Pucker up, it’s rhubarb, the springtime sensation that bakes into tart and tangy desserts. Try our helpful tips and recipes for this vegetable you use like a fruit.

Did you know? 

• Low in calories—and carbs—and virtually fat-free, rhubarb is treated as a fruit, but this notoriously tart vegetable is actually related to the buckwheat family.
• A native of China, rhubarb’s celery-like stalks have been used for several thousand years in medicinal treatments.
• Rhubarb is so hearty, one plant can live more than fifteen years and easily produce enough for an entire family.
• Its shiny stalks are completely edible, but its ruffled green leaves are poisonous and should not be consumed.

Selecting Rhubarb

• Usually sold in bunches or bags, rhubarb typically appears in grocery stores and farmer’s markets from April through June.
• Ensure freshness by selecting stalks that are firm and glossy—not thin or limp.
• Although red-stemmed rhubarb is more popular, green heirloom varieties are often sweeter.

Storing Rhubarb

• Rhubarb will keep for up to three weeks in the fridge. Leave stalks whole and don’t rinse them before wrapping them in plastic and storing.
• To freeze rhubarb, rinse and either chop it up or leave the stalks whole before placing in a plastic storage bag.

Prepping Rhubarb

• After removing and discarding the leaves, rinse the stalk and trim the root.
• No need to peel rhubarb, ESPECIALLY if you want to impart its gorgeous ruby hue into your dish.
• Due to its acidic nature, rhubarb should not be cooked in an aluminum pot, which would turn the veggie—and the pot—black.

Cooking Rhubarb

Rhubarb is nicknamed the “pie plant” for good reason. When sweetened generously with sugar, brightened with lemon, and baked into all manner of crisps, crumbles and cakes, this humble stalk mellows into something soft, rich and quintessentially spring.