Egyptian Chickpea + Okra Stew

Oct 15, 2021

As I was gathering ingredients yesterday to begin my soup prep, I was fielding emails about the very book that this blog is devoted to, Soup Club, finalizing arrangements for a very cool sneak peek event at our local cookbook store, the Book Larder, next month. (After the books have been held in limbo, prey to “supply chain issues” for months. It is a HUGE relief.) It got me in the best mood. I bopped around to Beyoncé on another planet as I cut okra and onions for this soup. I first made this stew last year after my best friend’s dad, a farmer in Virginia, sent me a huge box of okra after he heard me complain all the way across the country that it was hard to find here in Seattle. This stew was also my first real attempt at what ended up being a signature move of mine in soup club: to run toward vegetables most people think they don’t like and show their tasty side. I came up with this recipe as a vegan variation of a stew I make often for my family that features lamb, one I made up when my family and I were living in Texas (also known as the land of okra) and that I still make today. (Here’s the recipe, if you’re curious… add chunks of braised lamb to what I’m bringing you and you’d find your way to it anyway.) So, while I’m still dancing around my kitchen in celebration of OUR COOKBOOK IS HAPPENING – this product of community, love and fearless vegetable yumminess – I am making you this soup that holds all of those things in it. Consider this my soup love letter. To my community and okra, may they have a long future together. Join us!

Serving Suggestions:

  • Over rice, quinoa or other favorite grain (we do this charred cauliflower rice in our house)
  • Topped with chili flakes
  • If you eat meat, sauté some ground lamb in the saucepan before adding the soup; simmer together 5 minutes for flavors to blend. (This would be a cheater version of our family’s favorite.)

Show me how you serve it by emailing me your photo! Submissions are automatically entered to win a drawing for a Soup Club cookbook.


Yes, all this fun and love went into the recipe. That’s why it tastes so good.


Ready to launch this book, yo.


 

 

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