It’s rhubarb season here, which means thinking of lots of ways to use those tart stalks. Growing up, both of my daughters loved rhubarb sauce with yogurt, and rhubarb muffins are also delicious.
A little almond extract in the filling brightened the rhubarb crisp.
Strawberries and rhubarb go really well together, and even though the local strawberries are not ripe yet — and may not be for awhile — I decided to make a strawberry-rhubarb crisp last night.
It took less than 15 minutes to throw this recipe together, including walking out to my rhubarb patch to grab the stalks. After 45 minutes in the oven, the rhubarb crisp emerged fragrant and bubbling. Because rhubarb is very tart, this recipe has more sugar than I usually use in crisps, although not as much as it would need if it were entirely rhubarb. The strawberries add a nice sweet flavor that complements the rhubarb and the addition of almond extract gives it a nuanced flavor.
Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Filling:
4 stalks rhubarb, cleaned and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 quart strawberries, rinsed, cut into quarters
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp almond extract
Mix strawberries and rhubarb with sugar, flour and extract. Put in a pie dish.
Topping:
In the same bowl you mixed the filling ingredients, mix 1 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and 4 tablespoons melted (or very soft) butter. Pour the topping over the filling, and bake. You may want to put a pan under the crisp in the oven in case it drips.
We didn’t have any ice cream or whipped cream in the house, either of which would have been delicious with this, but both my husband and I had a big bowl and thought it was great — the perfect end to a busy weekend spent in the garden.
Rhubarb is a very easy perennial vegetable to grow. It likes a lot of fertility in the soil so I have my rhubarb growing in a spot that formerly had my compost bin over it. You can often get a division of rhubarb from a fellow gardener, and like many perennials, rhubarb does not mind being divided every few years. University of Minnesota Extension has an informative fact sheet on growing rhubarb, if you’d like more information.
What’s your favorite rhubarb recipe?
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