Orange Oven Poached Rhubarb is on the menu today! This naturally sweetened, quick and easy recipe is perfect for May! I know – I talked about Rhubarb in my April newsletter, but I do admit to being obsessed with this quirky vegetable that is treated mostly as a fruit. Since it has a finite season, we who like it enjoy it often while we can.
Rhubarb
Most rhubarb recipes use huge amounts of granulated (white) sugar to make the very tart vegetable palatable. To my mind, oversweetening negates the appeal of rhubarb; that is its underlying tartness. Today’s recipe for Orange Oven Poached Rhubarb features a natural sweetener, and not too much.
Rhubarb and Orange
Orange and rhubarb are complimentary flavors, and today I’m using orange three ways to flavor the rhubarb: zest, fresh juice, and my vegan orange blossom honey. The flavors create a deliciously aromatic dish—just wait until the scent of the cooking fruit wafts through your kitchen.
Serve Orange Oven Poached Rhubarb many ways!
You will find many ways to use this Orange Oven Poached Rhubarb and the resulting cooking syrup. For the first dish, I toasted a piece of a cake, one I found in my freezer. It happened to be orange, but vanilla, lemon, or chocolate would be delicious, too. I spooned some of the poached rhubarb onto about 2/3 of the cake, drizzled it with a bit of the syrup and then added a nice dollop of aquafaba meringue to which I added the smallest amount of fresh lemon juice – more citrus never hurts.
The second dessert is a Fruit Fool. Here, poached rhubarb and syrup are added to aquafaba meringue. I’ve got a spoonful of the Vanilla Custard Cream in the bottom of what you can’t really see is a teeny glass, but any cream, say – cashew or coconut cream, or even cream – would be sensational. You can fold the Orange Oven Poached Rhubarb into non-dairy yogurt or even your morning oatmeal.
More notes on this recipe: I have a big Kitchen Aid Mixer, and wondered if just 2 ounces of aquafaba would mix up well. it sure did. And the leftover meringue stayed nice and fluffy overnight in my refrigerator.
Just one caveat! Remember, do not ever eat the leaves. They are toxic. You can find more about that here.
Orange Oven Poached Rhubarb
My vegan orange blossom honey recipe can be found here: https://francostigan.com/vegan-orange-blossom-honey-for-rosh-hashanah/https://francostigan.com/vegan-orange-blossom-honey-for-rosh-hashanah/
Feel free to halve or double this recipe.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces rhubarb, rinsed and cut into approximately 2-inch pieces
- finely grated zest of an organic orange, about 2 tablespoons
- 6 tablespoons orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 6 tablespoons vegan orange blossom honey, warmed until pourable
- pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Put the rhubarb into a bowl. Add the zest, orange juice and honey and toss everything together until the rhubarb is coated.
- Pour the coated rhubarb into a shallow dish, large enough to hold the rhubarb in a single layer.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the rhubarb is softened but not mushy and the liquid is bubbling.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven. Gently lift the rhubarb with a slotted spoon, right back into the mixing bowl. Some of the accumulated liquid will join the rhubarb in the bowl.
- Pour the rest of the syrup, scraping any of the thicker juices from the bottom of the baking dish, into a jar and save for another time to mix, mix into berries or creams, combine with carbonated water, or spoon over ice cream!
How would you serve this Orange Oven Poached Rhubarb?
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