Yakhnit Bamia: Okra Tomato Stew

I think that okra gets a bad rap. After all, it’s like the red violin of seed pods, wending it’s way across the continents through periods of political strife, drought, and social uprising, to find a place in the heart and on the plates of culturally and geographically diverse peoples around the world. I think I fell in love with the idea of okra before I ever ate it. It started with the poignant and romanticized stories of African slaves carrying the seeds across the ocean in their hair.