Coconut Okra Soup

For some reason, that I may never know, Okra is one of the top search terms that brings people to this here blog of mine. I wonder if there is an internet shortage on okra content, or perhaps that people just love this amazing slimefest of a vegetable but just can’t find any okra recipes.

Whatever it may be, I thought it time I add in some new okra inspiration. Back in St. Lucia on my retreat, we had the most amazing soup I’ve ever had. And it contained enough okra to heal the intestines of the entire GI ward at your local hospital. Okra is a slime-feast as I said, and for this reason some people don’t like it.

But if you take that slime and add it to soup, what you get is a beautiful smooth and silky texture. And it is delicious. Okra, aloe, irish moss, chia, soaked flax seeds all have this similar property. We call it ‘mucilagenous’ and that is a super healthy feature of these foods.

Listen up. Along the lining of our intestines are these finger-like projections called cilia. This is where we absorb the nutrients from our food. There are a lot of foods (like dairy and sugar for example) that are mucous forming. This means that a mucousy layer starts to build up on these cilia. What happens is that we then can’t absorb the goods from our food very well. The result- malabsorption and nutrient deficiencies. And this leads us to sickness. The mucilagenous foods, though they feel slimy, actually help to shed this slime from our insides.

Coconut Okra Soup

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• Author: Meghan Telpner

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Ingredients

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• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
• 2 carrots, sliced into thin rounds
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 cup green beans, cut to 1? pieces
• 2 cups okra (about 12–16 pods), sliced into 1? pieces
• 3 cups spinach, coarsley chopped
• 5 cups water (or stock)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 can / 14 oz full fat organic coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp sea salt or more to taste

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Instructions

• Heat oil in soup pot and add onion, garlic, carrots, celery, green beans and okra.
• Cook for about five minutes until soft. Add a little water if gets sticky.
• Add water, cayenne, and spinach. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
• Add coconut milk and sea salt to taste.
• Options: You can puree this soup, keep it chunky or blend half to thicken and leave some veggies chunky.
• Serve hot!

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