Rhubarb, Where Have You Been All My Life?

Sad, but true. I've never had much rhubarb in my life until now. And now I'm desperately trying to catch up to lost time.

Rhubarb is not a common ingredient in Chinese cooking (frankly, non-existent), so I was never introduced to it as a child. And I guess I never had really good rhubarb going into my adulthood because nothing really stood out in my mind (or to my tastebuds). But this year, I haven't been able to stock up on the stuff. Each week at the farmer's markets, I would pick up two large bunches of the ruby-red stalks.

My favourite way of having rhubarb is to simply roast them in a 400°F oven, tossed with a little bit of sugar, lemon juice, seeds from 1 vanilla pod and its pod and a sprinkling of water, for about 20 minutes. The rhubarb gets nice and tender, almost to the stage where it's starting to break down. It is lovely stirred with some yogurt, honey and granola for breakfast.

But what better partner for rhubarb than strawberries? I came across a recipe for Mini Rhubarb and Raspberry Galettes in Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts and knew I had to make them, but opted to swap the raspberries for some beautiful local strawberries instead. Plus it's a galette, which means it's much easier to make than a pie, and requires less fuss.


Be sure when baking the galettes to bake them on baking sheets with rims. One of my baking sheets was rimless, and I ended up filling my whole apartment with smoke and scraping charcoaled rhubarb juice off my oven floor.

An absolutely gorgeous tart to cap off a spring menu. Martha recommends serving it at warm temperature, but this would also be delightful served still slightly warm with a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream.

Get the recipe here.