Note: We no longer eat pork but turkey bacon works beautifully in this dish! 
Some of my favorite recipes begin with “first you fry up some bacon…”, and that immediately tells you a lot about this dish. Garden fresh spoils of summer blend together perfectly to create a flavor that’ll make your tongue slap your mouth. I’ve made countless variations of this dish though the years but this one tends to be my favorite these days – mostly because, well, bacon. I mean, seriously. Bacon.
Take a moment to just stare in appreciation at how beautiful this looks all mixed up together in my vintage dish? ~sigh~ Makes my heart happy and my stomach growl. I don’t reckon you could ask for much more than that.
Objection! Objection! What if you don’t like okra? Oh goodness yes I hear ya, the okra haters out there. A lot of people avoid okra because they feel it is slimy. However, cooking it how we do in this recipe is going to really help that because we are actually sautéing the okra at a very high heat, in bacon grease no less, and this significantly reduces that one characteristic that seems to stand out to some folks. Me? I could eat okra all day long any way you cook it. But like I said, this dish is a dear favorite and has won over many an okra naysayer.
Ingredients above are smiling for the camera.
This time of year I LOVE to use garden fresh veggies. The ones pictured were a gift from my sweet neighbor. If you don’t have fresh available, though, you can use frozen sliced okra and canned whole or diced tomatoes. You can even use frozen chopped onion if you like.
Note: We use turkey bacon nowadays. Gave up the pig nearly three years ago 🙂
You’ll need to chop your onion, dice your okra, and cut up your tomatoes as well.
Then, fry your bacon in a large skillet and set it aside on a paper towel lined plate once it is nice and crispy.
In the bacon grease that is now in the skillet, place your onions and cook over medium high heat until they are translucent.
If using turkey bacon, as I do now, add a tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet.
Add okra and tomatoes and cook, stirring often, until okra is tender. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper (according to your tastes).
Serve immediately because, well at this point I’m usually eating it right out of the skillet anyway so if y’all want some of it you better step up pretty fast!
This would be amazing served alongside any Southern meal. Check out my fuss free fried chicken!
- 5-50 pieces of bacon*
- 3 medium to large tomatoes, diced
- 1 onion, chopped
- about 2 big handfuls of okra*, diced (2-3 cups once diced)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- In large skillet over medium high heat, cook bacon until crispy, turning as needed. Remove cooked bacon to paper towel lined plate and set aside.
- Keep about 4 tablespoons of bacon grease in skillet and pour the rest into your grease jar to save.
- Place chopped onion into bacon grease and continue cooking over medium high heat until onion is translucent. Add okra and tomatoes and cook, stirring often, until okra is tender. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper to taste.
- Remove to serving bowl and generously sprinkle crumpled bacon over top.
**We use turkey bacon and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet when frying the onions.
“A strong woman looks a challenge dead in the eye and gives it a wink.”
~Unknown
Love this, reminds me of my sweet mama’s cooking. Thank you, Christy.
What precious memories and how blessed we are to have them!
When cooking a vegetable, do not add meat of any kind, nor broth, nor Bacon.
Okra is my favorite vegetable and it should be coated with cornmeal and skillet fried in vegetable oil.
Yes, I eat bacon but I do not ruin vegetables with meat products to change taste.
Thank you for your opinion, Dot. Mine is entirely different, of course, but that is the wonderful thing about our world. You don’t have to add bacon to your veggies and I can make up for it by adding double 😉
“Ruin” is the opposite of what bacon does to this dish but occasionally my daughter and I have opposite day where we have fun all day saying the opposite of what we mean. I’ll have to use this then! 🙂
Christy, This was my first solid food in almost 3 weeks. I had oral surgery and have been fitted with a full upper plate; not fun. Those who are not familiar with dentures, it’s like having a peanut butter sandwich stuck to the roof of your mouth… forever.
Saturday morning, my wife and I got fresh okra, tomatoes and butter beans from the farmer’s market. I figured, go big or go hungry. I made braised chicken thighs with mushrooms and onions; with a Cajun flare. Then I made your okra, tomatoes and bacon. Then butter beans in a homemade pork stock, with bacon and chunks from the hocks. My mouth was sore but it was divine. Your recipe is spot-on. Thank you.
God bless.
Reply:
Christy, I’ve been cooking for 60 years, professionally and otherwise and am originally from the NYC/Long Island area; now living in SC and learning to cook all things Southern. Baking is a science whereas cooking is a matter of preferences. It really irks my ire when people make their preference appear as though it’s the only way to do things.
I’m with you. Bacon makes just about everything taste better. And don’t believe the researchers who say that you lose 9 minutes of life for every piece of bacon you eat. If that were true, I died in 1798.
God bless.
LOL, blessings to you Chris!! You made my day!
What a joy you are! You’re the rare person these days who decides not to return evil with evil, but to return evil with good! I think that’s what 1 Peter 3:9 is all about!
Well okra is really good the way you said and I fix it rolled in corn meal and fried but it is really good in a gumbo with seafood and in a skillet wth bacon for season along with onion, tomatoes, okra and corn!
This will be making its way into my skillet soon! Looks delicious, and I love the idea of fried pork chops along side!
Oh my goodness, yes. They just make a meal sometimes!
Not a bacon fan, but love Okra. My Oklahoma born and reared mother fried up the best Okra in the South. I miss that.
There is a special place on God’s table for a big old bowl of Fried Okra!
This dish reminds me of my mom. She fried the best okra, and sometimes added tomatoes.
Mama’s and Grandmama’s always made the best dishes didn’t they?
Sounds good, but do you have to,eat it right away? Would it be good to take to a cover dish party or will the okra get slimy?
Oh yes you can take it places. It travels well and reheats well. I was just being goofy. 🙂 sorry about that!
Thank you for another wonderful summer recipe. Bacon makes everything better!
🙂 Amen! I hope you enjoy it!!
Thank you for showing me how simple this dish is. I love Okra and Tomatoes but never learned the recipe. It looked complicated but you have now solved my problem…..and yes!!! it will be made with bacon.
🙂 I hope you enjoy it Joyce!!
Sounds great. Do you peel the fresh tomatoes before you add them?
Hi Donna!! I don’t peel the tomatoes, but if that is your preference you could 🙂 .
Oh my word that looks delicious! I planted okra this year for the first time, because it’s so hard to find it fresh where I live. The plants are still tiny, but I have hope and am encouraging them to grow up and reach into that sunshine and Make Okra Please!
I’m going to Pin this recipe – thanks!
Oh my goodness, there is nothing like a mess of fresh okra, straight from the garden!! I will say a little prayer that you have a bountiful harvest 🙂
Yum! One of my summertime favorites! I need to check and see if this stuff is at my farmer’s market this weekend!
I hope you find everything you need Missy!!
I love okra any way it is cooked. I have run into the slime problem with some of the family.
There is a very simple solution………for boiled okra or microwave when using water to cook it, just add 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice or vinegar to the water before adding OKRA and you will never have this problem again. It does not change the flavor of the okra.
Great tip, thanks for sharing Peggy!!
This looks and sounds amazing, Christy. Some fresh field peas and your Hot Water Cornbread on the side would make the meal. Thank you for your positivity in a crazy world. Blessings!
Oh my goodness, I agree!!! Blessings to you!!
I make a similar dish adding corn and beans, we eat it as a meal with rice and corn bread. I cook the beans in a separate pot and add at the end.
I make this and sometimes turn it into a main dish meal by adding a pound of peeled, deveined shrimp when everything is done. It takes only 5 minutes or so for the shrimp to cook. Add cornbread and you have a complete meal. Delicious!
This recipe rocks…one of my girlfriends suggested cutting the corn of a couple of cobs…that is good as well if you want a little variation. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It is just wonderful.
I am so glad you liked it Vicki!! Love the corn suggestion, I will have to give it a try!
I love okra anyway you fix. Especially boiled and pickled. My Granny used to add a Tablespoon of lemon juice when she boiled it water and it does cut down on the slime
Somehow I missed this when you first posted it. Made it tonight, pretty much doubled the recipe, used the whole package of bacon and also sliced a link of jalapeno summer sausage into it for an electric skillet low carb meal. Two thumbs up from my husband who could not imagine okra without the corn meal. I also left a few okra pods whole and cooked them in with the bacon as I imagined they would take longer to cook – perfection. Served with more uncooked onions and tomatoes. Heaven on a plate!
I am so glad you liked it Melissa!!! Love the idea of cooking a few pods of okra with the bacon!!
Christy,
This sounds like a great Low Carb side dish? What do you think?