Oven “Fried” Pickles & Okra!

I LOOOOOOOVE pickles.  I’m told my mom gave me cold dill pickles and raw potato pieces to teeth on when I was young.  When we went camping, I would use a hot dog bun to make myself pickle & potato chip sandwiches, since it was the only thing I could “cook” for myself.  Apparently it’s a genetic thing, since my entire mom’s side of our family also loves pickles.  My grandma would buy Vlasic jars by the case.  No joke.

And because this is AMERICA, we also love FRIED FOOD.  Ergo, I love fried pickles.

Ooh, you know what else is good fried?  Okra. It’s a staple side dish in Louisiana!  Just give me some fried okra & a bottle of ketchup, and I’m a happy camper.

But anymore, my stomach really can’t handle all that grease.  Nor can my waistline.  Not to worry, though.  With a crunchy, kicked up breading, we can make some out of this world “FeauxFried” (aka oven-fried) pickle chips & okra.  How does a big pile of crispy okra & pickles sound?  Sound even better at only NINETY-FIVE CALORIES a serving?  Yeah, I thought so.  The nice thing about pickles & okra is that they’re already low calorie.  So you get some calories from the breading, but once you knock out all that frying oil, you’re golden!

Golden brown & delicious, that is.

Ingredients: (makes two servings, but you can easily upscale this recipe for more servings)

About 20 Dill pickle chips (we had a bunch of large kosher dills & just sliced them up ourselves)

1 cup sliced okra, fresh or thawed

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup Louisiana-style fish fry cornmeal

1/4 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 large egg

olive oil spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F.  Lightly spray a cookie sheet with olive oil spray.

Allow your pickle chips & okra to sit for a while on a paper towel to help absorb some of the excess moisture.

Then mix together the bread crumbs, fish fry, paprika, and parsley in a container with a lid.

Mix the egg & the chili powder together in a separate bowl and beat well.  Drop the pickle chips & okra into the egg wash & coat completely.  Use a fork to lift out of the egg mixture and let the excess drop off.  Then drop into the breading mixture & toss (with lid on) to coat.  Press additional breading on if they don’t get fully coated.

Place the breaded pickles & okra on the cookie sheet. 

Lightly spritz them with olive oil (this will help them brown nicely and get even crunchier) and place in the oven for 10 minutes, then flip them over, lightly spritz with olive oil again and then place back in the oven for another five minutes.

Serve with light ranch dressing and chow down!

NutriFacts: (makes two servings of 10 pickle chips & 1/2 cup of okra each)

  Calories 95.8

  Total Fat 2.4 g

  Saturated Fat 0.6 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.8 g

  Cholesterol 68.5 mg

  Sodium 1,019.7 mg

  Potassium 264.2 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 15.1 g

  Dietary Fiber 3.8 g

  Sugars 4.3 g

  Protein 5.1 g