Okra, Corn, and Tomatoes: Michael W. Twitty’s Okra Stew Recipe

Michael W. Twitty is an award-winning food historian, writer, and speaker. The author of the groundbreaking book The Cooking Gene, which chronicles the exploration of his family history and the impact of enslaved Africans on cooking practices and agriculture in the American South, Michael has become one of the country’s go-to scholars on African American food. Combining both his African American and Jewish identities in his dishes, ingredients, and cooking techniques, Michael uses food to explore how history and ancestry show up in kitchens.

Michael W. Twitty’s recipe for stewed okra, corn, and tomatoes makes for a great light dinner, and it tells the story of “the garden of our ancestors” where tomatoes and corn grew together with okra as companion plants. (Companion planting is the practice of growing different plants together specifically because they have complementary characteristics, such as pest-repelling abilities, that aid in one another’s growth.)

The base of this recipe is stewed tomatoes with okra and onion, which ties it to many parts of the African diaspora: One variation shows up as the base of okra gumbo in the United States, another that omits the tomatoes gets close to a recipe for okra stew in West Africa. The addition of cornmeal creates a third dish similar to both cou cou (a type of grits made of cornmeal and okra) found in Barbados and fungi (a Caribbean version of polenta) in the US and the British Virgin Islands. Fresh corn kernels bring this recipe closer to succotash. This stew highlights each vegetable while bringing them together to create something truly greater than the sum of its parts. Serve the stew with a side of rice cooked in broth or with cornbread for heartier fare.

Taste the bounty of summer by stewing together three of the season’s most flavorful vegetables.

1. 1. Buy or make kitchen pepper. Kitchen pepper is a premixed blend of spices found across the African diaspora that typically includes allspice, clove, cinnamon, and cardamom. Unlike Cajun seasoning or Creole seasoning, it isn’t necessarily hot. You can find the spice blend in most West African food stores and online or make your own.
2. 2. Choose smaller okra. Common across the African diaspora, okra appears in many dishes, whether deep-fried, in gumbo, or stewed with tomatoes, offering an earthy flavor and gelatinous texture. Choose pods about as long as a finger since they’re most likely younger and less gooey when cooked. Presliced frozen okra works in a pinch.
3. 3. Use fresh whole-kernel corn. Fresh corn kernels will add more texture to the dish than precooked canned or frozen corn. Sweet corn has the best flavor during the summertime, when all three of this dish’s star ingredients are in season and available at the farmers’ market.
4. 4. Make it vegan. Some okra stew recipes feature bacon for an extra salty, savory flavor. If you prefer to skip the bacon, use olive oil or vegetable oil to sauté the vegetables.