17 Rhubarb Recipes to Celebrate Spring's Most Famous Not-Fruit

For most of my life, I only thought about rhubarb when I heard Garrison Keillor sing about it on the radio. But when I started going to college in southern Indiana, it was impossible to miss the vibrant red stalks filling the farmers market each spring. Rhubarb is an odd vegetable—the stalks are incredibly tart and the leaves are toxic. Treat it right, though, and it's absolutely delicious. Most recipes cut the rhubarb with lots of sugar, though sweet spring fruit can also get the job done. We love rhubarb in sweets like pies and compotes, but its tart flavor is also right at home in cocktails and nonalcoholic drinks. From rhubarb crisps to a fruity Sidecar variation, keep reading for 17 of our favorite rhubarb recipes.

Savory

Quick-Pickled Rhubarb With Lemongrass and Ginger

Quick-pickling is an easy way to get a few extra weeks out of produce with a short season. Here, we pickle rhubarb in a brine flavored with lemongrass and ginger, plus plenty of sugar. Go with light brown sugar, which will balance out the tart rhubarb and has a deep, robust flavor that can stand up to the intense aromatics.

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Sweet

Red Wine Roasted-Rhubarb Compote

This super simple dessert is nothing more than rhubarb roasted until tender with wine, sugar, and a vanilla bean. You just need half a cup of wine—rhubarb releases lots of liquid when it cooks. The not-too-sweet compote is delicious with pound cake or ice cream, but serve it with yogurt and you've got yourself breakfast.

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Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote With Fennel

Strawberries and rhubarb are a beloved combination for good reason—sour rhubarb needs sweetness, and ripe in-season strawberries have plenty of sugar. In this compote, we chop the rhubarb into small pieces then cook it down with the sweet strawberries and aromatic fennel seed.

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Rhubarb Crisp

Our rhubarb crisp has a couple tricks up its sleeve. We cook the rhubarb in batches, baking half of it before mixing in the rest, to give the dish some textural variation. In addition, a quarter of a teaspoon of baking soda helps take a little of the acidic edge off the rhubarb. If you have elderflower liqueur on hand, pouring in a few ounces accentuates the rhubarb's flavor.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

You can substitute a third of the rhubarb with ripe strawberries to give your rhubarb crisp a sweeter, more complex flavor. The streusel topping is one of the most important parts of a crisp, and we make ours with brown sugar, whole wheat flour, rolled oats, cinnamon, anise seed, Chinese five-spice powder, and lots of butter.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

We keep going with the strawberry and rhubarb combo for this pie—arguably one of the most classic rhubarb desserts around. Macerating the strawberries and rhubarb with sugar and letting it sit with minute tapioca helps draw out excess moisture from the fruit while allowing the starch to hydrate and absorb any excess liquid.

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Millionaire's Cherry Rhubarb Jam

A quick pickle will last for a few weeks, but if you want rhubarb all year long, then canning is the only way to go. This sweet-tart rhubarb jam is made with rhubarb, sweet cherries, vanilla bean, and Grand Marnier. The result is a canning-ready treat with sophisticated tropical and citrus notes.

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Gluten-Free Rhubarb Pie With Sorghum Crust

This dessert is something of a pie-galette hybrid, and the simplicity of the filling—sliced rhubarb, lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch—really allows the rhubarb flavor to shine. The grainy, rustic crust is totally gluten-free, thanks to a mix of sorghum flour, sweet rice flour, and tapioca starch.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Kuchen

The German dish kuchen is a coffee cake stuffed with fruit. This version starts with a yeasted cake, onto which we pipe a layer of strawberry-rhubarb filling and finish with a crumble topping made with brown sugar, butter, and spices. The dairy-rich dough won't rise too much, but make sure it fills about half the depth of your pan before adding the filling and crumble.

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Layered Toasted-Coconut Puddings With Red Fruit Purée and Coconut Cream

Rote grütze is another German dessert you might not be familiar with—it's a pudding made by cooking groats and red fruit and it's usually served with cream. This untraditional take on the dish is made by layering a toasted-coconut pudding, puréed rhubarb, strawberries, and raspberries, and an aerated cultured coconut cream in individual jars.

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Drinks

Rhubarb Juice

Let's start our adventure in rhubarb drinks with the simplest one imaginable—this beautiful pink juice is literally just rhubarb and water. You might be skeptical of the lack of sugar, but just trust us and give it a shot—after the juice is chilled and strained, it comes out refreshingly sweet-tart.

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Booze-Free Rhubarb Lime Gimlet

A bracingly vinegary rhubarb shrub stands in for booze in this nonalcoholic gimlet variation. It gets sweetened with maple syrup and also gets a little extra tartness from freshly squeezed lime juice. We finish it with just a couple ounces of seltzer—enough for some fizz but not enough to overly dilute the shrub.

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Rhubarb-Ginger Cooler

This nonalcoholic cooler is made with a homemade rhubarb syrup, ginger beer, and lime juice. The complex syrup is flavored with fresh ginger, orange zest, and allspice berries in addition to the rhubarb. Look for a spicy ginger beer like Bruce Cost to stand up to the tangy rhubarb.

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Rhuboulevardier

I love Boulevardiers, seasonal produce, and puns, so the Rhuboulevardier was basically made just for me. It's got the same base of bourbon and sweet vermouth as the classic, but instead of Campari we use Gran Classico and a tart, fruity rhubarb syrup.

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Rhubarb Sidecar

A classic Sidecar is made with brandy, Cointreau, and lemon juice. This fruit-forward variation uses sweet pear brandy and replaces the lemon juice with a rhubarb shrub. We also shake in an ounce of simple syrup, which tempers the tartness of the shrub without making the cocktail too sweet.

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Rhubarb Shrub

Tart rhubarb practically begs to celebrated in a shrub. Two pounds of rhubarb may seem like a lot, but a large amount is necessary to have a good concentrated rhubarb flavor in the final product.

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DIY Rhubarb Bitters

There isn't a cocktail ingredient that doesn't benefit from a little rhubarb. Steep some rhubarb in almost any clear spirit, and you'll be rewarded with a bright and fresh tasting infused spirit.

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