Five Happy Things
It's rhubarb season!
Spread a little joy today! Pass this along to someone who’d love it. 🥰
It was just a few weeks ago that I was saying there’s no rhubarb at the farmers market yet, and I was craving lemons while I waited for those beautifully tart, beautifully ruby-red stalks.
Well guess what was at the market on my last visit!
Rhubarb!
I know it’s not a fruit, but it always feels like the first fresh fruit of the year.
Here’s how I love to eat it. . .
Rhubarb Crisp - Of course strawberry-rhubarb pie is delicious (this is my favorite version) but I make this crisp more often. If I decide to add strawberries, I cut the granulated sugar in half. Sometimes I make this without the crumbled topping and I eat it for breakfast over oatmeal - just like the baked apples I describe in this post.
Rhubarb Snacking Cake from Smitten Kitchen - This is my favorite summer cake, and it’s what you see in the Smitten Kitchen photo above. There’s a tiny bit of ginger in the cake at the bottom layer, and I think it’s a lovely complement to the rhubarb.
Brown Sugar Roasted Rhubarb from Amelia Saltsman - You know what else is a lovely complement to rhubarb? Black pepper! I actually modify this recipe a lot, making it even more savory. I toss my chopped rhubarb with olive oil, salt, half the brown sugar she calls for, and a lot of freshly ground black pepper. I don’t measure, but it’s a lot. Like, imagine you’re seasoning potatoes for roasting. It’s delicious with hard cheese on crackers (I like it with an aged gouda), or piled on a slice of toast spread with chevre. Yum!
Pickled Rhubarb from Blossom to Stem - Why would you want to pickle something that’s already as sour as rhubarb? I don’t know - it just works! I had just a few stalks leftover from the crisp I made, and I’ve been obsessed with adding a pop of pickled tartness to just about everything lately, so I decided to give it a try. I used apple cider vinegar and a single slice of fresh ginger. I wanted little pops of acid instead of big bites of pickle, so I cut the rhubarb up quite a bit smaller than the recipe shows - more like a relish. It was delicious added to a leafy salad, and I’m going to eat what’s left on some fish tacos.
Strawberry Rhubarb Soda Syrup from Smitten Kitchen - I’m not a big soda drinker, but sometimes I cook for a group of authors at a writing retreat, and I like to make this soda syrup for them. Don’t throw the leftover pulp away! It’s delicious stirred into plain yogurt and then topped with granola.
If you have a favorite rhubarb recipe, please share a link in the comments so everyone can give it a try!
You can find past newsletters with recipes here.
Enjoy!
Best,
Wendi
❤️
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Like Rachel,I grew up cutting stalks from the rhubarb patch but eating them with sugar. It's hard to grow in the South; the easiest variety comes up with green stalks, it's rarely available at the farmers market and at the grocery store those bright red stalks are expensive! I buy then anyway.
I'm so here for rhubarb and black pepper! Thank you for the inspiration