One of the most prolific plants in my garden this year was, by far, okra. It's hard to believe that those three little tiny plants have turned into piles and piles of the stuff. I have to admit that I have not done a whole lot of research as to the uses of okra in the kitchen. The only reason we purchased it was because we wanted to try something new. Well, it turns out that my kids are not big fans of okra. All kids are different and have different tastes, but I honestly do not know of many kids who like it at all! Needless to say, I needed to do something with all this okra and the first thing that came to my mind was gumbo. My grandmother made gumbo, so surely I could make a vegan version of gumbo. In addition to plenty of okra and tomatoes I also added some eggplant (just happened to have some from the garden), onions, celery, mushrooms, and pieces of vegan sausage. I just tore up a tube of Gimme Lean sausage. The base was a carton of organic vegetable stock, salt, pepper, a little cornstarch to thicken it, and a few bay leaves because they are GOOD! Let this all cook for a while. The longer you cook it, the better it is. So it is okay if you are in a hurry and threw this together to eat in half an hour, but it is REALLY GOOD of you let it simmer for a couple hours!Serve over some rice (or mix the rice in, whatever you feel like) with a nice sourdough baguette and a good white wine. You'll feel like you're dining in New Orleans (use your imagination!).
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