Don't tell anybody how easy this is! Add baked corn bread or a good crusty bread and you'll have your own fan base in about an hour. No kidding!

Step 1: Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small chopped onion (about 1/2 cup)
1 package frozen cream style corn
1 quart tomatoes
1 package frozen cut okra
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 cups cooked rice (according to package instructions)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Step 2: Order of Operations

1. In heated olive oil, add onions and the corn. Frozen corn is fine; put it into the olive oil and onions, set the heat to medium, and cover the pan to steam the corn until it's thawed. Stay with it and check it every couple of minutes, stirring and breaking up the corn as it thaws. This will take about 10 minutes.

While the corn/onion mixture is cooking, put the rice on to cook. Follow the instructions on the package. I use long-grain rice (1 1/3 cups water, 1/2 cup rice, 1/2 teaspoon salt).

Step 3:

2. Stir the tomatoes into the corn/onion mixture.

When the rice is done, add it to the mix, along with the chicken broth.

Step 4: Don't Fear the Okra

Okay, okra creeps a lot of people out. Respect the okra, but don't give in to its natural inclination to get ridiculously slimy. Here's how to control the texture of the okra:

3. As with the corn, you can work with okra in the frozen state. In a saucepan, add two tablespoons of white vinegar to a quart of water. Bring it to a boil and add the okra. Cook until the okra can be separated into individual pieces.

Rinse the okra under cool water. Get your hands in there and make sure most of the slickness is rinsed off. Drain.

Add the okra to the soup. If it seems too thick, add a little water.

Step 5: And That's It!

The prep is done. Let the soup simmer until the cornbread is ready. Enjoy!

Step 6: Extra Point(er)s

Note that this recipe is pretty healthy--there's a little olive oil and just the salt added to the rice. You can certainly jack it up with pepper, but try it this way before you do anything else to it.

The rice and okra certainly lend themselves to a gumbo. Ground beef or venison, spicy sausage, or stewed chicken can be added to create a heartier dish. Again, though, try it in this pure form for a clean, fresh-tasting, vegetable soup.

That vinegar trick works for boiled okra, too.