Last Saturday was my first day working at the farmers market here in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and it was idyllic. Though it is still early in the season and produce is nowhere near peak production, the farmers filled their stalls with heaps of fresh fruits, veggies, baked goods, and specialty items. I was put to work bagging sweet potato slips (which we were giving away for free!) beside a couple who were selling huge, gorgeous stalks of rhubarb. Those stalks called to me for hours, and I ended up buying eight. I had no idea what I would do with them; I had never cooked with rhubarb before and hardly knew what it tastes like! It turns out that rhubarb is tart when raw (but apparently tastes great salted!) and sweeter when cooked with sugar or a sweet fruit like strawberry. You can use the entire stalk of rhubarb, even the green section, but do NOT eat the leaves; they are poisonous! I took my eight stalks of rhubarb, a bunch each of kale and bok choy, a bundle of green onions, a pound of potatoes, and a basket of peas home and haphazardly stuffed them all on a shelf in the fridge. The produce lasted me all week! As it was my first time cooking with rhubarb, I searched for a simple recipe in case I completely screwed up or hated the taste. A few days later, after flipping through my cookbooks and delving into the internet, I found two easy vegan rhubarb recipes: a strawberry rhubarb compote and strawberry rhubarb muffins. The compote has minimal added sugar and is perfect for topping pancakes, waffles, or a vegan french toast. It also paired very nicely with the muffins and functioned as a sweetener for a hearty bowl of oats. So versatile! What’s more, the sugar in the compote is unrefined (I used bourbon-infused honey for my second batch!). As for the muffins, they are awesome as they are, with a spread of jam or compote, and as an addition to oatmeal. With a low sugar content and a well-rounded set of ingredients that help balance blood sugar levels, these muffins are great snacks any time of the day. I modified this original recipe of Rachel Conners (the Bakerita). Enjoy! Strawberry Rhubarb Compote Serves 4 Ingredients:
Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins Makes 12 muffins Ingredients:
Instructions:
Strawberries from the farmers market made these muffins taste even more fresh and delectable! I love how strawberries and rhubarb, two spring produce items, pair so well! Additionally, the almonds added the perfect amount of texture and crunch to the muffins. I would slice your own almonds, as slivered almonds might be too soft to capture this texture!
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