{After my sister, Kyle, told me her and my 8-year-old niece, Kally, had officially declared Rhubarb Day, it sounded like such a good idea, I begged her to blog about it…here’s the story and recipes. You might want to grab a napkin in case you start drooling. I’m thinking I definitely need a Rhubarb Day in my very near future…you might think so, too, by the time you’re done reading this…}
This spring, Kally came up with a grand idea to make a holiday revolved around RHUBARB! Now, I don’t have much by way of a garden, but we do happen to have a pretty awesome rhubarb plant. What I think is even more awesome is that my 8 year old thought the tart vegetable was cool enough to celebrate! So, I agreed, and Rhubarb Day was born.
We went online in search of uses for our rhubarb outside of pie and jam, which I make every year anyway. That’s when we found The Rhubarb Compendium. After scrolling through all the recipe options, we decided we might not have enough from our one plant to make everything we wanted. Once our rhubarb was ready to harvest, we went to our local farmer’s market and picked up two extra bundles along with a new rhubarb plant (we wanted to do something with rhubarb besides eat it!).
We started off Rhubarb Day in the morning with muffins, then did some bulk chopping of stalks at various lengths and made some jam, pie filling, and smoothies (and a lot of dirty dishes!) before we decided to take a break from the kitchen and took our new plant out to it’s place in the garden. After planting it, we harvested our fully grown plant (yes, all the morning-made rhubarb goods were made from our market stash alone!)
Back to the kitchen, with heaps of fresh-cut rhubarb, we put it to use making more jam and eating raw stalks dipped in sugar. Then we started on dinner. How can you make rhubarb for dinner? Thanks to our online research, we found recipes for Baked Chicken and Rhubarb and Rhubarb and Melon Salad. Surprisingly, the chicken was a big hit and the salad was not! (The salad called for mint, which quickly became the dominant flavor and is not a huge favorite in our house). No body seemed to mind though, when we polished off dinner with rhubarb pie for dessert! Before bed, we put a batch of strawberry rhubarb fruit leather in the oven to dehydrate overnight.
All in all, we planted, picked, chopped, froze, blended, boiled, baked, dehydrated, and ate raw our rhubarb. We mixed it with strawberry, pineapple, lemon, melon, berries, baking spices, chicken, and baked goods. And there was even enough left over the for a rhubarb crisp for a dinner the next week. Now I’m really wondering why we bought another plant!
The only downside to this holiday was the heaping piles of dirty dishes that had to be reconciled with, but definitely something we’d do again! (Like a few weeks later, when our plant is ready for a second harvest!)
Happy Rhubarb Day!
Kyle
{post script: I need to also add a recipe from our mom that’s sooooooo good, I need to pass it along to you all. It’s for Rhubarb Cream Cheese Pie. One of my favorite pies ever. Mmmmm. I think I need to make myself a pie this weekend….after I bake those muffins and have a smoothie or two…ahhhh, rhubarb heaven!}
{Post script #2: My aunt Keli has a great rhubarb recipe that sounds divine…I can hardly wait to try it myself…in the meantime, I’m passing it on to you.
RHUBARB/CHIPOTLE SAUCE
2 cups chopped rhubarb 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 cup water 1/2 cup strawberry jam 1/4 cup ketchup 1 T. Cider vinegar 1 T. Yellow mustard 1-2 chopped canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce 2 gloves minced garlic 1 T. Worchester sauce 1/2 t. Black pepper 1/4 t. Salt In saucepan combine rhubarb, onion and water.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5-10 min until tender. Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered 30 min.
I always quadruple this and can in water bath for 20 min. This sauce is like a smokey sweet and sour sauce. }
