Let me begin by saying my family loves okra ~ especially breaded and fried! Okra does not look like it would have anything nutritious in it, so I did a search on the vitamins and minerals in it. Big surprise! According to nutritiondata.com 1/2 cup of boiled unsalted okra will give you 40% of your daily vitamin K and 22% of your vitamin C. If you eat it sliced raw in salads (which we also love) you will get 66% of your K and 35% of your C. This website did not have facts on fried okra and I am afraid that we are probably killing everything good for us in this veggie when we add the delicious fat and salt! By the way, any way you like okra, you MUST cut it while it is small to get good tender pods. I like to cut mine at 3" and under. I go out every morning while it is still halfway cool and clip the young pods. If you leave them for a few days, they will be long and tough. My favorite way to prepare okra (besides just slicing them thinly and putting raw in salads) is to slice them about 1/4" thick, dip the slices in beaten egg, then in cornmeal with just a bit of salt and pepper added. Fry in butter or oil. Yummy!!
