How to Make Okra with Tomato Stew - Eat With Amala

There are the usual draw soups that I grew up with, Okro cooked into a sauce with vegetables, like the one I made with Ogbono, here. And then there's the okro I discovered when I was a bit older, and more common with southwest or Yoruba cooking. You prepare your tomato stew as usual [see recipe], and then you cut or blend your okro, and then mix both into a soup.

I am lucky to get very good okro at our local grocery store where it's cut and frozen fresh. So for a change of menu, I use it with tomato stew every once in a while.

Ingredients

Cut or blended fresh Okra
Broth if you have some
1/2 of a small sized onion
1 Fresh pepper
1 Knorr chicken cube
Salt to taste.

How to Make Tomato Stew in Pictures

Tomato stew is one of those meals all Nigerians are supposed to know how to cook, and it is a base to a lot of popular foods like white rice and stew, with dodo, with okro for swallow foods, among others. I find it one of the easiest to prepare as it doesn't need much attention, except when it does.

Yes, I've had some of my stew burn at the bottom of the pot because I forgot it for about five minutes or so. But if you pay attention towards the end, and remember to keep the heat low, it should not be too hard to get it just right.

Egg Plant With Gizzard in Tomato Sauce

This was one of our no-carbs dinner nights. I replaced the carb with aubergine, also known as egg plant and boiled it  for a few minutes in the back. Gizzard is like a delicacy to me, I just love it and can munch on a it all day when well cooked and spicy :)

Depending on the size of the egg plant, one or two should be enough. Wash thoroughly to avoid sand or any debris and cut into pieces of your choice. Put in a pot with just enough water to cover the pieces, add a pinch of salt and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain immediately.



GIZZARD IN TOMATO SAUCE

Ingredients - store bought gizzards, vegetable oil, onions, tomatoes, pepper - all chopped, 1 maggi cube and salt to taste.

1. Put 2 teaspoons of oil in a sauce pan, and heat till lightly smoking.
2. Add the washed small pack of gizzards, the maggi cube and salt.
3. Saute on low heat for 15mins, stirring intermittently.
4. Add the chopped onions, tomatoes and pepper and keep stirring for another 10 mins.
5. Check that the seasoning is enough, and add more if necessary.
6. Remove from heat once it starts to simmer.

How to Cook Thick Chili Con Carne - Serve with Pap

Chili is what we call beans porridge in Nigeria, beans stewed in oil, tomatoes, pepper and other condiments. Chili Con Carne is when you add meat to the equation, in this instance minced beef. There are various ways to cook this, as usual, but mostly kidney beans are used more than black-eyed beans. The way I cook this one, you'll have a thick outcome, best served with pap.

Ingredients:

1 pack of 85% ground beef
2 packs of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 ladlefuls of vegetable oil
2 large tins of tomato puree
5 medium sized fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 large chopped onions
1 tablespoon dried garlic or to taste
1 tablespoon dried ground cumin or to taste
1 tablespoon dried oregano or to taste
2 tablespoons chili powder or to taste
Salt and other mixed spices to taste

Spaghetti and Tomato Sauce with Green Lima Beans

Spaghetti and Tomato sauce is a regular in these parts but the Green Lima Beans addition was a first recently. Frozen vegetables were on a half-price sale at the store so I decided to pick a few new ones I had never tried before, one of those was green Lima beans. I wasn't too sure how it would turn out, so on the day I tried it, I decided to use it as a side to a more familiar meal.