Simple Recipes to Use Up Leftover Rhubarb
This strawberry rhubarb crumble (Cupful of Kale) can be made as is, or just use rhubarb alone, though it won’t be as sweet.
Avoid rhubarb for kidney stones or liver problems (even a history). Check medication , before eating.
Keep rhubarb away from pets (due to soluble oxalate crystals). Read more on food safety for people & pets.
Rhubarb is one of England’s favourite fruits (even though it’s not a fruit, it’s actually a seed!) Related to buckwheat, it’s too bitter to eat raw, but cooked it’s delicious with sugar, and just as popular in Scandinavia).
If you’ve never tasted rhubarb, it’s difficult to describe as it is unique. Someone once described it as a cross between a ripe strawberry and a tart Granny Smith apple?
How to Buy & Store Rhubarb
There are two types of rhubarb:
- Forced rhubarb (January to March) is grown in pots in Yorkshire’s ‘rhubarb triangle’ region (Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield). It’s said the eerie ‘cracks’ of the stalks, means you can hear it growing!
- Maincrop rhubarb (March to June) is more tart.
Look for healthy looking rhubarb, often the leaves have already been removed.
Once home, trim off excess leaves and store in a reusable silicone freezer bag (keep it open) or at least cut a few holes inside, to let the rhubarb breathe. Then store in your fridge’s salad crisper drawer.
Today ‘forced rhubarb’ is so popular, that growers outside of Yorkshire are supplying supermarkets, including many from Norfolk.
Due to acids, rhubarb and leaves (along with citrus fruits and all alliums – garlic, onion, shallots, chives and leeks) could harm compost creatures. So just bin scraps, to naturally break down.
How to Prepare & Cook Rhubarb
Rhubarb has to be cooked (discard and bin the leaves).
Bring to the boil in a pot with enough water to cover, then simmer for around 20 minutes. Then stir in sugar (and optional cinnamon). Serve with vegan custard or ice-cream.
More about Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Triangle
Let’s learn more about this, as it’s an interesting story.
Yorkshire has the ideal soil to grow rhubarb as cold weather up north has no effect (rhubarb is native to Siberia!)
Years ago, 200 local growers would send their rhubarb via ‘rhubarb trains’ to London’s Covent Garden market.
The crop has been popular ever since, apart from during the Second World War (when the rationing of sugar, meant it was too bitter to eat).
The Rhubarb Triangle consists of 9 square miles in West Yorkshire. At one point, the area produced 90% of the world’s winter forced rhubarb, from the sheds near the fields.
Forced rhubarb is grown in a very special way, without light (even harvesting is done by candlelight, so not to stop growth). Then once harvested, any root stock left is composted.
The novel The Body on the Train (published in 2019) has a plot of a man, whose murdered body is found on a rhubarb train, on arrival in London.
Homemade Vegan Rhubarb Ginger Muffins
These homemade vegan rhubarb ginger muffins (Wallflower Kitchen) are the ultimate ‘peaceful empowerment recipe’. When did England become a country made around giant store-bought American-style chocolate chip muffins? This is a far more homegrown snack, that you can make yourself instead!
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (rhubarb and spices like nutmeg are near animal friends).
Just bin rhubarb scraps (the acids could harm compost creatures).
Your grandmother would have recognised these ingredients, and your granddad would likely have grown the rhubarb! It uses flour, brown sugar, ginger and oil, along with some ‘new’ ingredients like plant milk and apple cider vinegar. Plus of course plenty of chopped rhubarb.
Nearly all of England’s rhubarb is grown in the Yorkshire Triangle, an area known for producing the best crops, due to unique growing conditions. Years ago, there was even a ‘rhubarb train’ that would send it down to London’s Covent Garden! You must always cook rhubarb, it can’t be eaten raw.
Read our post on zero waste baking tools for silicone baking trays and muffin liners.
