Oh My Okra

I recently read a book called The 52 New Foods Challenge.  The author is a mom who wanted to encourage her kids to try more fruits and vegetables, so she made up a game where they would choose a new food (usually at a farmers' market) to try each week.  Mom and kids would then cook the new food together, and family members could earn points at dinner that day for eating a variety of colors, trying a new dish, etc.  It sounded a little bit overwhelming to me, but I liked the idea of encouraging my kids to branch out and try new things, so I decided to give it a try.

Yesterday I told the kids about the new game we were going to try, then we went to our local farmer's market in search of a new food to sample.  Joy made a beeline for the okra.  Okra???  I'm not sure I'd ever eaten okra before, and I know for certain I've never cooked with it.  Still, if I want my kids to try new things, I need to be open to that, too, right?

Joy did her best to persuade Daniel that okra was the best veggie to try this week, but he remained unconvinced.  Joy and Anna ultimately outvoted him, so I promised that he could choose our veggie next week.  He's leaning toward beets (seriously; I'm not making this up).

At home, I set my order-loving, risk-averse tendencies aside and invited my kids into the kitchen to cook with me.  I even let them handle the big, sharp knives.

Todd wasn't so sure about all of this.  Frankly, I wasn't either . . .

. . . but I let Daniel wield the big Santoku knife (I always want to call it the Sudoku knife; always), and he did just fine.

As we were working on the okra risotto recipe I'd found, the big kids asked if they could try the okra raw.  Um, sure.  They didn't grimace when they ate it, and they even asked for more, so I tried it, too.  It had a mild, pleasant flavor, but the texture was a little unusual.

The risotto dish we made turned out decently, but the kids and I agreed that we liked the raw okra better (who'd have thought?).  Maybe I'll try it in soup when the weather cools down.

Stay tuned for our future culinary adventures.  How do you think Daniel will like beets?