Is anyone using rhubarb for anything besides pies? I love a good rhubarb pie or crumble, but I’m trying to find other ways to use up an abundance. Thanks
Strawberry rhubarb jam.
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Is there a way of using rhubarb that doesn’t involve sugar? I like the idea of a care free perennial but can’t bring myself to devote space to something that needs added sugar to be edible.
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Rhubarb sauce (we cut the sugar by 50%) over yogurt or ice cream.
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Yes, there is another way. Send it my way 
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I juice most of my rhubarb in an auger-type juicer. Let stand overnight and then pour off the purely pinkish juice. Thicken with clear gel and a small amount of sugar. Add stevia powder if more sweetness wanted. Use as a topping or eat straight as a pudding.
By freezing the juice and cooking it around the year, a lot of rhubarb can be used.
^no coloring added to this juice; for best color use a red-skinned rhubarb variety.
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I have used it as a “Norwegian lime” when drinking tequila.
I have used it sliced very thinly in a casserole to add tart and crunch.
It is very healthy, I think, or it wouldn’t be in the famous anti-cancer preparation “Essiac”, which has been effective for so many people.
John S
PDX OR
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My favorite way to use rhubarb is in a simple sort of “bread-pudding type” dessert (though I don’t typically like bread puddings). This just uses a 2:2:1:1 ratio of rhubarb, bread, butter, sugar. Slice rhubarb, add sugar, cut bread into 1" cubes (I use my homemade sourdough) and then pour melted butter over and put in oven for about 45 min @ 350F until bread on top is nice and toasty and buttery. Its delicious!
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I made this twice, once with strawberries (pictured) once with blueberries. Lots of rhubarb ideas here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rhubarb-recipes-spring_us_58ee63f8e4b08c15f0dbce05?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
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I made a strawberry rhubarb pie for the first time, but honestly it pretty much tasted like strawberries. Maybe too much sugar.
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I introduced it to a friend of mine, an excellent cook, from India, and she immediately declared that it would be useful for any savory dish, like you’d use tamarind, lemon, or tomato. It could contribute the necessary tartness to lentils for example. She couldn’t believe me when I told her it was used in desserts.
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@mellis, you don’t want to grow anything that needs sugar? So no tart gooseberries, no black currants, no haskasp? You are missing out! This plant is the first thing I harvest (3rd week of May, 6 weeks after snow melt) and it produces non-stop until first frost or 2 at the end of september/mid october! Around 10-15lbs per plant. Nothing else my garden is as care free and produces as long as rhubarb.
My 2 favorite rhubarb recipes are:
Rhubarb crisp
4 cups (1 1/2 lb) diced rhubarb (stems cut into about 1/2 inch slices)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 to 2 cups sugar depending on how sour your rhubarb is
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter or margarine
Preheat oven to 350. Arrange rhubarb in ungreased 8x8x2 baking dish. Sprinkle with salt.
Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in butter/margarine until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over rhubarb.
Bake until the topping is is golden brown and rhubarb is tender. 40-50 min. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Yum, yum! I generally do double or triple batches and freeze the excess in individual service size pyrex containers. They reheat well in the microwave.
Stewed Rhubarb
6 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup granulated sugar (more or less depending on sourness of rhubarb and your personal taste)
2 tablespoons water
In large saucepan, combine rhubarb, sugar and water; cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until slightly thickened and rhubarb is in threads. Fantastic by itself or with vanilla ice cream.
I also boiling water bath can the above recipe (quadrupled) and keep it on the shelf. Otherwise you can freeze any extras.
Hope these give you a reason to try rhubarb. If you or family members like sweet-tart food, you/they will LOVE these.
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I eat gooseberries and black currant (my favorite) plain and really like them that way, so perhaps my tastebuds are a bit odd? I don’t know. We try not to eat much added sugar at all. I can’t remember the last time I added sugar to something. We don’t add sugar to fruit pies or crumbles or anything like that. I find most fruits to be plenty sweet without it. Blueberries, peaches and basil baked with some oats and butter on top (no added sugar) is a typical dessert for us. I don’t see rhubarb fitting into that mold.
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Rhubarb is not for you then.
anyone using Japanese Knotweed. Its taking over everywhere. has the same flavor as Rhubarb and can be substituted 1:1 in recipes.
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Well gooseberries range from a brix of 8-12 or so with some sweeter. Black currants 10-14 or so. Rhubarb apparently is 5.7 brix so quite a bit more tart. I guess I don’t see how eating a fruit that is 2x sweeter with natural fructose is hugely different than just adding honey or maple syrup or a less refined sugar to rhubarb to bring it up to a palatable level. You end up with the same amount of carbohydrates and it is not like we are suggesting adding refined high fructose corn syrup… That said it’s totally your decision, I just think you are missing out on a vigorous, productive, disease free, zero effort food producing machine of a plant that gives you something to eat from your garden weeks before any other fruit is ready to eat.
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I eat ripe black currants and gooseberries straight also, but they are probably 12-22 brix on their own. I don’t think I’d eat rhubarb without sugar, unless you don’t count sweetening with other fruit or something, like 30 brix grape juice.
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No you are exactly right, they are the same. I suppose I have one reason for considering added sugar differently: convenience. I’d rather eat plain fruit than have to prepare it. So, I’d rather grow extra blueberries with that space the rhubarb is occupying and have last year’s frozen bloobs come spring. To each their own!
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Aside from having a unique flavor, the other things rhubarb have going for it is its the very earliest fruit like thing to harvest by a good margin here, and it is about the easiest thing to grow here. The deer, rabbits, birds, and rodents leave it alone, doesn’t require protection. It is also much easier to harvest and “hangs” for weeks or months ready to harvest. I’m not sure how nutritious it is though.
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