Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: Using rhubarb as a savoury ingredient

Though we tend to use rhubarb in dessert situations — seeing as it requires so much sugar, and has such a beautiful red colour — technically it's a vegetable, and has plenty of potential in savoury situations. 

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Acidic ingredients like lemon and vinegar are often used to balance soups, stews, sauces and other dishes.

Lemon juice has a pH of about 2, vinegar is about 2.5, and rhubarb has a pH of about 3 — slightly less acidic, but still perfectly suited to add an element of tartness to your food.

Rhubarb Chutney

Rhubarb makes a fantastic chutney with a bit of onion, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and mustard seed.

It keeps and freezes well, and makes a great pairing with crispy pakoras, which are also ideal to make when there are plenty of veggies in season.

These measurements are pretty flexible, so feel free to wing it using as much rhubarb as you want to cook — and you can store it in the fridge for weeks! 

Ingredients:

1 small shallot or a bit of onion, finely chopped

2 cups chopped rhubarb

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 cup sugar, white or brown

2-3 Tbsp. apple cider or red wine vinegar

pinch black mustard seed (optional)

1 cinnamon stick and/or a pinch of red chili flakes

Directions:

Combine everything in a saucepan, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and cook for about 10 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft and it looks like chutney.

Add a splash of water if it looks dry.

Remove the cinnamon stick and spoon into a glass jar. 

Makes about 1 cup.

Rhubarb Aioli 

You can stew a small stalk of rhubarb just to make a batch of pale pink aioli, or use about 1/3 cup from a batch you have stewed for other purposes. (I didn't use sweetened rhubarb here, but you could for aioli with a sweet edge.)

This aioli is perfect with roasted chicken or fish, fries or roasted potatoes, and of course, all kinds of summer salads including pasta, potato, cold salmon and cold chicken.

Ingredients:

1 small rhubarb stalk, chopped

1 egg yolk

1 tsp. mustard

1 tsp. white wine, apple cider or rice vinegar 

salt and pepper, to taste

3/4 cup canola or other mild vegetable oil

Directions:

Put the rhubarb into a small saucepan, cover with water and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until very soft; set aside to cool. 

Put the rhubarb and its cooking liquid into a tall-sided measuring cup or other vessel with the egg yolk, mustard, vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper and the oil.

Blend with an immersion blender until it thickens into pale pink aioli — it should happen almost instantly.

Store in the fridge for about a week.

Makes about 1 cup.

Flemish-style Braised Red Cabbage with Rhubarb

This is a fairly small batch of braised cabbage — traditionally it's made using a large head of cabbage with 3 or 4 chopped apples, and made tangy with vinegar and sweet with red currant jelly or honey.

It gets better after a day or two in the fridge, and also freezes well.

Feel free to double or triple this quantity if you want to make more.

Ingredients:

1-2 Tbsp. butter or vegetable oil

1 small onion or large shallot, halved and thinly sliced

1 small or 1/2 medium red cabbage, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 large rhubarb stalk, chopped 

salt and pepper, to taste

3 Tbsp. brown sugar or honey (or a combo)

2 Tbsp. apple cider or balsamic vinegar

1 cinnamon stick

Directions:

Heat the butter in a large saucepan or small pot over medium-high heat.

As it begins to foam, add the chopped onion, cabbage and rhubarb.

Season with salt and pepper, and add the brown sugar or honey, vinegar and a cinnamon stick.

Stir to combine everything well.

Reduce the heat to low, cover and let it cook for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice when you think of it. 

Let cool and if you can, refrigerate it for a day — the flavour will be even better.

Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.

Makes about 4 cups (1L).

• Check out Julie Van Rosendaal's full interview on the Calgary Eyeopener below: