Seasonal Ingredients: The Case For Rhubarb

While all vegetables should have a seat at the table, there are only a handful which can touch on all of the tastebuds. Enter rhubarb, the herbaceous perennial that is neither short on flavor or usage. It goes from sweet to savory easily, and adds a welcome sour flavor and pretty color to savory sauces, chutneys and reductions

Rhubarb is sour and tart on its own, which enables it to act as a flavor complement to many other seasonal ingredients. For example, in the summer, it can give added depth to sauces for red meats, but then it allows for layers of flavor when mixed with cranberries in the winter. Ibrahim also says that rhubarb is also great to be used with a blank canvas of white meats like turkey, chicken, duck breast or a roasted pork tenderloin to add big flavor. But, the vegetable is also the perfect addition to sweet dishes, from pies and crumbles to jams and even to salsa. 

But the vegetable isn’t just having a culinary moment, either. Mixologists are using the bright pink ingredient to push the cocktail flavor boundaries.

Rhubarb can also be used to soften a cocktail that is either very fruit forward or on the sweeter side, or it can also round out a heavily spirited cocktail, so that you don’t get hit with all the alcohol up front.