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Okra Stew (also called Yakhnit Bamyeh in Arabic) is a delicious hearty stew made with garlic, cilantro, tomato sauce beef and fresh or frozen okra. What I love about the stews we eat is that they are super easy to make in one pot, have a ton of nutrition and they are very comforting in the winter over a warm bowl of rice pilaf.
What is okra?
Okra is a flowering plant that is completely edible and very popular in the Southern States. In my Arabic culture, we also grew up eating Okra in recipes like this Lebanese style Okra Stew (which we call bamia/bamya in Arabic).
How to make okra stew
- Soften the garlic, onion and cilantro.
- Add the okra and spice and cook.
- Add in the tomatoes.
- Add in the tomato paste.
- Add n the water.
- Add in the cooked beef and simmer until thick.
Tips to make this stew
- Use frozen okra in this recipe. Fresh okra will work, but it can become slimy once cooked. If you don’t like the usual texture of okra, you will love this recipe!
- Cut the okra into very large chunks. This helps to prevent the slimy texture many don’t like or you can buy the mini small okras
- Add lemon juice to the okra. When you add the okra to the pot, try adding half or a whole lemon. The acidity of the lemon juice can actually cut the sliminess of the okra.
- Make it vegan. It’s traditional to make this with beef or even with chicken. But because it’s so hearty and filling, it can really stand on its own without any beef or chicken
Frequently asked questions
Like most of my traditional Lebanese stews, we love eating them with Lebanese rice. You can also eat this on its own, with brown rice or with quinoa
Yes, you can use chicken instead or you can make it entirely meatless by adding extra tomatoes and okra and it makes for a wonderful vegan dinner recipe.
Yes, this stew is great for make ahead and freezer meals. Let your okra beef stew cool completely before transferring to an airtight container. It will keep well in the fridge for 3 to 4 days and frozen for up to 3 months. Reheat on the stovetop over a gentle heat until warmed through to serve.
For other similar dishes:
- Hearty Vegetable Stew
- Peas and Carrots Stew
- Lebanese White Bean Stew
- Middle Eastern Spinach Stew
- Peanut Soup
- Cauliflower Curry
- Easy Butter Chicken
- Red Lentil Curry
If you’ve tried this healthy-ish feel good Okra Stew recipe or any other recipe on FeelGoodFoodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!
Okra Stew
Ingredients
- 1 pound beef tips
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 14-ounce packages frozen baby okra
- 1 teaspoon 7 Spice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 4 ounces tomato paste
- 4 vine-riped tomatoes chopped
Instructions
- In a heavy bottomed saute pan over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil, add the beef and cook for 4-5 minutes without touching. Flip over and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes. Set the beef aside
- In the same pan, add the remaining olive oil along with the garlic, cilantro and onions and cook until soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- Add the frozen okra, salt, pepper and 7 Spice to the garlic cilantro mixture and stir well, coating the okra with the mixture and breaking up the frozen okra. Cook the okra, stirring occasionally until the okra is fully cooked, about 10 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste, fresh cut tomatoes and 4 cups of water to the pan. Then return the beef tips, and mix to incorporate everything together. Lower heat to low and simmer covered for 15 minutes until sauce thickens.
- Serve over traditional Arabic rice pilaf and sprinkle fresh cilantro for garnish.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
I made some revisions. I browned the beef then added onion, garlic, and spices to beef. I used fresh parsley instead of cilantro. Once the onion was translucent and the garlic fragrant, I added canned diced tomatoes. Everything else was the same. It’s wonderful.
So happy you liked it, Judie! Love the tweaks you made, sounds so good!!
I follow your cooking on YouTube. I absolutely LOVE it. I will be trying this recipe tonight. Thank you so much
Thanks for the support, I hope you like the stew!!
Any idea how many cups 4 tomatoes will be? I have a chopped batch in my freezer that I’d love to use!
A large tomato yields about 1 cup chopped; a medium tomato yields 3/4 cup.
Perfect – thank you! Looking forward to trying this recipe!
Thank you so much for another beautiful recipe. I am Scandinavian but am married to a Lebanese guy. Your recipes are fool proof and I feel so happy that my in-laws love my cooking and tell me it tastes authentic (and I’m sure you know they’ll tell it like it is). Amazing!
I have multiple Lebanese cookbooks. I have to say this is the best recipe for Bamya that Ive tried. Thank you.
That is so kind, thank you!
Would it work to use canned diced tomatoes in place of the fresh and if so, how much?
Hi JJ, yes you can use canned diced tomatoes instead I would just use one 14.5oz can. You’ll have to let me know what you think of it after you make it!
Hello! I can’t find frozen okra where I live. Would this recipe also work with fresh okra? In this case they are purple okra. Never seen them before but that’s all I could find.
It should still work! I hope you enjoy!
When my friend taught me to make this, she had me boil the beef for 2 or 3 hours, then use the broth in place of water. I noticed you do not do this. Will the meat still be soft?
I find that it is tender, not like fall apart soft. You can always boil the beef first if you want!
Can you substitute the tomatoes with chicken stock?
The tomatoes are really a key ingredient here, I am not sure how it will turn out or taste without them.
Hello Yumna!
Have you ever cooked the okra in the airfryer instead? For this recipe?
Will be trying this recipe tomorrow!!
Thanks a lot!
Hi Mariane, can’t wait for you to try it! I have not tried cooking the okra in the Air Fryer for this recipe. The okra is supposed to be soft and stewed. Any crisping would be undone when added to the base of the stew.
My family going to love this recipe thanks so much
You’re so welcome! Can’t wait to hear what you all think!
Can you make the okra stew without any tomatoes or tomato sauce?
You could, but you’d want to use a substitute, and I have yet to do that with this recipe.
Hi Yumna!
Long time listener, first time caller! I was just wondering if its possible to use ground beef for this recipe or is that going to get my arab card revoked?
You could definitely do that too!
This is one of my favorite ways to prepare okra. It’s so flavorful and hearty! My husband will request that I make this if I leave it more than a week between.
Exactly! I’m glad he enjoys it that much!!
This is amazing. I used chicken instead of beef however the flavours were still so good. This is a recipe i have added to my collection. I will definitely be making this frequently.
It’s actually traditional to make this with beef or even with chicken! I love that you’ll be adding it to the collection! Yay!!
So good! I use to dislike bamya as a child but this recipe has rekindled my love for it! Easy, hearty and delicious.
Yay! So glad to hear that!!
Do you think I could add beef broth for more flavour instead of the water? Thank you!
Oh yes, absolutely!
Hi Yumma, so excited to try this. Looks like how my sister used to make it. Just a question as a bit of a new cook, to sear the beef do I cook it all the way through or will it cook through in the sauce? Also, what temp should I sear it on, medium? Thank you, take care
Hi Beck, good question! I like to sear the beef on medium high heat for 4-5 minutes per side. You just want to get some color on it but there’s no need to cook it all the way through since it will cook in the sauce. I’ll add this detail to the recipe too. thank you!
Easy. And very delicious!
So happy to hear that! Thank you!
I’m a Nigerian,a caterer and I love this dishe,plz can I get d recipes in d supermarket?here in my country?
You should be able to find the ingredients there!
Would using fresh okra from my garden change things at all? Beside cutting the cooking time down due to it not being frozen?
Not at all…it works great with fresh okra!
My Lebanese mother-in-law taught me how to make this with rice. I’m a vegetarian so I leave out the meat and hate cilantro so delete that also – still fabulous dish. I could eat this several times a week (and I do). I buy the frozen okra to make it easy – also use frozen peppers and onions mix – but I do use fresh garlic. Love this!
Love your modification ideas and so glad you love it!
Hi Yumna, I recall my grandma using pomegranate molasses in her okra recipe.. is this something you would add if you made it. Thank you.
Oh that makes sense and yes, I would totally recommend doing that but just a 1 teaspoon is sufficient.
I made this recipe last night w/o adding the pomegranate molasses. Food was very very good with rice and with quinoa (hubby dieting). For sure next time I will add the molasses! So far all of the Lebanese recipes I’ve tried, have been a homerun!
Thank you!! 🙂
Would love to try this recipe, can you tell me if the okra is kept whole or cut up?
You can actually do it both ways. If you find the baby okra, I recommend keeping it small. If you find really large okra, you can cut into smaller pieces. Hope you like it!
What’s Seven Spice?
It’s a popular middle eastern spice made with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, fenugreek, allspice, pepper, and cloves
No chilies or spices are used in this recipe?
Not really, I rely a lot on the taste of the garlic and cilantro. However, I do add 7 Spice sometimes. I think you can definitely add other spices or chiles though!
I love this recipe. It’s amazing!! Made some mods – used a combo of garam masala, paprika, and Italian seasoning because I didn’t have seven spice on hand.
Totally skipped the beef and didn’t substitute anything. Great recipe! very forgiving.
Hi there! so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe and loved your modifications! I make this often without the beef, so I’m happy it worked out for you!
I made it with the same mods minus the paprika and Italian seasoning and it was amazing. Since I didn’t add beef, I used a bit of beef bouillon and black pepper to deepen the flavor. I served it with cauliflower rice. Seriously good!!!
Left a comment and forgot to rate
Yay! So glad to hear that you made it and enjoyed it! Thanks so much for sharing!!
When do you add the lemon and how much lemon? Thank you
You can just add lemon at the end when you’re serving it 🙂
Hi love,
Are we able to use fresh Okra?
Yes you can! That works 🙂
My friend is Armenian and he made me a recipe very similar which I was looking for but his had lemon in it. I will try making this and just add a little lemon. Thanks for the recipe
So awesome! I hope you enjoy it! And I often add lemon to it as well actually, so I think that’s an excellent addition!
Hello!,
I love your recipes, please continue sharing you are a life saver.
I have a quick question, on the step 3, adding the beef tips, are these already fried or raw?…
Thank you.
Hi Fatima – You’re so sweet and thank you for your review!! To answer your question on Step 3 the beef can be boiled or seared before you put it into the stew. Enjoy!!
I was gifted a lot of tomatoes and okra, so I was excited to come across your recipe. I tripled the recipe. It was nice to hear my family of 7 expressing they enjoyed it. Thank you
Hi Laura – That makes me so happy to hear! I bet it tasted amazing with all those fresh tomatoes and okra!!
Mmm so delicious! I actually used the whole can of tomato paste just to thicken it up a bit more. Loved it!
Yay! So glad you like it! And good idea about the tomato paste 🙂
I want to thank you for this recipe. Although I haven’t made it yet (I will tonight), I have to tell you that while reading over your recipe my stomach began to growl LOL. I am Filipino and okra is used in a lot of our vegetable recipes and am always open on how other cultures prepare certain ingredients.
Hi Josie – That’s really cool that you use okra in lots of your dishes! I hope you love this one. It’s one of my favorite dishes 🙂
My husband is Lebanese he loved this recipe. I will definitely make this again. Thank you!!!
Hi Gloria! That’s so great to hear! I’m going to be listing more Lebanese stews and Lebanese recipes on my site so hope you try more! 🙂