Cooks 2025 | What's in Season

Rhubarb

Add springtime zing to jams, pies, and savory dishes.

Once spring has sprung and strawberries are in season, farmers’ market customers start asking for rhubarb — an elusive, short-season crop. Those who covet the bright red stalks know their tart flavor pairs well with the sweetness of seasonal fruits, and the color rhubarb adds to jam and compotes is unsurpassed.  

But once they’ve made their pies and jams, customers tend not to buy it again. As a farmer who has grown rhubarb occasionally over the past 20 years, I learned it was never the niche crop or big seller I had hoped it might be. Sitting down to write this article sent me down the rabbit hole of discovery and brainstorming about alternative uses for this gorgeous spring stalk, and pondering how it could be used in savory dishes. After all, it is like a tart version of celery. Could rhubarb be used for much more than pastries and jams? Is its potential being overlooked? Perhaps it could be the next big thing.

Medicinal Roots
Rhubarb is a large plant with big leaves in the Polygonaceae family, which also includes many types of the most prolific weeds, including knotweeds. Edible buckwheat and sorrel are part of the same family. However, before rhubarb stalks became a culinary delight in the 1700s, the plant’s roots were prized as a medicinal purgative due to the tannins and fiber they contain. It grew wild, abundantly, all over the mountains west of what is now Beijing and was traded in China and Mongolia. Explorer Marco Polo noted that the yellow root was purchased and distributed all over the world via Silk Road caravan routes, east to Turkey and Russia. By the 1500s, the root was worth much more than saffron or cinnamon because it came from so far away. By the 1600s, Russia sought to monopolize the rhubarb trade with Europe, and if other merchants tried to sell the root or the seeds, they were punished by death.

Later, in the United States, rhubarb became a new food source. It wasn’t well known yet that the leaves are toxic due to high levels of oxalic acid, which can cause kidney stones and other organ failures. Former President Thomas Jefferson enjoyed dining on rhubarb leaves so much that he planted them at his home and in his planting notes, he touted them as being just as delicious as spinach. Jefferson died at age 83 from a kidney infection and other issues. One might wonder whether rhubarb was the cause of his demise. Nowadays, only the bright red stalks are sold in grocery stores, so consumers will not unknowingly ingest the acidic leaves.

In many countries pieces of rhubarb stalks are washed, rolled in sugar, and given to children as crunchy sweet-tart treats. Rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals and only containing two ingredients, these snacks make a healthier alternative to a lot of snacks on the market today.

Growing Rhubarb
Technically a vegetable, rhubarb can be grown here either from seed or roots. If grown from seed, it will take three or more years before it can be harvested, so if you don’t want to wait that long, purchase and plant crown divisions instead. Rhubarb crowns will produce stalks in the first year, but they should be harvested only in the second season to give the plants a chance to establish. Make sure you have a large space for each plant, as it needs a 3-foot-square area to grow well. Two of the desirable varieties that produce the most vibrantly red stalks and the best flavor are cherry red and crimson red. One or two plants will yield plenty for one family to use in making many desserts.

Plant rhubarb in full sun unless you are in a hotter zone, then plant them where they can get partial shade at the warmest part of the day. I have two plants growing halfway under my fruit trees, and they do very well there because we are south-facing, and the sun tends to bake plants during the summer months. But because the trees are deciduous, they can handle all-day sun in the winter and early spring, which benefits the rhubarb. Rhubarb needs a lot of water, but only thrives in well-drained soils. Fertilize once a year in the late winter, either with composted manure or a nitrogen-rich organic pellet fertilizer, to promote growth of leaves and stalks.

Unconventional Uses
Rhubarb stalks are typically only available in spring for a short time. If you find some, be sure to load up so you can experiment with them. If you find lighter pink or even green rhubarb stalks, don’t worry; they still have the same culinary components that the red varieties have, but they just won’t provide the magnificent color. When buying rhubarb, look for firm stalks that have ends that don’t appear dried out, as this means the water has been lost in the stalk and it isn’t as fresh. While large stalks are the norm at grocery stores, thinner stalks actually are more tender and sweeter, if you can find them.

Rhubarb also is rich in vitamins C, A, and K, as well as fiber, all of which help to lower cholesterol. It also has antioxidants that offer anti-inflammatory benefits to protect your heart.

And it’s versatile. You can use rhubarb in both sweet and savory dishes. Its tartness and slight bitterness adds depth to sweet or salty dishes and helps create a balanced flavor. Rhubarb also freezes well, so think about chopping and freezing a bunch to try in various preparations throughout the year. Here are some outside-the-box ideas for using rhubarb:

• Candy it. Start with a simple rhubarb syrup, and dehydrate or cook down on low temperature until pliable to make fruit leather. 
• Make syrup. Cook rhubarb down with some sugar, maple syrup, or honey and water. Use a one-to-one ratio of water to sugar. Enjoy on pancakes, waffles, or French toast. Mix the rhubarb syrup with some vanilla, cardamom, and a splash of apple cider vinegar to make a shrub that can be mixed with bubbly water for a refreshing drink. Add gin or vodka if you desire. Or use the syrup as a base for a homemade barbecue sauce.
• Make a natural-colored sweet-and-sour sauce by adding the syrup to pineapple juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Use with fresh spring rolls, egg rolls, or for sweet-and-sour chicken or pork. Try mixing the saturated rhubarb left over after making syrup with chili oil, and add to a stir fry.
• Make rhubarb chutney, and eat it with savory meats and vegetables inside pita bread.
• Make a crunchy fruit salsa with rhubarb, mango, strawberries, cilantro, serrano peppers, and lime juice. 
• Juice rhubarb with green apples, citrus fruits, and ginger, then include it in smoothies with yogurt and fruit such as pineapples and strawberries.
• Pickle it by combining with ½ cup sugar to 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of salt. Let mixture sit in refrigerator for two days before eating. Chop raw or pickled, or cook until soft in a little water and honey. Add to a green or grain salad.