A friend of mine picks his own veggies at a nearby farm and brought me some of the farm’s first-picked rhubarb of the season. If you have never tried rhubarb you are in for a treat! It’s deliciously tart and pairs beautifully with sweet ingredients like sugar, berries and red wine. Rhubarb looks like large stalks of celery and ranges in color from green with a hint of pink to deep purple-red (though I have never detected a different in taste between the lighter and darker stalks). When buying rhubarb, pick stalks that look sturdy and crispy with fresh looking ends.
If you are new to the world of rhubarb this is a great introductory recipe for you to try; rhubarb is paired with several sweet ingredients that mellow the rhubarb’s tart flavor. This recipe is a variation of a recipe I found on Epicurious.
This is a great dessert for a Memorial Day cookout or any spring dinner. It’s definitely a crowd-pleaser so double the recipe if you have more than 6 guests.
Happy baking!
Blueberry Rhubarb Crisp with Pistachio-Oat Crumble
- 1/3 C. natural cane sugar
- 2 Tbs. minute tapioca
- 2 ½ – 3 ½ C. rhubarb (1-1.5 lbs), trimmed and cut into ½” pieces
- 3 C. fresh or frozen blueberries
- ½ C. shelled raw pistachios, finely chopped
- ½ C. all purpose flour or gluten-free flour
- ½ C. old fashion oats, roughly chopped in a mini food processor
- ½ C. natural cane sugar
- ¼ C. brown sugar, packed
- 6 Tbs. cold unsalted butter
- Fresh whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream (optional)
- Move oven rack to upper third of oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare 2 quart baking dish by coating bottom and sides with non-stick spray or softened butter. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar and tapioca. Add in rhubarb and blueberries and toss to coat. Spread mixture in the bottom of prepared baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats and sugars and whisk until well combined. Cut butter into ½” pieces and blend butter with oat mixture by using your fingers to combine and crumble, until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add pistachios to oat mixture and stir until well combined.
- Take a small handful of topping and squeeze it into a compact chunk and crumble it over blueberry filling. Continue with remaining topping and crumble evenly over the filling until all of the crumble is used up.
- Bake in upper third of oven for about 45 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling and the topping is golden crisp. Serve immediately or at room temperature, topped with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.