OKRA FRITTERS RECIPE
Okra fritters are good with any meal. Okra has always been a very popular vegetable in the South. I add it to my hoecakes and make these okra fritters as long as I can get okra in summer and winter months . If you like okra, you will love this easy, quick recipe for okra fritters. Try these on your family and friends. I bet you will be surprised how good they are. An old fashioned Southern recipe you will make time and again. Okra fritters have been a staple bread in our house for many years. My family never gets tired of this recipe and it goes with everything. Most people who don’t like okra will like these okra fritters.
Okra Fritters Simple Ingredients:
Okra, cut in round pieces (Can use fresh or frozen)
Self-rising cornmeal
All purpose flour
Egg
Onion
Buttermilk
Salt & Pepper, (Optional)
Cooking Oil
These fritters are a great addition to any meal, pretty much any time of year. We love them in the summer, they go great with a delicious garden meal. We also love them in the winter as they go wonderful with soup too.
Someone said in the comments their family doesn’t like buttermilk.. you can’t taste buttermilk in the fritters. Actually cooking/baking with buttermilk is adding a certain fat level to make the recipe even better. I have never had someone “taste” buttermilk in a recipe.
“Because of you and this wonderful recipe, I am back on the “A” list with my husband. We have recently moved to southeastern Arizona. I have found that many of the local growers are raising okra. I was wondering how I might use it other than in soups and stews when I noticed on your news feed someone commenting on this recipe. Needless to say I hot footed it over here and have made this three times in the last 10 days, one of the batches being a double. My husbands’ response to all this, when his mouth has emptied enough from all the fritters he is busy stuffing it with is, “Southern Ladies really know what they are doing!”- Lisa
Okra Fritters
Ingredients
- 2 cups okra cut in round pieces (Can use fresh or frozen)
- 1 1/4 cups self-rising cornmeal
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup onion finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- Salt & Pepper (Optional)
- 1 cup oil
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl with a spoon mix together all ingredients except okra and oil. Fold in the okra. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Drop by spoonfuls into the hot oil. (I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup for each fritter). Fry on one side about 2 minutes or until good and crusty, turn and fry the other side. Drain on paper towels. Slather with butter and enjoy
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I haven’t made these yet, but I’m planning on it. I bet they’d be awesome with my homemade sauce (similar to blooming onion). Thank you!
I decided after Thanksgiving I didn’t want to do the same turkey-and-dressing for Christmas. So, instead, I cut up half a slab of pork belly, browned the cubes and cooked them in my Instant Pot until meltingly tender. I added Worcestershire sauce, a little water and a generous amount of Chinese 5 Spice. I pulled out a package of okra from my freezer and set it out to thaw. When I got ready to do something with it, I found it was a smash-up of cut okra. Couldn’t batter and fry that. But, maybe I could make okra fritters! I didn’t know if that was even a “thing.” So I mixed up some hush puppy mix, divided the okra into four squares, sprinkled each one generously with 5 Spice, spooned the mix over the okra, and carefully carried each big square over to the hot frying pan. When they were cooked and drained, I decided to spoon queso dip over each one. My family loved ’em!
Your recipe sounds wonderful, and that’s how I’ll make my fritters from now on. But, I might stick with the 5 Spice and queso dip!
YUM ! I don’t use MY ONIONS! Very Good!
So tasty!! Great treat when you have a plethora of okra!
I am so glad that I “found” your website! The recipes are great and I enjoy
using them. Thanks to your Mother and to you two. Please keep up with
the old and new recipes.
We are thrilled you are here and enjoying the recipes. Thank you so much for the kind words!
Delicious. We printed to prepare again. Thank you!
Absolutely love this recipe! We freeze our okra whole in gallon freezer bags. No blanching, no rinsing, but if you rinse, make sure okra is dry. Take out what you want when frozen, rinse, cut, add to batter. Good leftover!
Also, if you don’t have buttermilk or allergic like I am, measure your milk or almond milk, add tablespoon of lemon juice and let it sit for a bit. Stir occasionally. It works, I do it all the time.
Made these tonight for my southern fried boyfriend. He LOVED them! A recipe we’ll often repeat. Thanks so much, ladies, for teaching me a new delicious way to serve okra.
So glad it was a hit for you!!
I live in Alaska and they dont have self rising cornmeal here. What is your suggestion for amounts of cornmeal and self rising flour???
Here is our conversion on how to make self-rising cornmeal, Nancy. https://thesouthernladycooks.com/make-self-rising-cornmeal-mix/
These look so good! I purchased some fresh organic okra a couple days ago. I’m definitely going to make this recipe. Can’t wait!!
These are so easy and absolutely delicious!!! Best recipe!!!
can they be frozen?
I would think you could freeze these fritters and they would be ok, Cynthia, but I have not tried freezing them.
Do you think this could be made with pickled okra, if it were drained and dried well?
Yes, Chris, I think you could use pickled okra.
Do you have a recipe for clabber milk biscuits?
There is a recipe for buttermilk biscuits on the site. I don’t know why you could not use any kind of milk in the recipe, Barbara.
I’m going to try this, but family don’t like buttermilk. Is that a problem. for substitute 2 percent?
You can use 2 percent but you can’t taste the buttermilk in the recipe Patty.
How do you freeze okra and do u thaw before use or cook frozen in recipies?
I just chop it up and put it in freezer bags and freeze it. Some people may blanch it first but I don’t. I use it in soups, stews, skillet meals, etc. and I don’t thaw first, Suzanne.
If you have trouble with the breading coming off when you fry okra (Fresh or frozen) your grease is not hot enough. Get your grease so hot it begins to smoke, then put in your okra. The breading will stay on. A Fry Daddy does not get hot enough.
If you use frozen okra will it cook the same as fresh?
Yes, you could use frozen okra just be sure to drain well.
I made these today with my garden Okra and they are fabulous! Thank you
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Janice.
Oka casserole is good. I will try the above recipe!! Sounds yummy!!
I wonder if you could bake like cookies
I only make like the recipe says. You can try it.
I HAVE LOTS OF SITES ON REC.BUT I TELL YOU LADIES THIS IS THE BEST ONE YET.HER REC ARE SOMETHING YOU HAVE THE FIXING IN YOUR KITCHEN FOR.DOWN TO EARTH GOOD OLD SOUTHERN EATING.KEEP THEM COMING. THANKS BUNCHES FOR ALL YOU DO FOR US LADIES.NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE .GOOD FOOD IS SOMETHING WE ALL WANT.
Thank you so much! Happy to have you here and have a great week.
My momma would make ‘okra patties’, using flour, milk and egg with the okra when we didn’t have enough to make fried okra. My daddy preferred the patties to the plain fried okra. My earliest memory of her making these when i was a kid was in the late 40’s early 50’s when we lived in Oklahoma. She probably got the recipe from the County Extension Agent.
I”m going to make this. My Grandma would just cut her Okra up & fry it in hot oil. It would come apart when she stirred it. I”m going to cook it like she did,drain it,cool it Then add it to my mixture. That will be delicious.
Must try this! We love okra in the south!!!
Some of us love okra in the North too!! My okra plants were a good 7 feet tall last summer here in Colorado! I’m going to make some of these with the okra I froze because it isn’t even quite planting time here. Thanks.
This is so wonderful,when I seen this I remembered how to cook
Tried the fritters tonight and they were great. I used frozen okra and it never really cooked as well as I like it. Next time I will put corn meal on the okra and fry it, cool it and then add to batter.
They look great, but I still prefer my okra fried :)!
Dear Southern Lady,
Because of you and this wonderful recipe, I am back on the “A” list with my husband. We have recently moved to southeastern Arizona. I have found that many of the local growers are raising okra. I was wondering how I might use it other than in soups and stews when I noticed on your news feed someone commenting on this recipe. Needless to say I hot footed it over here and have made this three times in the last 10 days, one of the batches being a double. My husbands’ response to all this, when his mouth has emptied enough from all the fritters he is busy stuffing it with is, “Southern Ladies really know what they are doing!”
By the looks of these, I’m pretty sure I could eat the whole dang plateful all by myself….I have to try these soon!
My Grandma used to cook the fritters with okra, yellow squash cubed, and just fritters by themselves. I have her recipe and it’s almost identical to yours. Stopping by the grocery store to pick up dome buttermilk and will have them with my BBQ pork chops tomorrow. Love this recipe. A 64 year Old Fart. 🙂
Looks wonderful!! Save me some!! Blessings, Andy
this is the way I fry my cornbread. Will have to try it w okra added. bet it is tasty. Thanks!
I can’t find self-rising anywhere in Canada.
1 cup plain cornmeal + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt = 1 cup self-rising cornmeal?
This should help, Nikki: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081213132541AAO0QwZ
I cheat a little. I use A small box of cornbread mix, substitute 3/4 cup of buttermilk with beer, and add creole spice. Ohh so good and goes great with catfish!
Never heard of an Okra Fritter! Want want want! But I have to wait for the okra to produce. I will not eat that dungo from the grocery store. But I can tell by looking at them that this will be a summer staple in our home for the next 50 years. I thank you for sharing, and I really mean that. I am all about southern cooking.
Thank you so much Steven.
GenieOEvans, I’ve eat OKRA all my life but I can’t wait to try these Fritters they look delicious.
Thank You so much!! We love your Okra fritter recipe…delish!!
Ive not seen cornmeal/cornbread in the UK, can I substitute with anything?
Check this out Ola: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060925122202AAgcqrU
I also did not have the self rising corn meal so I substituted one box of Jiffy Cornbread mix, added onions and two cups of sliced okra, then I added one egg and buttermilk to reach good consistency( about 3/4 cup). Added a little salt and pepper and cooked on medium heat. We really enjoyed them. Will make again for sure. We love cornbread and this is a nice variety of it.
Love the Jiffy idea. I always have that on hand, and it gives the same result.
This looks heavenly! I’ll have to plant okra next year LOL. This year my neighbor gave me a basket of green tomatoes for frying…so I washed, dried, sliced them into thin slices and put them in single layers on waxed paper lined pans, covered with tin foil and stuck them in the freezer. One pan I actually had 3 layers separated by waxed paper. When they froze solid I put them into ziplock freezer bags…will fry them from the solid frozen state and see what happens. If anyone else has tried this let me know! 🙂 I do so love my fried green maters (and if ya use the spicy ranch salad dressing to dip them in, they taste almost like the ones on the BLT sandwiches at Linger Lodge near Sarasota/Bradenton Florida…yummmm!
ouizee
I liked this recipe & the variation using shredded squash also. My question is: if I wanted to take these to another place, can that be done? If so, what would be the best way. (no re-heating available)
Just put in an airtight tupperware container or a cookie tin.
Do the frozen okra need to thaw before adding them?
No need to thaw them.
These looked so absolutely wonderful and I had to try them right away! Didn’t have all the ingredients in your recipe, so I substituted a packaged Mexican Cornbread mix by Martha White and left out the onions. Added 1 cup of frozen cut okra since the package size was smaller. They were to die for! These will be a permanent
Gotta try this! Love okra!!
How high do you put the heat when frying?
Hi Martin, Have your oil pretty hot to where it is almost popping out of the pan.
I have made a version of these with small chopped pieces of Tomato in them for a side with supper. Will now be trying them without. thanks for sharing! Pam
Pam,I use chopped red tomatoes,green tomatoes and fresh banana peppers (hot) without the okra for Hot Tomato Cakes and the are delicious with fried potatoes and pinto beans
These sound. Wonderful, I am going to cook some.
Thank you for sharing this fabulous recipe. I Love Okra
Can’t wait to try this. My friend are always like “what’s okra” then they try it.. I have convinced quite a few “cheese-heads” to try it and they now love it.. Thanks for sharing.. I just happen to have some okra in the freezer ~ can you guess what’s for dinner?
I will certainly be enjoying these soon.
I love Okra in most any form. I recall granny making something similar.
Thanks
paul
Beautiful, my fave vegetable turned into a fritter, thank you!
Okra happens to be one of my favourite vegetables (where I come from in Asia, okra are also known as ladies’ fingers) and that is one recipe I would give a shot.
I tried these today and they were great! I think I have found another favorite recipe! Thanks Judy:)
There’s a 135 foot row of okra in my garden. Our family loves fried okra but a friend sent me this link. This sounds so good. How can it go wrong? Need a little okra diversity!
I love this recipe
My husband had never eaten okra until he joined our family. Now he loves it like the rest of us! I have never had fritters before, this is a must try. It’s gotta be good, look what’s in it!
This recipe is great with grated yellow squash instead of okra. Kinda of like potatoe patties.
Rai