Rhubarb

I've eaten rhubarb for as long as I can remember.  When I was growing up, my two best friends (who were twins) had a rhubarb patch at their house.  Their mom and dad would let my mom come over and pick as much rhubarb as she wanted.  (I think she paid for it with a rhubarb pie made and given back to the family every summer). 

Although we would eat it right out of the ground on rare occasions, rhubarb for me has always been something that is turned into sweet things.  Rhubarb pie, rhubarb cake, rhubarb coffee cake, strawberry rhubarb sauce.  All 'dessert' items.  Or at least sweet.  (I think I've made rhubarb bread before too, but it's a sweet bread). 

After I got married, my mother in law had a rhubarb patch.  (Still does in fact).  But over time, I've stopped making so many sweet things, and so haven't had much use for rhubarb in recent years.  Which is probably a good thing, but I still like the idea of making things with rhubarb.

I saw a couple of recipes in my Weight Watchers magazine last month using rhubarb in savory recipes.  One was for a rhubarb chutney that was served with pork.  I made it.  It was okay, but I probably wouldn't make it again.  It wasn't all that.

The other one was simple and was quite good.  It was sort of a rif on roasted vegetables.  The rhubarb went on one baking sheet with a little bit of powdered sugar sprinkled on it.  (I'm not sure why, but I just followed the recipe for the first try.)  Then small fingerling potatoes cut in half, green beans, garlic and olive oil, salt and pepper went on another baking sheet.  They both went into the oven at about 400 degrees.  The rhubarb cooked for a little less time than the potatoes.  (Maybe 15 mintes?  The potatoes were more like 25 - I wanted them crispy on the cut sides.)  After everything came out I tossed it together.  It was billed as a 'warm salad', so I wasn't worried about everything staying piping hot.  It was delicious.  The rhubarb gave it a little zip, but wasn't overpowering.  As a ratio, I'd say I had twice as many potatoes and twice as many beans as the rhubarb.

I don't know if it would work with rhubarb that has been frozen, because the idea is to keep the pieces of rhubarb still identifiable as pieces, but if I see fresh rhubarb again, I'll probably make this again.