the heat to medium high and add okra. Now keep frying until bhendi looses it's sliminess and is almost cooked.
~ Add chili powder, garam masala powder and tomatoes. Keep mixing them all until tomatoes are done.
~ Adjust the salt (remember we already added to onion) and sprinkle fresh grated coconut if using.
~ Mix and serve them hot with rotis or as a side for a rice.

Note:
- Buying guide: When choosing Okra make sure they are lighter green and smaller in size. If you could hold and break the tip, it should easily do so. The young okra pods are tasty and they cook fast. Once they are left too long to mature on the plant, they are hard to cut and cook.

Linking this recipe to,
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