Rhubarb recipes!

It's Rhubarb season!

Any tasty recipes for us?

I've been putting mine in the slow cooker with the last of last years dried apples and a splash of maple syrup.  Very tasty rhubarb mush, but I wouldn't mind some more tasty ideas.  

My favorite thing to make right now is Rhubarb jello! It's easy and delicious, and a nice cool treat. It's SCD, GAPS,  and Paleo friendly. (It's pretty much making the rhubarb mush you both talk about, but adding gelatin so it's less mushy and a cool treat rather than a warm one)

Rhubarb Jello:

Materials needed: small pot/sauce pan, a masher, and a container to put the jello in, and a fridge.

2 or 3 cups of rhubarb stalks that are cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces

about 1/2 cup cold water

1 tbsp gelatin (or 2-3 tbsp for a firmer jello)

2 tbsp honey (or to taste)

(Optional) banana and strawberries

Put the water into a sauce pan or small pot. Add the gelatin to it, sprinkling it slowly on the water so as not to get clumps (I sprinkle a layer and wait until it becomes transparent, and then sprinkle another layer). Turn the skillet onto medium heat, and add in your rhubarb (I tend to just cut it with scissors right into the pan). Let it heat up and come to a simmer. The rhubarb will start breaking down. Take a taste. Add honey to your desired sweetness. Mash it with a potato masher or fork or whatever you can manage. Let it cook until all the rhubarb pieces have "disappeared" and the rhubarb is an even consistency. Add in some banana and strawberry if you'd like and mash it in.

Pour the rhubarb mixture into a container (glass snapware, casserole dish, pyrex dish whatever) or just leave it in the pan. Put it into the refrigerator. In about 4-6 hours, you'll have jello! It's a soft-jello consistancy. If you want a firmer jello, double or triple the gelatin.


I LOVE this stuff. It satiates my craving for gummies/fruit snacks, and it's a great way to use the rhubarb. Until I figured this out, my rhubarb never got used. Now the rhubarb can barely keep up with my jello obsession!

Trying to stick to a low-carb/keto is at its most difficult, when I have to turn my back on fruit. With this method, one can simply swap out the honey, in favor of stevia or monkfruit, and, even add the strawberries, to still have a classic summer treat, without killing the gut flora, or throwing dieters out of ketosis.

I recently found a recipe for a keto (theoretically) flakey crust, for a gallette/tart/pie. I just might have to try all this, together!

Some blueberries are excellent in this too. Enjoy.

RHUBARB CAKE

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking dish
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a liquid measuring cup, combine buttermilk and vanilla; set aside.
Step 2
In the bowl of an electric mixer or using a handheld mixer, beat butter with 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, and starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in rhubarb.
Step 3
Spread batter evenly into prepared baking dish. In a small bowl, stir together remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over batter. Bake until a cake tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes.
Step 4
Let cool on a wire rack in pan for 30 minutes before serving.

I love rhubarb and crave it this time of year.  Since moving from zone 4 to zone 8 I have found that rhubarb does NOT like my new climate.  Oh well....I can still enjoy it, just not as often.  Maybe I can grow it in my winter garden.  Here are a couple of recipes for my fellow rhubarb-eaters!

RHUBARB LEMONADE (PINK)
Five pounds of cleaned rhubarb that is coarsely cut and then done in the steam canner for juice. Then measure your juice and for each cup use either 1/4th or half a cup of sugar. If you want it to be pancake syrup, then its straight one to one. Bring to a boil, follow all standard water bath canning rules.. hot juice to hot clean jars, that are then processed for ten min at sea level (15 for higher) in your boiling waterbath, out and allow to seal and sit for 24 hours before washing jars and removing rings (if you do that) and into a cool dark place for storage.  Dilute with cold water for a refreshing beverage equal parts water to juice.   It can also be frozen in ice cube trays and added to lemonade or used in smoothies.


RHUBARB STRAWBERRY PIE FILLING (for canning)
Up "nort" rhubarb and strawberries are often combined in pies, jams, jellies, and sauces.  The flavors complement one another nicely.
8 cups strawberries ( diced )
8 cups rhubarb ( diced )
6 cups Sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups flour
Add first three ingredients in large saucepan.  Cook on medium heat. Stir often until sugar is dissolved.  Add cornstarch and flour. Continue cooking over medium heat until mixture thickens.  Pour filling into sanitized jars and water bath for 15 minutes. (Remember to add time for higher altitude as stated in the Ball Canning Book)  Servings 4

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars
Yield: 16 to 20 bars
for the streusel:
1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted, plus room temperature butter for pan
3/4 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1-1/4 c. all-purpose flour
for the bars:
1/2 lb. rhubarb, cut into 1/2” pieces
1/2 lb. strawberries, hulled and sliced 1/4″ thick
2 T. light brown sugar
1-1/2 c. all-purpose flour, divided
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 c. powdered sugar, plus more for dusting finished bars
3 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter a 9” square baking pan and line with parchment paper, leaving a 2” overhang on 2 sides. Butter and flour parchment paper and pan, tapping out the excess flour. Set aside.
for the streusel:
Whisk together the butter, brown sugar, and salt. Add flour and cut with a rigid pastry cutter or fork until large crumbs form. Refrigerate until ready to use.
for the bars:
In a medium bowl, combine rhubarb, strawberries, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup of the flour. In another medium bowl, whisk the remaining 1-1/4 cup of flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. With mixer on low, beat in vanilla, then flour mixture. Spread batter in prepared pan. Top with rhubarb and strawberry mixture, then top with prepared streusel. If you like to have some of the pretty red of the rhubarb and strawberries show on top (I do!), poke a few pieces up through the streusel.
Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a bit of moist crumbs attached, about 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool completely in pan. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and, using the parchment paper overhang, lift cake from pan. Cut into bars and dust with powdered sugar. Serve as is, or with some freshly whipped and sweetened cream…so lovely!

And for those who want something very different to do with rhubarb?  Hair Rinse! This uses rhubarb root though, so you might have to wait until you are thinning out your rhubarb before trying it.  One of the more intriguing uses for the root (actually a rhizome) of this ancient plant: as a lightening agent for blond or light brown hair. The oxalic acid serves as a fixative, so a rhubarb rinse will last much longer than most herbal rinses.

Rhubarb Rinse Recipe
Brave enough to give it a try? Purchase some dried, chopped rhubarb root in a local health food store; if you have rhubarb growing in your garden, dig up a chunk of the rhizome, scrub it well, and dice it.
Herbalists say that the strongest dye comes from the medicinal rhubarb species, but the roots of homegrown pie rhubarb will work, too, with a milder effect. Keep all rhubarb root away from children and pets.
Simmer 3 to 4 tablespoons of dried rhubarb root or half a cup of fresh, chopped root in a quart of water for 20 minutes in a covered stainless-steel pot. (Don’t breathe the steam.) Let the decoction steep overnight, then strain in the morning.
Test the liquid dye on a strand of hair first to see if you like the color. If you do, wash your hair as usual, then pour the rhubarb dye through it, catching the liquid in the pan and repeating two or three times. Air dry without further rinsing.

I make jam with mine, but it does not set.   I've also made cordial in combination with elderflowers.  However in both of these cases I rely very much on a conventionally large quantity of sugar.  You can make a good wine from rhubarb, but I have never tried making it myself.

I chop my rhubarb and free flow freeze it uncooked so I can bring it out for baking this slice, no need to defrost beforehand -

Rhubarb & Ginger slice

4oz butter
1 cup rhubarb cut in 1" pieces
1/2 cup chopped crystallised ginger
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup dessicated coconut

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line an 8" square tin.
Melt butter in a pot, cool slightly and beat in eggs,  add chopped fruit, sifted flour and baking powder and coconut. Mix well.
Press into the tin and bake 20-35 minutes until golden brown.
Cool in tin before turning out.
The slice is crispy the first day and becomes cake like and moister the longer it is kept.

any combination of fruit can be substituted for the rhubarb - banana & chocolate chip, blue berries and apple, dried chopped dates, sultanas etc.

When I cook it, I chop and wash but don't add any water, use 25% sugar to weight of rhubarb, add finely shredded ginger and cook slowly over a really low heat so that the pieces retain their shape. I use a slotted spoon to transfer to a hot jar and top up with a little of the cooking liquid then put on the screw top straight away. Any left over syrup, I strain and use it as a cordial. We don't tend to "can" in the southern hemisphere, the nearest equivalent would be hot water bath which is a similar method of preserving but have found that so long as the jars are scrupulously clean, the twist top always seal fine and not had any issues with any of my preserves.

Line a 2 pint pudding bowl with sweetened suet crust, pack with rhubarb and sugar, cover with a suet crust lid and steam for 3 hours.  Serve hot with custard.
Please don't  show this to my doctor, lovely though she is.

Lacto fermented rhubarb, preferably with extra garlic:  lovely and crisp.  

Rhubarb as part of a seasonal veg stir fry:  goes all mushy but adds a pleasant tartness.

Rhubarb slow cooked in a beef stew or steak pie (as above).

Rhubarb wine:  requires a lot of added sugar to make it alcoholic;  we enjoyed the flavor though I understand not everyone does.

RHUBARB SOUP -

When I was a little kid we lived in Aurora, Colorado and had a bunch of rhubarb growing by the house and (although I never knew it) my folks were poor as church mice.  I remember coming home from kindergarten hungry and my mom cooking me up a fairly thick rhubarb soup.  I believe she gave it to me often, at least for a while, probably when the rhubarb was in season.  It must have had sugar in it because it was that wonderful sweet/tart you get with rhubarb pie.  I've asked my mom about the recipe several times, but she doesn't remember ever making it.  Maybe she was making a big pot of rhubarb pie filling and just gave me some as soup (maybe thinned down a little).  Sweet soup sounds a little weird to me, but I like hot rhubarb pie, especially with a little cream or ice cream!  

All the work in a pie is in the crust.  Although I like a good crust, I'm not sure it's always worth the extra work, maybe sometimes I might just have the filling or maybe put a crumb top on it or (stealing an old boy scout dutch oven thing) dump a cake mix on top and let it bake and call it a crisp.

Rhubarb wine is very delicious. I set some aside and distilled it into Brandy. Also very tasty. I'm happy to share the recipe if someone wants it.

I am really bad to never measure anything so this is just what I came up with and measurements  are not exact
I just take what I have and work with that.
I don't use pectin  unless I have made it myself
(which you can just from apple peels and cores- add them to a pot put in barely cover with water, less water is better.  cook until soft on med to low heat and mash forms.  pour it all into a few layers of cheesecloth in a strainer and let drain into a bowl for a few hours or you can gather up the cheese cloth and hang it. gently squeeze out all liquids.  And you have apple pectin- you can keep in fridge for a few days or freeze it.  You can also can it, I have just used it up too fast to have done this yet.  Add to pies or other dessert you want to thicken up or to jams. )
  Always save the peel and core of my apples you can make apple vinegar from them as well. ( of course they should be organic or
  you are just make a nice  concentrated chemical gunk)
 
Back to the jam ;-)

Rhubarb - Strawberry jam.
 
* I cut up and mash strawberries in a large pot
about 4  quarts
cut up rhubarb
*5 or 6 stalks
less or more is fine too
this is all to taste
* 1-3 cups of evaporated sugar or  sucanat sugar
  I try and keep the sugar as low as possible
 ( it will still make jam, you just have to cook it longer
 let set for 10 min. )   Taste this and add sugar to taste
I strain off the liquid and cook this until thick
( It cuts down on the cooking time of  the jam)
add back to strawberry/rhubarb mixture
* add juice and zest of one lemon- this is a natural pectin
you could also add 1-3 tablespoons  of the apple pectin if you want but not necessary

 cook all this until it thickens, it will not be quite jam consistency
 you can check it by put a dish in the freezer and dropping a bit onto it
 it should slowly move on dish when dish is tilled
 the thicker you want it the more you cook it.
I have cooked jam as little as 15 mins and as much as 45
all depends on what I want at the time and how the fruit thickens

It will thicken more with having more sugar
but I try to keep this down as much as possible.
I have also made it with apple juice instead of sugar
this does not get as thick but has a great flavor

you can add a cinnamon stick if you would like a little spice in it

fill jelly jars and can in water bath canner.
Place the lid on the canner, and then bring the water to a full boil. Boil hard for 10 to 12 minutes.
Turn off the heat and allow the jars to remain in the hot water for an addition 5 minutes.


jam is fully set in 24-48 hours ... I never wait this long lol
you can add rhubarb to other fruit and make jam from it.  Any berries, and it is good with orange marmalade too
mix with applesauce or cooked pears.
makes a great glaze for meat as well.

Carla Burke wrote:Yes, please!?! And, thank you!

Recipe for Rhubarb wine is as follows:

Makes about 4.5 gallons

13.5 lbs rhubarb
1 apple
6 lbs of sugar
Juice of one lemon

Stew rhubarb and apple in a large stock pot for about 20 minutes. Add about 4 lbs of sugar and mixed in during stewing. Leave in the pot overnight or until cool enough to strain. Strain into a 5 or 6-gallon carboy and add enough filtered water to make 4.5 gallons.  If you want to make 5 gallons just use more rhubarb. That is all that was available last year.  Take Brix reading. It should be around 16. If not use more sugar dissolved in warm water. I ended up using 6 lbs for 13.5 lbs rhubarb. The mixture will be very foamy, so taking the reading may be problematic. Add lemon juice. I waited another day to pitch yeast (ec1118 champagne yeast) Fermentation should commence in about 8 hours. Leave in the carboy for a minimum of 4 weeks. Your final Brix reading before bottling should be 2-4. Bottle and be patient! I usually wait until Thanksgiving to open a bottle.

I keep a log of everything I brew so I can refer back to it.

Galadriel Freden wrote:Lacto fermented rhubarb, preferably with extra garlic:  lovely and crisp.  

Rhubarb as part of a seasonal veg stir fry:  goes all mushy but adds a pleasant tartness.

Rhubarb slow cooked in a beef stew or steak pie (as above).

Rhubarb wine:  requires a lot of added sugar to make it alcoholic;  we enjoyed the flavor though I understand not everyone does.

Ooh, how do you ferment rhubarb?  That sounds really interesting!

This year I've slacked; I've been putting it through my juicer and adding it unsweetened to sparkling water.  It's fine as is for me (not a huge sweets fan) and also nice to cut the sweet of mixed alcoholic drinks.

Last year I dried some cut into chunks.  I keep it as a snack at my desk, and just finished the last of it yesterday.  It's probably a way to get way too much oxalic acid at once, but then it's so sour you can't eat much at a time.

A few years ago I made chutney, I think from this recipe:  https://www.marthastewart.com/348836/rhubarb-chutney .  I liked it a lot and my German-Indian coworker pronounced it tasty.

To ferment, I cut it into bite sized chunks, peeled any very stringy bits, and put in brine of about 1 tablespoon salt to 1 litre of water.  Add as many peeled garlic cloves as you like, make sure everything stays below the brine, and let ferment at room temp for about a week, or until it tastes good.  I didn't come up with this myself, but I can't seem to find the recipe that inspired me.

Rhubarb and raisin pie is my favorite. The sweet and sour work perfectly together. I like pie to have a little tartness.  I lost the recipe. It just had the fruit, sugar, flour for thickening, and a little cinnamon. I don’t remember the amounts. I’ll try to find the recipe.

Mark Huntington wrote:

Carla Burke wrote:

She put it a few posts up, above😁😁😁

I got so excited for the recipe, I missed it!

Understandable! And, Ken, that's another recipe I'd love to check out, if you can find it - thank you!!

Ken W Wilson wrote:Rhubarb and raisin pie is my favorite. The sweet and sour work perfectly together. I like pie to have a little tartness.  I lost the recipe. It just had the fruit, sugar, flour for thickening, and a little cinnamon. I don’t remember the amounts. I’ll try to find the recipe.

Soak the raisins in cider for a few hours first.  Like little flavour bombs going off amongst the rhubarb!

Well, this deals with rhubarb in a way but is not a recipe. rather a hack:
If you have burned food in a pot, rhubarb may come to the rescue. Put rhubarb sauce in it and heat to a boil. Then let it sit. It won't etch the pot but it will absolutely clean it up.
Don't use it on pans with a special coating. Copper comes back especially clean. Aluminum too.
and of course, Rhubarb contains Oxalic acid, which helps to bleach wood and also rid honey bees of these varroa mites. If you are a better chemist than I am, you may want to try this:

https://www.leaf.tv/articles/how-to-extract-oxalic-acid-from-rhubarb-leaves/
Because you use the leaves for this process, you can still get the stalks: Double use!

Here in the Netherlands rhubarb is (or was) often grown in backyard and alotment gardens. Mostly used to make a mush or jam. The ingredients were not only rhubarb stalks and sugar, but also a little chalk powder. (only very little!) The chalk somewhat neutralises the oxalic acid and therefore one doesn't need to use that much sugar. This is the way I my mother taught me and I still use her recipe. Only I add a little vanilla (the black seeds from the vanilla pods).

I was able to pick only a few stalks a few months ago (it looked like the plant was dying, and I wanted to get a dessert out of it first) and I made rhubarb custard. I couldn't find a  non-finicky recipe without a crust except for this one https://www.marthastewart.com/318870/rhubarb-custards (yes, Martha. I felt sheepish, as I don't usually like her recipes). Amazingly, I made it all in one baking pan, not little ramekins, and it was perfect, even without heavy cream (i used all full fat milk) and a bit less sugar.

Carla Burke wrote:Trying to stick to a low-carb/keto is at its most difficult, when I have to turn my back on fruit. With this method, one can simply swap out the honey, in favor of stevia or monkfruit, and, even add the strawberries, to still have a classic summer treat, without killing the gut flora, or throwing dieters out of ketosis.

I recently found a recipe for a keto (theoretically) flakey crust, for a gallette/tart/pie. I just might have to try all this, together!

Rhubarb plus monkfruit for sweetener, Cook for 3 minutes, add strawberries(or not)
and a little rose water before eating. Yumm!

Rhubarb snow. Slice the rhubarb into thin disks cook with as much sugar as you like until totally mushy, then measure and add enough gelatin to give a firm set. Put in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment and whisk until it forms and holds stiff peaks. refrigerate until set. It comes out like the lightest mousse you have ever felt, but contains no cream or eggs. You can make this with any fruit puree.  

If you want something that looks spectacular but is actually very easy to make then go for a rhubarb tart. make a sweet shortcrust pastry, line your tart pan (Flan case)and blind bake it. then fill it with a thick custard. while that's cooling down slice some rhubarb into straps lengthways and blanch them so they soften.
Once the custard is cold and set weave the rhubarb over the top, top it off with some melted jam to give it a shine. it looks like it's difficult but it really isn't the best tutorials I have found are the ones for bacon weave! It's the same idea. the end result should come out something like this one I did as a birthday cake.

My wife and I like to make a lemon juice substitute by juicing the stems.  We (mostly she) use it to make Pad Thai, in place of the tamarind, also use it to make hummus, in place of lemon juice, etc. etc. We also enjoy rhubarb potato soup and rhubarb potato gratin made with chopped rhubarb stem.   The wikipedia article on rhubarb says that the stems have 2- 2.5% total acidity, and 90% of this is from malic acid.  The stems have less oxalic acid than beet greens, spinach, or especially parsley, and about the same amount of oxalic acid as collards. http://helios.hampshire.edu/~nlNS/mompdfs/oxalicacid.pdf

Rhubarb chutney! Sauté onion, add garlic and ginger. Add lemon juice (or vinegar if you don't mind to pickle your intestines) and agave syrup or other sweetener to get the sweet and sour flavor you like.

Then add rhubarb cut in small pieces and some tomato paste or even fresh tomatoes. You can add any spice that you like. I added a pinch of clove, some gochujang (but you can use any chili or cayen pepper). Mustard goes well as well. Season with salt and pepper. Also fresh tarragon, mint, basil, dill or chervil roughly chopped, to taste.

You could even add a pinch of cinnamon. Or small pieces of cucumber. Chutneys are so versatile!

Simmer until the rhubarb is soft but not falling apart. You can add raisins too!

I took my chutney recipe that usually has unripe apples.

Replaced
Apples with rhubarb
Added extra rhubarb
Replaced garlic with extra onion
Doubled augar (after tasting)

Pretty good, but possibly too spicy.  Something in the rhubarb emphasized the spice.

Also, made way more than I expected.

Sweet "Mango" Chutney
All ingredients are approximate

3 large onions
drizzle olive oil
2 Tbs mustard seed
1 Tbs powdered ginger
4 dry chilies lightly crushed (seeds included)
a large handful of garlic
At least 6 unripe apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks less than 1 inch cubed.
1 cup raisins
2 cups apple cider vinegar or equivalent
1 to 2 cups of sugar
boiling water
2 Tbs salt


Chop the onions into about 1/2 inch chunks, in a large heavy bottom pot, fry onions on medium-low with olive oil until transparent
add mustard seed, ginger, chili and garlic to the onions, stir well, cook about one min
add apples, raisons and vinegar to the onion mix, bring to boil and then turn off heat
Mix 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of boiling water to make a syrup.  Mix until sugar is dissolved
Add syrup and salt to the apples.  Mix well and bring back to a boil.  Taste and add more sugar as necessary.  Boil on high for about 5 to 15 min or until enough liquid has evaporated.  Mixture will thicken as it cools.
Place into washed (and if you like, sterilized) jars, seal with lid as per normal.  Because of the spices, salt and sugar, I didn't heat process these jars.  Mrs B never did, she just tightly wrapped the mouth of the jars with sheep bladders.  But as sheep bladders are hard to come by these days, so it's up to you to know how to safely can your food.  If you have any doubt, keep it in the fridge.

I think this would be better with the original recipe plus a few pounds of rhubarb.  The texture of rhubarb only is too runny.