Growing up, I was an okra soup fanatic. Whenever my mother made it, I could be continually counted on to eat to excess and then promptly fall into a food coma. I've cut back as I've grown older because okra soup made with palm oil isn't the healthiest of dishes. Several chefs have attempted to adapt the recipe with vegetable oil to make it slightly healthier and reduce the cholesterol impact of the palm oil; however, I believe that the palm oil is essential to rich, deep flavor of the dish. I'm a okra soup purist, if you will. As such, these days, I only eat it sparingly, but relish those rare occasions. If you do choose to adapt the recipe with vegetable oil, I suggest using poultry instead of beef or smoked meat as the flavor is slightly better.



I learned how to make this recipe from my friend Julie from Ghana. We added a few crabs that you can see in the pictures, but I've omitted them from the recipe below.



Okra soup is a fascinating dish because of its many permutations across West Africa and its reinvention in the Americas as gumbo. Creole gumbo usually features a roux (a thickening agent made with a fat such as butter, mixed with flour) and is typically served over hot rice.



This recipe uses garden eggs, which are also called "African eggplants." When I first arrived in Accra, I was very confused as to what exactly the pale yellow "garden eggs" were. I had never seen them before when visiting Gambia or Kenya. After some inquiries, I learned that they are simply another variety of eggplant. In the States, if you're lucky, you may be able to find them at speciality African (and sometimes Asian) grocery stores. They're slightly more bitter than the aubergine (dark purple) eggplants I am used to.

Okra Soup

1 medium-sized salmon

1 lb smoked turkey (Note: traditionally most people tend to use beef)

1 pound Okro (Note: Ghanaians call okra "okro")

2 cloves garlic

3 medium tomatoes

1 large onion

1 tsp. grated ginger

2 chili peppers (scotch bonnets or other red chilis are best), ground or finely chopped

3 garden eggs (Substitute aubergines if unavailable)

1/2 cup mushrooms

1/2 cup palm oil

2 cubes of Bouillon cubes

Salt to taste