Rhubarb Season in PNW some more ideas for culinary adventure?

Hello fellow permaculture friends. I am so grateful to have some freshly harvested rhubarb. I have made rhubarbs galettes, rhubarb baklava, and the classic rhubarb "sauce". I am looking for more suggestions as I am curious to make a naturally fermented rhubarb chutney or incorporate it into a curry or some other interesting savory flair. Looking forward to the discussion and inspiration! How do you fee about a rhubarb sauce pizza? I made a beet sauce alternative "marinara" recently.

I love rhubarb - and I hope my large plants in my main garden have survived my tenants while they have rented my property! I'm looking forward to a huge harvest next spring, once I'm back there.
I freeze a lot for later use.
I make rhubarb/apple pies, rhubarb crumble & crisp. Cook rhubarb sauce to have over yogurt and granola, over Dutch Baby pancakes... I've made juice using a steamer, rhubarb chutney.
I think your pizza idea is fine - it's a great savory sauce. I've had it with meats before... would probably be a lovely counterpart to duck.
Looking forward to other posts to gather more ideas!

I realize you seem to be requesting savory ideas, but alas, my limited rhubarb crop this year has all been turned into either:

Grandmother's Rhubarb Custard Pies

Or a new recipe I found and adapted to make Rhubarb Oat Loaf - the adaptation was to swap the oil for duck or chicken eggs as we've currently got an over-supply, and to almost double the quantity of chopped rhubarb it calls for (if a little is nice, a lot is nicer!)

I can post both the recipes if you're interested.

And now I am hungry. Wonder where I can get some rhubarb pie... say what do you all do with the leafy greens isn't that part a bit poisonous, does it just go to compost?

I also usually use rhubarb as a sweet.  However it is nice stuffed in oily fish like mackerel.
I tried rhubarb flowers this week.  Also edible but much less sharp. Apparently there is little oxalic acid in the flowers just in the stems.  I think you could use as any accompanying vegetable.  They look granular, so could also make a low carb couscous substitute I guess.

T Simpson wrote:And now I am hungry. Wonder where I can get some rhubarb pie... say what do you all do with the leafy greens isn't that part a bit poisonous, does it just go to compost?

I treat them as "chop and position" - a modification of "chop and drop" and actually set them under the rhubarb plant as mulch.

We love rhubarb here. This week I made dried rhubarb leather, for my kids school lunches. They are usually a little reluctant about rhubarb, but absolutely demolished this.

Stew the rhubarb slowly, on a low heat, for about an hour. Drain the liquid (keep this! Rhubarb vodka). Quick whiz through the food processor, then spread it out in the dehydrator. Job done.

I mostly make crumbles with mine. Apple rhubarb crumble is quite good. My grandmother made one recently that was like a date square with crumble on both the bottom and top. I freeze a lot as well.

This is a traditional Danish recipe I am thinking of making again soon. It makes a really nice light summer dessert:

https://www.readersdigest.ca/food/recipes/danish-rhubarb-pudding/

A single raw young stalk dipped in sugar can be quite good. With a bit of tolerance built up, you can eat it without the sugar!

Cooked rhubarb with just a touch of sugar is good with pork.

We have 8 plants and I don't think we have enough rhubarb!

I haven't seen a recipe for rhubarb juice so here we go.

Recipe from Keeping the Harvest (1976) Great older book.

1 quart water to 4 quarts rhubarb.
Bring to a boil.
When rhubarb is soft reduce heat..Mash the pulp.
Strain out juice through fine sieve or cheesecloth sweeten juice to taste.
Pour hot juice into hot sterilized jars and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  

My husband altered the recipe to our tastes.
2 quarts water to 4 quarts rhubarb
final amount a little more than 3/4 gal of juice

We also save the pulp (he calls it monkey poop for reasons unknown) and sweeten to taste, put in hot sterilized jars and process in boiling water bath for 10 to 15 minutes. Makes a good spread for pancakes, etc. 3 1/2 pints monkey poop.

This is very refreshing in the winter and is the first juice for us in the spring.

Jay Angler wrote:I realize you seem to be requesting savory ideas, but alas, my limited rhubarb crop this year has all been turned into either:

Grandmother's Rhubarb Custard Pies

Or a new recipe I found and adapted to make Rhubarb Oat Loaf - the adaptation was to swap the oil for duck or chicken eggs as we've currently got an over-supply, and to almost double the quantity of chopped rhubarb it calls for (if a little is nice, a lot is nicer!)

I can post both the recipes if you're interested.

I would love the recipe for both those tasty treats! Very curious about the Rhubarb Oat Loaf

Catie George wrote:I mostly make crumbles with mine. Apple rhubarb crumble is quite good. My grandmother made one recently that was like a date square with crumble on both the bottom and top. I freeze a lot as well.

This is a traditional Danish recipe I am thinking of making again soon. It makes a really nice light summer dessert:

https://www.readersdigest.ca/food/recipes/danish-rhubarb-pudding/

A single raw young stalk dipped in sugar can be quite good. With a bit of tolerance built up, you can eat it without the sugar!

Cooked rhubarb with just a touch of sugar is good with pork.

We have 8 plants and I don't think we have enough rhubarb!

Thank you Catie! That pudding looks lovely and simple. I wonder if arrowroot starch could be substituted for cornstarch...

I make sauce with mine, but put it mostly either over ice cream or chicken. I don't have a recipe for the chicken, I just do it, sorry! Works pretty much like any sweet/fruit on meat dish.

I've usually simmer chopped onion in the sauce before I drizzle it over the chicken. Then serve it I don't cook the chicken with the sauce on it btw, just serve it that way.

The sugar would just carmelize then burn.

Grandmother's Rhubarb Custard Pie

1. for an ~10" diameter deep pie plate, chop ~5 1/2 cups of rhubarb.
2. put a layer of rhubarb on the crust, then shake a sprinkle of flour over it.
3. put the rest of the rhubarb on so that the plate is full.
4. Sprinkle nutmeg over the rhubarb.

Sauce
Mix together:
3/4 cup Brown sugar
1 Tablespoon of flour
Then mix in 3 eggs - 4 if small (the eggs add protein and other nutrients as well as buffering the acid in the rhubarb)
And a generous teaspoon of vanilla
Pour the sauce over the rhubarb. Bake 400F for 15 minutes, then 350F until set (~45 min). If it still seems a little soft in the center, turn off the oven and let the pie sit in the warm oven for another 10 min.

Back-story for those interested: My mother learned to make this pie from her mother, who learned it from my Great Grandmother. Great Grandmother's mother died in child-birth when she was 7, so she was taken out of school to "run the household" (the things 7 year-olds were capable of doing in those days, that we don't let them do today!) However, this meant she never learned to read, so the recipe was never written down. When I married, our back-yard had a bumper crop of rhubarb and my mother came to visit and I asked her for the recipe and I got a stunned look - she just did it so it "looked right". So I took out some bowls and tools and asked her to "make it look right" and as she did, I took the quantities and measured them and wrote it down. Later I was visiting my Aunts and took rhubarb pie with me. When I told them I had the recipe written down, I was not going to escape without promising them a copy! There are many things like this which we're in danger of loosing if we don't protect the knowledge and the skills. The SCA has helped preserve some of this sort of knowledge, as have other people with an interest in a particular ancient skill or recipe (there's someone recreating ancient Roman recipes for example.) However, we can all participate in knowledge preservation if we look around for a niche and learn a new skill or 5.

Rhubarb Oat Loaf

Topping Ingredients and Method:
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Cut in 1/4 cup of butter (I use a pastry cutter, but do what you would for scones)
Mix in 3/4 cup of finely chopped rhubarb

Loaf Dry Ingredients - mix in a large bowl
1 cup unbleached flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar (I use demerara as I find it has more flavour, but your choice.)
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Stir 3 cups of chopped rhubarb into the dry ingredients

Wet Ingredients -
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large or bigger duck or chicken eggs beaten (duck eggs will give more lift)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 4 loaf pans.
Mix the wet ingredients into a well in the center of the dry ingredients until well mixed. Divide between the 4 pans (they won't be full). Spread the topping evenly between the 4 pans. If you want a deeper end-product, you can decrease the number of loaf pans, but you will have to bake it for much longer and I find I don't have time for that sort of thing.
Bake 30 min. If not quite done, bake longer by 5-10 min. I admit I'm using a convection oven, which speeds things up a bit.

Based on a recipe for muffins by Julie Menghini - but there's *no* way I have time to fiddle around with muffins when #2 son will promptly inhale 4 of them still warm from the oven!
I've made this recipe at least 3 times already this spring, and need to make it again as it's all gone and there's a friend I need to give some to.

Can't get away with that here! It's Slug City under those big leaves as it is if we don't make sure to remove all the old stems and leaves as soon as they wilt and flop on the ground.

My last post was supposed to be a reply to the chop & drop idea for the leaves but it didn't appear after it. Never mind. Lots of lovely rhubarb recipes! I want to make a really tall Rhubarb Meringue Pie. I was told that one of my ancestors ate rhubarb in some form every day of the year and even made rhubarb pills to take if he hadn't got anything else!

Check this recipe out. Yum.

https://permies.com/t/113181/kitchen/Rhubarb-recipes#925263

As a kid back in the 50s, on the first day of summer vacation we went to the feed store and bought a rabbit salt. Easy to carry, personal to lick, and great with a stalk of rhubarb. Refreshment at its finest and we stay out in the sun all day long.

I would enjoy both of these recipes you referenced!

Jay Angler wrote:

T Simpson wrote:And now I am hungry. Wonder where I can get some rhubarb pie... say what do you all do with the leafy greens isn't that part a bit poisonous, does it just go to compost?

I treat them as "chop and position" - a modification of "chop and drop" and actually set them under the rhubarb plant as mulch.

That's exactly what I do too!

Jim Webb wrote:Can't get away with that here! It's Slug City under those big leaves as it is if we don't make sure to remove all the old stems and leaves as soon as they wilt and flop on the ground.

Jim, I don't mind those slugs. They eat the leaves and poop out a nice compost for my rhubarb plant (I think)

After I made many jars of rhubarb jam (sauce, but with a little more sugar, so I can keep it longer) I still had more rhubarb. So I made a French Rhubarb Pie.
The recipe was in Dutch, but I can tell you it's like a 'grandmother's rhubarb pie' only not with custard. Instead of the custard you use a mix of crème fraiche with eggs and fine sugar (and some vanille). That's what you pour over the pieces of rhubarb in the pie dough. And then bake like any other pie. I hope this is a clear description ...

I've always wanted to try Greg's neat find here:  https://permies.com/t/111845/kitchen/Roasted-Rhubarb-Catsup.

I've also heard this, https://permies.com/t/146569/perennial-vegetables/Recipe-Rhubarb-Wine, or a simple rhubarb syrup for mixed drinks is nice.

One year I tried making rhubarb candy in the solar food dehydrator, but I didn't quite do it right. But look that one up - I think it's worth a try!

Last, but not least, I thought I'd posted about this on permies.com somewhere, but didn't find it.; THIS is a LOVELY salsa:  http://nwedible.com/rhubarb-salsa-recipe/.

Thanks for providing the recipe. Friends brought rhubarb salsa to a gathering this weekend, very good with chips.

 In Lemonade

One of my favorites is to freeze Rhubarb stalks then take a couple out when making lemonade. Then take the water in blender with the rhubard stalks and blend it to liquid. Pour into pitcher and make lemonade as normal.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

Jim Webb wrote:Can't get away with that here! It's Slug City under those big leaves as it is if we don't make sure to remove all the old stems and leaves as soon as they wilt and flop on the ground.

Jim, I don't mind those slugs. They eat the leaves and poop out a nice compost for my rhubarb plant (I think)

Slugs would be wonderful if they only ate rotting vegetation. The problem is that they carry on and eat my lettuce seedlings, my bean plants, my onions, the lilies, the strawberries and everything else that they can get at. They are no doubt good things in the wood where they should be. Not in my garden!

Just ran across these savory recipes...
https://www.foodandwine.com/cooking-techniques/5-savory-ways-use-rhubarb

Haven't tested any yet...

I plan to make chutney if I'm gifted some rhubarb this year. Something like this looks good:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/rhubarb-chutney/

Or easy jam like this

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:

Last, but not least, I thought I'd posted about this on permies.com somewhere, but didn't find it.; THIS is a LOVELY salsa:  http://nwedible.com/rhubarb-salsa-recipe/.  

I tried this and two of my girl-friends liked it. I don't know if they liked it enough that I'll make more this spring  - it partly depends on the weather as we had a brief heatwave that made my key patch quite unhappy. I've had it on a couple of things. Thanks Jocelyn!

The rhubarb plants (4 or 5 at the allotment garden and 2 here in my front and back yard) are still growing and giving more stalks. I gifted some of the harvested stalks and some little jars of jam. But there are still more to pick. I think I'll make salsa now.
BTW I found out I have at least two different varieties of rhubarb! One plant in the allotment has thinner, redder (more red) stalks and a somewhat different taste! So I won't try to get rid of that particular plant. Some others will probably have to disappear ...

Jay Angler wrote:Jocelyn Campbell wrote:

Last, but not least, I thought I'd posted about this on permies.com somewhere, but didn't find it.; THIS is a LOVELY salsa:  http://nwedible.com/rhubarb-salsa-recipe/.  

I tried this and two of my girl-friends liked it. I don't know if they liked it enough that I'll make more this spring  - it partly depends on the weather as we had a brief heatwave that made my key patch quite unhappy. I've had it on a couple of things. Thanks Jocelyn!

Yay! I found the most difficult part of that recipe is cooking the rhubarb just enough but not too much. Mine often seemed a bit too soft.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:Yay! I found the most difficult part of that recipe is cooking the rhubarb just enough but not too much. Mine often seemed a bit too soft.

Yes - I think mine was too soft. Normally when I blanch veg, I tip them into ice cold water to stop the action. With the salsa, I tipped them into the other ingredients, hoping that would cool them quickly enough, but alas, maybe not! It's still good, and every ingredient except the salt,  pepper and vinegar (instead of lime) were local.

It's actually a shame they don't recommend canning it. If enough of my friends like it "soft", I'd be tempted to ignore that advice and use it as a sauce.

I'm thinking I should have taken pictures - do you think this would qualify under "sauces" for this badge bit?
https://permies.com/wiki/150374/pep-food-prep-preservation/Kinds-Condiments-Salad-Dressings-food

Rhubarb vodka?  Please tell us more!!

Thank you all! Yes I made it to the fruit leather production stage, and I've been adding frozen chopped rhubarb to my fruit smoothies!

A friend has bought an electrical food dryer last year, but she is not yet using it often. So I sent her the recipe of the rhubarb fruit leather. Immediately she started making it and a few days later we could taste it! Yummie!
Now I want a food dryer too ... Or maybe we can share hers.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:A friend has bought an electrical food dryer last year, but she is not yet using it often. So I sent her the recipe of the rhubarb fruit leather. Immediately she started making it and a few days later we could taste it! Yummie!
Now I want a food dryer too ... Or maybe we can share hers.

I quote myself because I realised I used the wrong English word. It must be 'food dehydrator'.

I have finally found a real use for lots of rhubarb!  Greg Martin linked a ketchup recipe here:  https://permies.com/p/1144098 - original here:  http://learntopreserve.com/recipes/2011/6/14/roasted-rhubarb-ketchup.html and my boyfriend, who puts ketchup on everything, loves it!  And it uses a lot of rhubarb - 6 pounds of stalks made 8 small jars.  I'm actually excited about dividing my rhubarb now - it's so nice for keeping weeds down by the shared fencelines, but I haven't really had a use for the massive quantities of stalks.

Even better, I was able to do simplify everything and do it in my new toy, the Instant Pot + Air Fryer.  I chopped up the stalks and put them into the pot, set it to roast for the expected time, and walked away.  (Next time I will actually stir it as recommended, some of the bits on top burned a bit just leaving it for an hour.)  Then instead of pushing it through a food mill I just used my hand blender to puree it, added the rest of the ingredients, and set it to slow cook for the recommended time.  So easy, and no heating up the oven in the summer!  I'm still paranoid about canning, so the filled jars just went into the freezer.  I expect the bf to go through them in no time at all.

In another experiment, I made a Persian Rhubarb Stew with Meat:  https://www.linsfood.com/khoresh-rivas-persian-rhubarb-stew/

It was unexpectedly light and fruity - I was expecting something much darker and richer (though to be fair I used beef stew meat instead of the lamb that was in my head).  We both liked it but didn't love it, and of course it involved a long time at a hot stove.  But the author mentions that you can sub in non-meat things like beans or chickpeas, and we might play with it more during future rhubarb seasons.

Today, when looking for new radish recipes I came across a rhubarb radish slaw recipe. The dressing part was uninspiring but I like the idea of raw matchsticks of rhubarb and radish with some dressing. My plant died this year, moved it too many times I think but maybe I will buy a few stalks and try this out with my radishes.