Bhindi Masala (Okra With Red Onion and Tomato) Recipe (2024)

Okra only gets a bad rap in the West, where it is cooked in ways that make it slimy. In South Asia & the Middle East, it's cooked in multiple ways, wet/dry, sauteed, fried, roasted, stewed, and it's always delicious never slimy. Fresh okra is better than frozen. A souring agent helps: e.g. amchoor, lemon juice, tamarind, tomato, Ghee is not a must to keep okra non-slimy. Vegetable oil works as well. I am Indian, I cook okra as often as I can in the summers, and have never cooked it in ghee.

This is one of my favorite ways to eat okra. Key to keeping the sliminess away is drying the okra well after washing with water. I usually lay the okra out on a kitchen towel and pat them dry. Instead of circles, I slice mine into long strips and add cherry tomatoes at the end. I am not sure frozen will give you quite the same crunchiness. Use fresh okra on the smaller side.

Another way to cook this is to put the cut okra in a sheet pan, drizzle oil on it, and in the oven at 400 F for about 30-40 mins. Shake the pan once after about 20 mins. Then finish on the stove, following the latter part of the recipe.

If you don't like the sliminess of okra, don't expose the seeds when you snip the top off. It's only when you expose the seeds, okra becomes slimy. I discovered this reading Yotam Otalengi's cookbooks.

This is a delicious recipe.However, typically Indian okra is often cooked dry without ginger and tomoatos, and pan roasted with onions and spices.

Could not agree more. The drying step is key to a crispy finish vs. a slimy mess. I cut mine lengthwise and roast it in the oven for 25- 30 mins at 420F with some tandoori masala and ghee.

Fave okra recipe ever. I doubled it; roasted chunks of garden okra plus eggplant at 450° until lightly browned; then added those to the mixture of seasonings, toms, and onions. I used lots of fresh ginger and turmeric Vitamixed with a bit of water; one Thai chili; and I added a can of garbanzos and quarter cup of coconut milk at the end along with cilantro. We sop it up with grilled flatbread. Fantastic vegan dish; superb summer harvest highlighter! I plan to try this with squash, beans....

Article / email notes that any frozen vegetable can be used instead of okra.

Great, fast recipe. Did (almost) exactly as written. My only note is that it is QUITE spicy! I might suggest starting with 1/2 tsp of kashmiri chili, taste, and add more if needed. I added a bit of fresh cilantro at the end to provide a bit of freshness and cool the heat.

I made this as is and found it to be very delicious. Only note is that it was very salty. I will definitely reduce the salt in the future!

I skipped the tomato as I like my okra dry and instead of Garam Masala at the end, sprinkled Dry Mango powder (called Aamchoor, available at any Indian grocery store), that gives it a wonderful tart finish and less heat. Squeeze of lime not needed if using Dry Mango powder.

Used less salt than required and still a little salty. Still good. Added a little cream which made the sauce less spicy. Very delicious

9" frying pan was too small to effectively sear the okra.

Very tasty, but a bit sour. Doubled the amounts of ginger, garlic, coriander and turmeric, used less chili since I don't like very spicy food. Too much lime juice - next time would put out wedges of lime for each person to squeeze as desired. Would definitely make again.

I used canned diced tomato because I didn't have any fresh. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written and it was a smash hit. Served it with lebneh with fresh mint and lavash as a summery stew and it was hearty and delicious. It's beautiful too.

Delicious as written. I doubled the recipe and added a fatalii pepper which went perfectly with the citrus in this recipe. If doubling I'd suggest to cook the okra in a few batches so that they can all crisp up.

Southerner here. Okra gets slimy when cut. If you can get small okra and cook whole. I love okra and would cook and eat it every day if the family would tolerate that. Bhindi masala is one of my favorites.

This was quite good and fairly easy! I followed the tip in the recipe (and in various reviews) about drying the okra well after rinsing/before chopping. That definitely yielded a different, more charred texture than I've previously experienced cooking okra. I was out of red onion but white worked pretty well. Nice flavor.

A question: can I cook this in a cast iron pan? Or will it turn black?

Used Pork breakfast sausage - browned it after the onions, didn't use the food processor on the pepper/ginger/garlic/onions. Could use more than one jalepeno, and even more ginger. I also used about 2c. tomato puree instead of tomatoes

A hack for those who realize at the last minute they have no tomatoes on hand ... reach for the closest container of tomato-based salsa. I used about 1/2 cup of a chunky good quality one and the dish tasted great. Also found that I needed less lime juice than called for in the recipe.

Excellent recipe and found it especially helpful to learn that cooking okra undisturbed reduces the slime factor. As others have noted, I would recommend less salt than the recipe calls for, you could probably even half it.

I skipped the tomato as I like my okra dry and instead of Garam Masala at the end, sprinkled Dry Mango powder (called Aamchoor, available at any Indian grocery store), that gives it a wonderful tart finish and less heat. Squeeze of lime not needed if using Dry Mango powder.

Very decent recipe

Bake okra with eggplant 400 to 450 oven. Then add

This is on my regular rotation and was my lunch today. It is lovely with fresh okra, frozen not so much. As another commenter mentioned, it is best with small okra and I use cherry or grape tomatoes in winter. I always keep frozen ginger/garlic paste in the freezer. I line ice cube trays with pieces of plastic wrap to get easy to use cubes that keep nicely in the freezer for about a month if I put the wrapped cubes in a freezer bag. A little longer if I wrap that freezer bag well in tinfoil.

too salty! I'd cut in half next time. definitely good though and easy. Mind the splatter of hot ghee....