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It may surprise you to learn that rhubarb is a vegetable. Since it is used in many desserts people often believe that this plant is a fruit. Rhubarb is a perennial that grows from rhizomes. It has large green leaves that grow on green and red stalks. The only part of the plant that is edible is the stalk and the leaves are poisonous.

Rhubarb begins to grow in early spring and will continue to grow throughout the summer. The younger the stalk is the sweeter the rhubarb will taste. The stalk will become woody if allowed to grow for two long. Rhubarb will continue to replenish itself throughout the growing season. Rhubarb will produce flower stalks that should be cut out as soon as they appear if you are growing rhubarb for food. This is done because it takes energy away from producing the vegetable.

There are many ways to use rhubarb in recipes. There is rhubarb pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb cake, and rhubarb crisp to name a few. However, to just cook rhubarb the recipe that comes to mind is rhubarb sauce. It can be eaten just like applesauce or served warm over ice cream.

To prepare rhubarb for cooking you first need to harvest your rhubarb. To do this you can simply pull the stalks from the soil or cut the stalks as close to the soil as possible. The plants are very sturdy so pulling the stalks from the soil should do no damage to the rhizome. I like to remove the leaves as soon as I pick the rhubarb and put them on my composting heap.

Once the rhubarb has been harvested it needs to be washed off with water to remove any dirt and pests that may be on it. After this the rhubarb is ready to use. Some people like to peel their rhubarb but it in not necessary, especially when using young stalks.

My son's favorite is strawberry rhubarb sauce over vanilla ice cream, which is no surprise because his favorite pie is warm strawberry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream on top.

I prefer to make the rhubarb sauce that my grandfather grew up with. It isn't as sweet as the strawberry rhubarb sauce that my son likes, but since rhubarb is a tart fruit having it in a sauce that is overly sweet seems unnatural.

Rhubarb Sauce

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup water
1 cup well drained crushed pineapple

Directions:

Combine the rhubarb and water into a medium sized sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and simmer until the rhubarb is no longer firm. Add the crushed pineapple and cook for an additional three minutes. Remove from heat and enjoy. Whether served hot or cold, by itself or over ice cream, rhubarb sauce is an easy and flavorful treat.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Flood.
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