Home › Soups with Meat, and Purees › Okra Soup (Stir slices of corned ham)
Okra Soup (Stir slices of corned ham)
Stir 2 slices of corned ham (minced), a chopped onion, and two dozen okra into a quart of chicken stock. Add a pint of strained tomatoes and boil all until the okra is tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
A plain Southern okra-and-tomato soup that depends entirely on the quality of the salt-cured ham and the tenderness of the okra. Quantities are loose in the original, so a little judgment is needed on the pods and the salt.
- Corned ham"Corning" means curing with salt (from the "corns" or grains of salt), a salt-cured ham rather than a brined brisket-style cut. Two slices of a country ham, or the meat from a good smoked ham hock, minced to roughly 2-3 oz, will stand in; prosciutto is close in saltiness though not identical in flavour.
- Two dozen okraThat means two dozen pods, roughly 8-12 oz, sliced into rounds about a quarter inch thick. Choose small, firm pods; anything longer than four inches is likely to be woody.
- Salt lastThe ham carries most of the seasoning. Taste only after the ham has had time to give up its salt, or the soup may end up too salty.
- Strained tomatoesA pint of tomato passata or canned crushed tomatoes pushed through a sieve. Acidity is commonly held to cut okra's mucilage, so it is worth keeping the tomato in even if you are tempted to leave the soup pale.
- Cooking time"Boil until the okra is tender" will take roughly 20 to 30 minutes. The original says boil, but a gentle simmer is kinder to the pods; a hard rolling boil will pulp them and leave the soup ropy.
- OnionSweat the chopped onion with the minced ham in a spoonful of the ham fat before the liquid goes in. The original skips this, but it costs five minutes and adds most of the depth the soup has.
- YieldAbout three pints, serving four as a first course or two as a main with rice or cornbread.