Oven-Fried Okra

I don’t know about you, but I’ve Pinned so many recipes and actually tried only a hand full of them.  Time to change that – I started with oven-fried okra this Sunday night.  Born with a very Southern palette, fried okra is one of my absolute favorite foods.  This was so delicious even my non-okra eating hubby liked it!

I based it off the Pinterest recipe (originally via Cookin' Cowgirl) with a few tweaks and my own dipping sauce (mainly to lure Josh in, not necessary).

Ingredients:

16 oz. bag of chopped frozen okra, thawed

1 c. yellow cornmeal

½ t. garlic salt

1 t. Lawry’s seasoning salt (or Cajun seasoning)

Pepper to taste

Canola cooking spray

Gallon-sized Ziploc bag

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Turn the Ziploc bag inside out and spray with the Canola cooking spray.  Then turn back right-side out and pour in the thawed okra, salt and Lawry’s / Cajun seasoning.  Shake it well and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Add the cornmeal to the bag and shake really well again.  Let sit for another 10 minutes.  Shake one last time.

Pour over a colander and sift out the extra cornmeal.

Spread okra out on foil lined baking sheet.  Spray with Canola cooking spray.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Flip okra with spatula, spray with cooking spray and bake another 20 minutes or until crunchy and golden brown.

I served with a spicy ranch (added cayenne pepper to ranch dressing).  Thanks to Jean for picking me up this appetizer cone from Home Goods.

I couldn’t get enough of it and it really didn’t taste very different from the very fried variety.  I heated it up the next day for lunch (in the oven on 425) and it was just as good as the first time.

Enjoy!

XO,

Whit