Okra Soup appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Okra soup · Charleston
A Lowcountry tomato-and-okra stew with beef shin or oxtail. The okra thickens the broth; the slow-cooked meat gives it body. Served over rice.
Okra arrived in Charleston with West African captives through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and grew into a Lowcountry pantry staple. Okra soup as cooked at Bertha's Kitchen and across Black-owned soul food kitchens descends directly from Gullah-Geechee cookery: stewed tomatoes, okra to thicken, oxtail or beef shin to fortify. The dish is served over rice or eaten as a one-pot meal. Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor's 1970 book Vibration Cooking documented the Gullah-Geechee tradition; her work informs how chefs like BJ Dennis present the dish today.
Where to eat in Charleston:
- Bertha's Kitchen
- Hannibal's Kitchen