I cooked lunch for my Mom on Sunday, and put together a nice vegetable combination.

She lives close enough to the coast that it’s easy to get wild caught Gulf shrimp. Sunday morning we went to the grocery store to buy shrimp to steam. Right next to the shrimp was a small piece of salmon, so I bought that as well. Mom had carrots and yellow squash in her refrigerator that needed to be eaten soon. I also wanted a green vegetable, and the okra looked good.

When we got back to the house, I put the salmon in the oven. On impulse I decided to stir fry the three vegetables together. The natural juices from the okra provided enough moisture that I didn’t have to add water at all. When the vegetables were almost done, I sprinkled on a generous amount of ginger powder. At the last minute, I steamed the shrimp. Lunch was ready.

Mom and I thought the ginger vegetables were really good. Okra and tomatoes cooked together are common, but I’m not sure I’ve seen okra cooked with other vegetables. Because they were stir fried without water, they were still crisp, rather than limply floating in a pool of juice. I will try this combination on my family soon.