Rhubarb season’s short and sweet in Missouri, spanning mid-May to mid-June. Field-grown rhubarb at local farmers’ markets shines so riotously red it almost looks other-worldly. Botanically, rhubarb’s a vegetable, but most folks eat rhubarb as a fruit, often combined with spring’s sweet strawberries and a fair amount of sugar to cut the mouth-puckering tartness.
I grew up with rhubarb stewed to a pallid browness, a disappointing change from the cherry red stalks with palest green centers we children saw grandmother put in the pot. In 2008, I tried roasting rhubarb when I wrote an article for the Seasonal Shopper in Sauce Magazine. Allelujah, the red stayed put. I've roasted ever since.
A recipe at The Wednesday Chef blog by Luisa Weiss helped me tweak my roasted rhubarb until it’s perfect. A link to Amanda Hesser’s Stalk of the Town article from the New York Times has me eager to try new recipes with amazing rhubarb. Hesser’s blog, Food 52, has great rhubarb recipes for jams and preserves, too. The research sent me flying to the cookbook section of the St. Louis Public Library for cookbooks from England, where rhubarb makes a spicier splash. More on the River Cottage Every Day cookbook I checked out later.
I roast three pounds of rhubarb at a time and eat it throughout the week. Chop it into yogurt or bake it in tea breads and muffins. Pureé some for a fruit sauce. Stir it into homemade ice cream recipes. Try it as a relish combined with raisins, ginger and pecans. Start with the basic roasted rhubarb recipe below, then experiment. Hurry. Mid-June comes all too quickly.
Visit farmer Allen Hagemann at Soulard Market to buy some of the best. Choose thinner stalks for the tenderest cuts, about one inch across at the widest part. Look for crisp stalks that don’t bend with few blemishes.
A note of caution: rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid and can be toxic. Don’t eat them, pretty as they look.
Roasted Rhubarb with Orange and Vanilla
Yield: 6 to 7 cups
3 pounds rhubarb, stems only
2 medium navel oranges
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon raw sugar (3 tablespoons per pound of rhubarb)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
- Wash and trim the leaves and the root end of each stalk. Slice the stalks into 2 ½” pieces for stalks 1” and under. Cut thicker stalks in smaller pieces so all stalks cook evenly. I like to slice them on the diagonal. It cuts easiest for me when I turn the stalks on the sides. Place all cut rhubarb in a large mixing bowl.
- Zest each orange over the bowl. Cut the oranges in half and ream the juices out over the bowl of cut rhubarb.
- Add the raw sugar and the vanilla. Toss to coat.
- Spoon the cut rhubarb into two 11” x 13” x 2” baking pans. Make a single layer. Divide the juices and pour half over each pan. Scrape any sugar and zest from the bowl and add.
- Cover pans with aluminum foil. Roast for 15 minutes.
- Remove foil and roast an additional 10 minutes. Remove pans to wire racks to cool. Put rhubarb in covered containers, pour any juices from pan over the pieces, and refrigerate until ready to use.
Did I mention rhubarb plants can be beautiful? The stalks deep red, the large ruffled leaves blue-green, the plant grows in a graceful rounded shape, leaves pin-wheeled from the center, standing two to three feet tall. When St. Louisan Kirk Hughes toured the formal gardens at Versailles, he spotted a familiar form in the parterres. “I thought it looked like rhubarb,” said Hughes, “and it was. The whole backdrop of the planting was magnificent, tall red rhubarb.”
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