Rhubarb

Romany

I’ve just picked about 15lb of rhubarb and there’s plenty more to come!

Does anyone have any recipes?

I know the leaves contain oxalic acid and are poisonous, but is it OK to eat raw stalks? I was wondering whether to try to juice a stalk or two and add it to my smoothie.

amysue

YES! They’re not mine but there’s at least two that I know of at this site – Strawberry Rhubarb Shake (heaven) and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (haven’t tried it yet). The shake has been a huge hit with my family and friends. The stalks are fine raw to my knowledge, I’ve had plenty with no ill effects. Hopefully you have a high speed blender because when I was visiting family I raided their rhubarb patch and tried to blend it in a traditional blender and it was a super stringy mess.

angie207

Rhubarb cheesecake (I created it last night): 2 1/2 cups raw cashews, 1/2 cup rhubarb juice, 1 cup raw agave (or you can use 3/4 cup of raw honey in place of the agave). Blend until creamy in blender, adding a LITTLE water only if needed to help blend. Pour into my “Pie Crust” & freeze (12 – 24 hours) until set. The rhubarb taste was pretty mild & the pie was sweet, so it wouldn’t hurt to add extra rhubarb juice.

angie207

The stalks are super fibrous/stringy, so I cut them into little chunks before juicing, and I kept having to stop & clean the fiber out of my juicer.

Romany

Thanks very much amysue and angie for those great ideas I will try them all! I was given 7 rhubarb plants when we moved here and they kind of split up when we transplanted them and made well over 30 plants in total! Judging by the rhubarb crop so far we will have plenty of rhubarb all through the summer and it’s great to know that it can be used to make raw goodies.

bitt

juice it! with another sweet fruit. i ran out of $ today at the farmer’s market… meant to get some.

Romany

Thanks bitt! I will juice some and see how it freezes too as that will take up less space in the freezer.

Pity you don’t live near me you could have plenty of free rhubarb, but around here everyone has their own and you can’t give it away.

I am into self-sufficiency and trying to preserve enough food for the winter, especially if I can do it without relying on electricity, i.e. freezing (well not too much anyway). Canning (which I did last year) is no good on a raw diet.

I don’t suppose drying rhubarb would be very good, unless I could try to make a fruit leather out of it, perhaps mixing it with apple & strawberry. I will give it a try and post how it goes, but if anyone has tried it can you give me any pointers?

bitt

i wanna make fruit leather this summer! that is a good idea to add rhubarb. there were some directions in the instructions of my dehydrator. also i have heard people freezing juices with luck.

i am totally into local stuff. i am trying to eat a LOT more local this summer. like my primary shop being the farmer’s market.

bitt

http://goneraw.com/recipes/124-Fruit-Leathers

sweetpea

Oh, that’s interesting. I have never used raw rhubarb before, sounds like I should try a rhubarb crumble with custard.

 

Romany

Thanks for the link bitt.

The fruit leather was a great success. I blended equal amounts of strawberry and rhubarb and added a little apple for sweetness. I don’t find it too sour at all, but you could add banana or agave syrup for extra sweetness. I dried it overnight and it’s come out a lovely pink colour. I might try other variations and perhaps add some herbs like lemon balm or mint to the mix.

Angie’s cheesecake recipe went down very well yesterday (thanks angie) and the strawberry rhubarb shake amazed us with a phenomenal range of flavours. Truly wonderful and will be a firm favourite of ours now that I know I can juice rhubarb and freeze the juice, taking up far less freezer space.

I tried drying some rhubarb pieces at the same time as the fruit leather but they taste awful, so I think I’ll stick to juicing, shakes, leathers and wonderful desserts (perhaps we can dream up a few more during the summer?).

When I posted this I couldn’t figure out how to do a search of the forum, but now I’ve discovered the search button I see that rhubarb has already been discussed, so sorry I repeated it. Thanks for all the help & tips so far, this has really helped me to make good use of something which is growing freely in the garden.