Dangerously delicious

Rhubarb - Strawberry Pie

Rhubarb. How much do we know about this beautiful plant? Well, I didn't really know much about this plant until recently. I was lucky enough to receive a hefty bunch of flesh long stalks a few days ago.

Not knowing what to do with them, I started looking into recipes and cooking ideas online. In my venture, I discovered some pretty interesting facts about this plant.

Rhubarb can come in a variety of colors like the familiar to most of us red, green and white. Also, the reason why we only see its stems sold in markets is due to the high toxicity of the plant's leaves. Although only consumption of a large portion of the leaves can kill, it has been suggested that even a small bite of the rhubarb leave can make one very sick!

Despite this fact, rhubarb is used in medicine and it is considered a dieting product due to its laxative qualities. It doesn't offer large amounts of many vitamins but it is rich in vitamin C. It has a sour taste and therefore in recipes it is usually combined with cinnamon, lots of sugar, ginger and, when baked, it is typically offered with vanilla cream or vanilla ice-cream.

My quick internet search did not really satisfy me so I opted for a look in my favorite baking site. Bingo! A lovely and relatively easy Rhubarb-Strawberry Pie recipe was there ready to be tested. I thought that preparing rhubarb would have been time consuming but I soon realized that I was wrong. Depending on whether one wishes to do the pie crust from scratch or not the preparation of the filling i.e. the rhubarb-strawberry-spices filling, is actually a matter of minutes. Otherwise, preparing the pie crust from scratch is what adds more time to this recipe. I tried it and the result was excellent and pleasing not only to the eyes but to our taste-buds as well.

I am now a bit more confident to handle rhubarb and have at least one recipe to keep perfecting. My next step though will be to try out rhubarb jam :) You know, something that can last and be enjoyed longer!