Delicious rhubarb recipes

Rhubarb - In gardens, kitchens and glasses!

Kategorien: Recipes Food and Drink Children Hobby

In gardens, kitchens and glasses! Rhubarb is a gift of nature: growing wild and edible between April and the end of June. The only complicated thing about rhubarb for children is the pronunciation - and the spelling. Harvesting, growing and preparation are child's play and ideal for eating and drinking from your own garden. What exactly is rhubarb?

According to natural history, rheum rhabarbarum, the common rhubarb, is a knotweed plant with edible plant stems. In its name the vegetable already tells its story: rheum is derived from the Latin word for "root", rhabarbarum um comes from "barbarian", the foreigner. Rhubarb does not originally come from Europe, but was imported from the Himalayas.
© fotogal / depositphotos

What exactly is rhubarb?
According to natural history rheum rhabarbarum, the common rhubarb, is a knotweed plant with edible plant stems. The name itself tells its own story: rheum is derived from the Latin word for "root", rhabarbarum um comes from "barbarian", the foreigner.

Rhubarb does not originally come from Europe, but was imported from the Himalayas. In the meantime, the colourful plants often grow wild on the edge of meadows. The deep purple stems can be used peeled or unpeeled and have a slightly sour taste. Most recipes recommend the use of lightly cooked or steamed rhubarb - this is more digestible.

Things to know for leisure cooks
Rhubarb is rarely found in the supermarket. If you don't have your own garden, you can easily combine leisure and harvesting and simply look for rhubarb on forest and meadow paths - this is also a nice activity for children! But beware: after 24 June no rhubarb should be harvested! If the sunlight is too strong, the stems will become inedible.

Patience is required when cultivating rhubarb on your own: the first harvest should only take place in the second year after planting. After that, you have to wait about six years until the same place can be cultivated again. The rhubarb uses a lot of nutrients from the environment for itself. Of course, wild rhubarb doesn't care about these precautions - that's why searching for and finding the beautiful perennials in nature is the most fun.

Cooking and enjoying - rhubarb in the kitchen
Recipes around vegetables are available for eating and drinking. Botanically, the plant belongs to the vegetable, but it is almost exclusively used as fruit. It is mostly used in desserts, cakes and pastries, but also to refine summer punch, spritzers or salads.

Recipes for children
The harvesting and cleaning of the stems is easy and can be done well by children. Children can also easily swing the cooking spoon when cooking rhubarb compote: An adult cuts the washed stems into small pieces and puts them in a pot on a low flame with sugar and a little water.

The little kitchen helpers can then simmer and stir for about 15 minutes. Best enjoyed warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! A part of the cooked compote can be pureed in a blender and infused with mineral water: Ready is the rhubarb spritzer!

Quick recipes for maximum leisure time
Sitting out of the balcony with a fragrant piece of rhubarb cake and enjoying the sun? Wonderful! But a pity if it takes two hours of kitchen work. In the supermarket's refrigerated shelf you can find ready-made tart or quiche rolls - some fresh rhubarb and a few strawberries - ready to go:

Rhubarb-strawberry pie:
- 2 rolls of tart or quiche dough
- 400 g rhubarb without leaves
- 350 g strawberries
- 60 g sugar
Preheat oven to 200 °C, convection oven. Grease tart tin and line with a pastry sheet. Clean rhubarb and strawberries and cut into cubes of about 1-2cm. Add sugar to the fruits. Pour the fruit mixture onto the dough. Cut the second dough sheet into strips - best done with a pizza cutter. Arrange the dough strips like a grid over the tart, press them well together at the edges. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180 °C and bake for 30 minutes.
© monkeybusiness / depositphotos

Rhubarb-vanilla dessert:
- 300 g rhubarb
- 400 ml milk
- 50 g sugar
- A pack of custard powder for cooking
Remove the leaves from the rhubarb, cut it into small pieces and boil it up briefly with 20g sugar. Prepare vanilla pudding with milk and remaining sugar according to package instructions. Arrange alternately in layers in glasses and serve.

Enjoy harvesting, cooking, baking, eating and drinking!