Rhubarb, which will be in markets through early summer, is an old-fashioned vegetable that gets little respect. Unlike other veggies that have made a resurgence, such as kale, turnip greens, beets and Brussels sprouts, rhubarb has been left behind. You don’t see it on restaurant menus, and it doesn’t take a place of honor in the produce department. But perhaps it should.
It’s a versatile vegetable – yes, vegetable, even though we often tone down its tartness by adding sugar – that goes from pies and crumbles to more savory dishes, adding a depth of flavor to wild rice pilaf or as a sauce for grilled chicken thighs, among other uses.
Anne BralyWhen I lived in West Virginia, an elderly neighbor had a magnificent garden in her backyard, and she loved to share its bounty. One beautiful spring afternoon, as we sat on her front porch sipping iced tea and chatting, she told me about growing up in a nearby coal town. Though they were poor, they never went hungry thanks to a grandfather with a green thumb and a grandmother who was very creative in the kitchen. Rhubarb was one of those foods that was looked forward to every year because it grew prolifically and could be turned into delicious pies and sauces.
This neighbor also grew rhubarb in her garden and gifted me with some that afternoon. I thanked her and walked home, not knowing what I would do with it. I’d never eaten it, cooked with it or had recipes for it. This was in the 1980s, so I couldn’t turn on a computer, type in “rhubarb recipes” and come up with thousands of ideas. I did have a small collection of cookbooks, so I could have spent an afternoon looking through them, but I had two young children and simply had no time for that. So I wrapped the rhubarb in plastic and put it in the refrigerator and there it stayed, getting pushed farther and farther into the depths of the refrigerator until time took its toll and the rhubarb went into the trash. What a sad ending for what I know now is an excellent food, packed with vitamins, fiber, potassium manganese – all those things we need.
Fresh rhubarb, with its cheery red stalks, looks a lot like celery. Unlike celery, though, it freezes well, so the rhubarb you buy today can be enjoyed months down the road. Select the tenderest stalks you can find, dice it and place it in freezer bags. Don’t try to get creative with the leaves and use in a salad with other greens. They will make you sick.