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Savory rhubarb recipes are a good excuse to think outside the pie. Rhubarb is a vegetable, after all. Its sour bite is just as good in barbecue sauce, chutney, salsa, and a Persian lamb stew as it is in dessert.
Table of Contents
- Cooking Rhubarb in Savory Dishes
- Notes from My Kitchen
- Rhubarb BBQ Sauce and Grilled Meats
- Rhubarb Chicken, Pork and Duck
- Rhubarb Stews, Soups and Pasta
- Rhubarb with Salmon and Fish Tacos
- Rhubarb Salsa, Chutney and Pickles
- Rhubarb Salads, Sides and Appetizers
- More Rhubarb Recipes
- Savory Rhubarb Recipes FAQs
- More Savory Spring Recipes
We harvest rhubarb by the wheelbarrow load each spring. Most of it goes into sweet preserves, but pickling gives it a sweet-and-sour twist that’s nice in salads, on sandwiches, or even in one of these rhubarb cocktails.
In the West, rhubarb almost always ends up in dessert. In the Middle East, cooks often treat it as a vegetable, and that’s where our Persian lamb and rhubarb stew comes from.
Rhubarb’s sourness works the way a splash of vinegar does, cutting through rich meats like pork, duck, and lamb. It also cooks down into a sauce in a few minutes, so it’s quick to work with on a weeknight.
For sweet rhubarb recipes and everything in between, here are 50+ rhubarb recipes. If you want to put some up for the pantry, there are 30+ rhubarb canning recipes, too.
Cooking Rhubarb in Savory Dishes
I almost always peel rhubarb when I want a smooth texture, like in a chutney or a sauce, since the peels can be stringy. If you’re roasting whole stalks, leave the peel on so they hold together.
Use only the stalks, and cut off the leaves, which aren’t edible. If you freeze rhubarb in spring, it works fine later in sauces and chutneys, though it may fall apart a bit and be stringy.
Rhubarb turns very tender as it cooks, and it falls apart after just a few minutes in the pot. That’s what you want in a sauce or chutney, but in a stew you want the pieces to hold together.
For our Persian stew, I cut the stalks into big 2-inch pieces and add them in the last few minutes. Then I let it simmer without stirring, since stirring breaks the rhubarb up.
Notes from My Kitchen
My family loves rhubarb. When my kids were little, they’d sit in the shade after a long afternoon in the garden and munch on raw stalks. It’s tart, but that tartness is what makes it so refreshing next to something rich.
A few years ago, we went looking for more ways to cook rhubarb as a vegetable, and the search took us to Persian cooking. Khoresht rivas is a lamb stew with a big pile of parsley and mint, and the rhubarb goes in at the very end, so it stays in big, tart chunks. That stew started this whole list.
Rhubarb BBQ Sauce and Grilled Meats
Rhubarb cooks down into a tangy barbecue sauce with the same sweet and sour balance you’d usually get from tomatoes and vinegar. Brush it on chicken, ribs, or a pork tenderloin hot off the grill.
The one I can is an old Ball recipe with raisins, brown sugar, and warm spices. A few jars in the pantry mean rhubarb barbecue sauce is ready whenever the grill is.
- Rhubarb BBQ Sauce
- Rhubarb BBQ Sauce Grilled Chicken
- Instant Pot Ribs with Rhubarb BBQ Sauce
- Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce
- Rhubarb and White Wine BBQ Sauce
Rhubarb Chicken, Pork and Duck
A rhubarb pan sauce does the same job as a fruit sauce on pork or duck, only more sour and less sweet. It comes together fast, too, since rhubarb breaks down in just a few minutes.
If you’ve only had rhubarb in pie, rhubarb chicken is an easy place to start. It’s mostly rhubarb, red onions, tomatoes, and chicken thighs and drumsticks, simmered together.
- Rhubarb Chicken
- Pan-Fried Rhubarb Chicken
- Pork Chops with Rhubarb Sauce
- Seared Duck Breast with Rhubarb Sauce
Rhubarb Stews, Soups and Pasta
In a stew or a soup, rhubarb adds the sour note you’d otherwise get from lemon or tomato. In our Persian lamb stew, it cooks with parsley and mint, and you serve it right away over rice. If you like that kind of stew, my Lebanese lamb stew with eggplant is another good one.
For a meatless dinner, you can make the carrot rhubarb soup, the rhubarb risotto with vegetable stock, or the pasta with a basil rhubarb sauce.
- Persian Lamb and Rhubarb Stew
- Rhubarb and Tomato Soup
- Carrot Rhubarb Soup
- Rhubarb Risotto
- Pasta with Basil and Rhubarb Sauce
Rhubarb with Salmon and Fish Tacos
Rhubarb’s sourness works with fish the same way lemon does, so it goes well with rich salmon and mild white fish alike. The salmon roasts in one skillet with the rhubarb and shallots, with a drizzle of maple syrup over the rhubarb.
The other two are fish tacos, one with a strawberry rhubarb topping and the other with a pineapple rhubarb salsa. You can use tilapia, cod, or any other mild white fish.
- Baked Salmon with Rhubarb and Chard
- Strawberry Rhubarb Tilapia Tacos
- Grilled Fish Tacos with Pineapple Rhubarb Salsa
Rhubarb Salsa, Chutney and Pickles
A jar of rhubarb chutney or pickled rhubarb is an easy way to bring rhubarb to dinner. Chutney goes with chicken, pork, sandwiches, and a cheese board.
Both of mine are canning recipes, so you can put up a few jars while the rhubarb is in season and open them all winter. The chipotle salsa is tart and spicy, with golden raisins and smoked paprika.
Rhubarb Salads, Sides and Appetizers
Raw rhubarb is crunchy and very sour, so a little goes a long way in a slaw or a salad. Slice it thin, and you’ll get a bit of tart crunch in every bite.
The rhubarb vinaigrette simmers the stalks with honey first, so it’s sweet and sour rather than sharp. The crostini top goat cheese with a rhubarb chutney and fresh strawberries.
More Rhubarb Recipes
For dessert, there’s an Amish rhubarb custard pie with a crumb topping, a rhubarb upside-down cake, and a maple strawberry rhubarb pie. I also make a pink rhubarb liqueur with just rhubarb, sugar, and vodka.
If you’d like to grow your own, here’s how to grow rhubarb from seed. We started with just a few crowns, and after years of dividing the roots, we have quite the rhubarb plantation.
Savory Rhubarb Recipes FAQs
These cover common questions about cooking rhubarb as a vegetable, like what it goes with and when to peel it.
Rhubarb is a vegetable, since the part you eat is the leaf stalk. In 1947 a U.S. customs court ruled it a fruit for tariff purposes, because most Americans cooked it like one, in pies and sauce.
Rich meats like pork, duck, and lamb, and oily fish like salmon. Onions, garlic, ginger, chili, and fresh herbs like mint and parsley all go well with it, too.
Not usually. Peel it when you want a smooth sauce or chutney, since the peels can be stringy, especially later in the season. Leave the peel on when you roast whole stalks so they hold together.
Yes, the stalks are fine raw, they’re just very tart. Slice them thin for a slaw, or dice them small for a salsa or a taco topping.
Yes. Rhubarb leaves are high in oxalic acid, so trim them off and cook only the stalks. North Dakota State University Extension notes that the stalks have just a very small amount.
More Savory Spring Recipes
Ramps, fiddleheads, and chive blossoms are spring harvests that go into savory dishes, too.
Did you find this list of savory rhubarb recipes helpful? Tell me in the 📝 comments below what you make with your rhubarb harvest, and if there’s a recipe you’re looking for that you don’t see, leave me a note and I’ll see what I can find for you. I’m here to help!
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