Stewed Okra And Tomatoes With Sausage Recipe

By the middle of the week, most of us don't want to even think about making a piece of toast, let alone plan an interesting meal for the whole family. And that's perfectly understandable. But before you take a deep breath and steel yourself up to rattle every pot and pan in your kitchen, recipe developer Kristen Carli has a simple but savory sausage dish packed with stewed tomatoes and okra that's sure to please everyone in your household. 

"This would make an ideal weeknight meal for the family," she says. "It's made in only one pan, so it makes for easy cleanup."

The beauty of this dish is that it looks like you toiled in the kitchen for hours when it only takes a few minutes (and not much effort) to throw together. And for anyone who is new to cooking and a little nervous about working with pork products, this meal is foolproof.

To start your recipe, add your olive oil (or whatever oil you're using) to a large skillet, and put it over medium heat. Before cooking your Andouille sausage, you'll need to cut up the links into bite-sized slices (as pictured). For consistency of taste, try to keep the slices basically uniform in size. Once you've sliced up the sausage links, place them in your large skillet and cook for five minutes before removing them from the pan. Set them aside for now to make room for your okra.

Carli says she specifically chose Andouille sausage "to keep with the Creole/Cajun flavors" of this dish.

And here's where things get a bit spicy. Once you finish initially cooking the okra, add back in the Andouille sausage slices as well as the garlic, the tomatoes, the Creole seasoning, the cayenne pepper, the oregano, and the paprika.

In case you're wondering why Carli used fire-roasted tomatoes, she says they are crucial to the recipe to "bring the extra heat." Just keep in mind that you can make adjustments depending on just how hot you want your stewed okra and tomatoes with sausage. For example, you may want to use only a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper if you're not the kind of person who likes a lot of heat.

At the beginning of this recipe, we mentioned that Carli's recipe for stewed okra and tomatoes with sausage is foolproof even if you're new to preparing pork products and are nervous about food poisoning. The true secret to why this is the case (and arguably the secret ingredient in this dish) is the sausage she chose. 

"I buy Andouille sausage, which is fully cooked, so there's less of a risk if it is not cooked long enough," she explains. "The initial cook time in the pan is to brown the edges to get them a bit crispy."