Well it’s that time of the springtime when my rhubarb plant is taller than my good friend’s 5 year old daughter (whoops, almost 5 year old 😊) – we took a look last weekend when they visited! That means it’s time to start thinking of creative ways to use rhubarb again. Derek remembered his Grandma making a rhubarb compote as a kid that could be used on various things – like ice cream – and wanted to make something similar to what he remembered.
We came up with this rhubarb compote with a hint of orange from the juice of a couple freshly squeezed oranges. We put this on all kinds of things last summer including ice cream, pancakes, inside rhubarb orange muffins, and probably most commonly on top of a chia seed pudding for breakfast! I’ll be sharing that recipe tomorrow. Hint – we’ll zest the oranges that we use for this compote for the pudding.
Here’s what you need:
It’s a 3-ingredient recipe.
Chop the rhubarb up into small pieces. We sliced each stalk lengthwise into 3-4 strips and then chopped – but our rhubarb is giant! You want about quarter inch pieces.
Now at this point you have the option to pick your adventure. You can cook this down to a compote on the stove or in the slow cooker. We opted for the slow cooker when I took the pictures, as an experiment because we had yard chores to do and didn’t want to babysit a pot.
To the cooking vessel of your choice add the chopped rhubarb, honey, and juice from some oranges. This is a great way to use up some honey that may have started to crystalize in your pantry (especially if you buy raw honey) as it will melt down as it cooks.
If slow cooking, cook for 4 hours on high. If cooking in a pot bring up to a simmer and simmer until the rhubarb breaks down and you have the thickness you’re looking for.
Now, one thing that I learned with the slow cooker – and really should have thought of before starting – is that because the lid is on it won’t reduce. So you’ll have quite a bit of liquid. This is actually great if you want to use the compote as more of a syrup, so feel free to stop. We wanted a thicker compote so I poured it into a Dutch oven at this point.
See how the rhubarb has broken down and it’s very liquid-ey? Think of it like a soup and we’re going to cook it down to more of a stew thickness.
Just bring it up to a simmer and cook it down until it looks like this.
Does the mixture look redder to you? Yeah, me too. That didn’t come from reducing it. While I was running out to the compost, someone – who shall remain nameless, snuck in some red food coloring because he didn’t want green compote. If you have redder rhubarb – I have a very green variety – yours will look redder to start with. Needless to say, the food coloring is optional.
Cool and transfer to a container or containers. I put 2 in the fridge and one in the freezer.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the chia seed pudding recipe!
- 12 cups of rhubarb (3 lb 12 oz), diced
- 1 to 1 ½ c honey
- 3 oranges, juice of
- Add all ingredients to a dutch oven and stir together. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce to simmer and simmer until rhubarb breaks down and mixture is thick.
- To slow cook: Add all ingredients to the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours. If desired you can transfer to a pot and reduce.
[…] to do with our gianormous rhubarb plant, Derek stumbled upon the idea of a chia seed pudding with a rhubarb compote. He knew he liked rhubarb compote having eaten it as a kid and he became intrigued with the chia […]