Tired of okra and black eyed peas from Hollygrove Market staying in my fridge and going to waste, I decided to make something of them. I wanted to incorporate them into something delicious, something nutritious, something to go over rice or pasta. Initially, I was thinking of a stew good enough to be a pasta sauce.

I threw in some squash, onion, and mushroom better than bouillon. The outcome was very delicious indeed. I ended up putting it on both rice and pasta, but I really didn’t need to add it to anything. 

To start this stew I cut up all of the veggies into stew-sized portions. Well duh.

With the Okra, I wanted to squeeze out some of the goo. After cutting them up, I put it in some paper towels. 

Covered it and rolled it up.

Then gave it a good squeeze. 

This didn’t work as well as plan. Just act like it did ;p. jk jk. Anyhow …

Turning to my pot that I heated for a minute or so on medium heat, I tossed in some olive oil and onions. I wanted the onions a bit tender and translucent. This brings out the sugars hidden in onions. 

After cooking for about 5 minutes, I added some squash and covered it. 

5 more minutes, then the green peppers.

Then some mushroom better than bouillon and water. 

Here’s the stuff. 

And the black eyed peas … the original black eyed peas. Please don’t add a CD of the black eyed peas … I doubt it would turn out tasty.  

After simmering for probably half an hour (might have been an hour, I forgot), I got some delicious stew. 

I think I just seasoned this with some salt, pepper, and curry powder. 

Stew’s my easy way to get all the good stuff from veggies sitting around in your fridge. There’s no recipe necessary. I usually just toss whatever I want in it (as long as I think the flavors compliment). Some of the ingredients I have added to stew have been cheese, egg, peanut butter, meat, veggies, starches (potatoes, yuca, etc), spices, diced tomatoes, coconut milk, cream, milk, and broth. I haven’t yet tried to put them in all at once … and I don’t think I will. But with just veggies, broth, and seasonings, I made the delicious stew shown above. 

On a side now toss on a fried egg or two onto any thick soup or stew and you’ll get an amazing and hardy breakfast. 

Yup. Just about anything goes with stew, even an egg. I used the delicious black bean soup from The Vintage Garden Kitchen for this start-of-the-day meal.