This delicious side dish is a tasty way to use up some of those fresh, ripe tomatoes from your summer garden. Try serving with grilled fish or chicken – it’s delicious. Add a dash of Cajun Spice to jazz it up, if you dare!

Serves 4

1 pound fresh okra, sliced with stems removed
1 sticks butter
1/4 cup chopped white onion
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped ham
1 cup cooked rice
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
4 large, round tomatoes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add sliced okra, onion and ham and stir to thoroughly coat in butter. Cook until vegetables are tender and the ham is hot. Add the chopped tomato pulp and the parsley and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

While the vegetables are cooking, scoop the pulp out of the inside of each tomato, leaving enough pulp to form a nice shell. Chop the removed pulp and add to the vegetable mixture as directed above.

Remove vegetable mixture from heat. Add rice and chopped parsley and mix well. Stuff tomato shells with vegetable and rice mixture. Bake for 10 minutes.