It was a bumper year for the reluctant giant veggie rhubarb on my little Alaskan island in the North Pacific Ocean. The oddest thing about this year’s crop was that my rhubarb actually BLOOMED!! What the heck? Right!!
Even though, rhubarb is treated as a summer fruit with all the pies and muffins and bars it finds its way into, RHUBARB is ACTUALLY a veggie! Yup, that’s right. It’s related to celery, but you wont find me making celery strawberry pie; thus our reluctant veggie. Some of my family’s favorite recipes are rhubarb ice cream, oatmeal rhubarb bars, and almond rhubarb coffee cake.I quickly jumped on asking local experts about the uses for the bloom.
- DO NOT EAT THE BLOOM
- Cut the bloom off at the base to save energy and nutrients for the stalk
- Use bloom in flower bouquets
Then I decided after my third harvest to seek some uncommon recipe ideas for rhubarb. Here's the list!
- Super Vitamin water (simply clean, cut and drop cut rhubarb into your water bottle)
- Rhubarb Strawberry Crumble bread - more of a cake
- Rhubarb Dog Chewy/Treats - seriously, my pooches love to chomp on it.(DO NOT ALLOW PETS TO EAT LEAVES OR BLOOMS)
- Rhubarb Mint Ice Tea
Ingredients
- 8 medium size stalks rhubarb, cut into 3-inch lengths
- 12 cups water
- 1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
- Fresh mint sprigs, for garnish
Directions
In a large saucepan, combine rhubarb and 8 cups water; bring to a boil, and simmer for 1 hour. Strain the liquid, add sugar to taste, stirring to dissolve, and allow to cool. Serve over ice with a sprig of mint.
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 Cup brown sugar
- 1/2 Cup canola oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Cup buttermilk
- 2 1/2 Cups flour (try 50% whole wheat pastry flour)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Cups chopped rhubarb
- for topping:
- 3 Tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 1/2 Cup oats
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 and grease two 9 by 5 inch loaf pans.
Mix together egg, brown sugar, and oil, then stir in the vanilla extract and buttermilk. In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir into wet ingredients, then stir in rhubarb. Divide batter evenly among the two loaf pans.
To make the topping, stir brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon into the melted butter, then sprinkle evenly over the loaves.
Bake in the preheated oven about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let loaves cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Yield: 2 loaves, about 16 servings
Nutrition Big Picture:
1 cup uncooked: 6 gm Carbohydrate, 2.2 gm Fiber, good sources of Vitamin C, K, Potassium, Manganese, Calcium and Magnesium
ENJOY!
awesome!
THANK YOU!
Can’t wait to try the rhubarb in August. One of my top three favorite fruits.
Wonderful ! See you in Aug!
Yummy! I had no idea they bloomed. Great recipes!
I didn’t realize it bloomed either! One day, on my way to work I looked up and thought “What’s that alien thing in the rhubarb?”
Yummy! I had no idea they bloomed. Great recipes!