This is a good year for rhubarb here in Calgary: we’ve gotten plenty of moisture and the temperatures have been relatively cool so far. I don’t grow rhubarb myself, but there is a plant at the community garden where I rent a plot. Because there are 27 plotholders, one rhubarb plant doesn’t go very far, so out of fairness, a system of rationing has been implemented. Late last week I picked my allowance, and mulled over how best to use it. My go-to rhubarb recipe has always been a rhubarb cake from the Purity Cookbook (you can see a modified version of this recipe on my blog Blooms and Spoons, over at Grit.com), but this time I was looking for something a little different. I had a refreshing drink in mind, but I seem to have misplaced my recipe for Rhubarb Fizz, and the ones I’ve found (so far) on the Internet aren’t the same. The organic lemons and strawberries I had in the fridge finally clinched it for me. Here is what I made:
Rhubarb-Strawberry-Honey Lemonade
4 stalks rhubarb, washed and chopped into 1″ chunks
1/3 cup honey
4 cups water
1 1/2 cups strawberries, washed, hulled, and chopped (I wish my alpine strawberries were ready to pick now – I will have to make this again once they are!)
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 3 lemons
Bring water, rhubarb, honey, water, and lemon zest to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add strawberries, and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature, then strain liquid through a sieve into a glass pitcher. Reserve fruit. * Add lemon juice. Serve chilled. You can add a splash of carbonated water to this if you want it to be nice and fizzy!
*Rhubarb-Strawberry Cobbler
This is why you reserved the fruit from the Rhubarb-Strawberry-Honey Lemonade!
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place rhubarb-strawberry fruit mixture in a medium saucepan. Add 1/4 cup water and 3 tbsp. sugar. Simmer on medium heat for ten minutes. In the meantime, make the batter.
Mix together:
1 cup white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 tbsp. sugar
3 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Add in:
1/3 cup margarine or butter
Stir until mixture is crumbly.
Combine with
1 egg
1/2 cup milk.
Stir thoroughly. The batter will be very sticky.
Place the hot fruit into a 9″ square glass baking dish and top with spoonfuls of batter. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy warm, with cream or ice cream!
(Recipe adapted from the Purity Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Canadian Cooking).
Do you like the taste of rhubarb? What are your favourite rhubarb recipes?
Flowery Prose 
I am a rhubarb pie girl but these are definitely recipes to try!
Oh boy, rhubarb pie…yep, that’s a favourite of mine as well! 🙂
Love the cobbler.
Thanks so much!
Vodka. I would add vodka. And not just to the cobbler…
And here I thought you’d suggest bourbon…. 😉
Well, normally I would but I’m not sure how it would taste.
You’re right…vodka it shall be! 🙂
I LOVE rhubarb. My favorite recipes: strawberry rhubarb jam, strawberry rhubarb pie, rhubarb pie, rhubarb crisp, custard with rhubarb … and I wouldn’t say no to that cobbler either. Just saying.
LOL! I completely understand…. 🙂
I love rhubarb. I haven’t tried it in a drink or with strawberries. I usually combine it with apple and ginger and make a cobbler or a fruit crumble.
Rhubarb and apples are lovely together!
I was thinking of adding ginger to the lemonade – I think rhubarb and ginger are ideal companions – but then I thought maybe that would be too many strong flavours together. I may try it in the future, however. In the cobbler, however, ginger would be delightful!
I can never have too much ginger! But, yes, it may be a bit strong with the lemonade.
I love the sound of the lemonade. I like anything with rhubarb in really, but the chocolate rhubarb crumble cake I made a few weeks ago was rather tasty! Our rhubarb season is slowly coming to an end as we are having a heatwave!
I always wish the rhubarb season would last longer…I’m not sure I could ever tire of it! So many incredible recipes to try! 🙂
I love rhubarb, it reminds me of my mother making rhubarb and banana crumble, delicious!
Rhubarb and banana crumble…now that sounds like a perfect combination! Cathy of Words and Herbs recently did a rhubarb/banana bread recipe (http://wordsandherbs.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/rhubarbanana-bread/), which sounds lovely, too. I had never thought about bringing the two ingredients together before…I wonder why not? They’d be wonderful!
Thanks for the recipes! I like anything rhubarb but here is one of my faves: put Rhubarb compote in oven safe little bowl, top it generously with cottage cheese, sprinkle it also generously with brown sugar, under the grill until the sugar is melted and bubbles = yum!
Oh, wow, that would be fantastic! I just so happen to have a bit more rhubarb stored up in the fridge…and some cottage cheese, too. I think I will give this a go this evening! Thanks so much for sharing!
Your rhubarb recipes sound delicious – the cobbler is a very resourceful way to use the fruit from the lemonade! I have a dish of rhubarb roasting in the oven just now with some sugar and sweet cicely leaves. I’ve not used sweet cicely to sweeten rhubarb before, so finger crossed!
Mmmm, that sounds fabulous! How did it turn out? Sweet cicely isn’t a commonly grown plant around here…we’d also have to treat it as an annual. I bet it tasted superb with the rhubarb!
Your blog is everything I love. It savours the beauty of the simple..and best things in life!
Thank you!
Thank you very much – that’s so sweet of you to say! 🙂
Yum! And double YUM!!
They were indeed! 😉 Highly recommended!
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That was a trip down memory lane to flavors we haven’t tasted in years. I miss rhubarb pie and sour raw rhubarb sticks. So glad we are going to Maine this summer. Thanks for posting.
I hope you get a chance to enjoy some rhubarb soon! It’s a sure sign of summer around here – I’m always happy when it’s ready for picking! Have a wonderful summer!
Thanks. You too!
I so love Rhubarb and this recipe looks great. My mum used to make Rhubarb, straberry jam, which was delicious.
Mmm…rhubarb strawberry jam! So yummy! 🙂
[…] Recipes: Rhubarb-Strawberry-Honey Lemonade and Rhubarb-Strawberry Cobbler. (floweryprose.com) […]
Reblogged this on Flowery Prose and commented:
Revisiting a post from a few years ago, because rhubarb is coming on here on the prairies right now! What are your favourite rhubarb recipes?