You Pinspire Me
I have done a lot of Googling and searching on Pinterest over the past month, but it seems that savory rhubarb recipes are few and far between. Unless, of course, you want to make pork chops with Rhubarb Chutney, which I don’t. I mean, I don’t mind making it once during the spring, but I get tired of rhubarb chutney pretty quickly.
I haven’t done a lot of experimenting with rhubarb & different flavours, but I did notice that there were a fair amount of rhubarb beverages that called for Basil. I happened to get a lovely pot of living basil in my Plan B farmshare box last week. I have a LOT of rhubarb growing in my garden right now. Score.
Next decision: which savory rhubarb recipe to make with the rhubarb & basil? I had a hankering for pizza. But I didn’t leave myself enough time to make pizza dough and serve dinner before getting the kids to bed, so we took a 5 minute walk (in the pouring rain) to the friendly neighbourhood bakery, Sweet Paradise. Fantastic place to to pick up your fresh hamburger buns, meat rolls, & pizza dough, but don’t ever try to drive there & park. The parkinglot is tiny, it’s a madhouse, and the traffic backup on Stonechurch road is crazy some days because of it.
Here’s the deal, though: Rhubarb just wouldn’t taste right on a pizza with tomato sauce, and only had 1 BBQ sauce in the fridge and it wasn’t appropriate, either. I checked out a number of different BBQ Sauce recipes online, and came up with something of my own. You’ll find it further down, after the recipe for the pizza. I have also found that goat cheese is the perfect companion to rhubarb in savory recipes, so expect to see more of this combination! 🙂
- prepared pizza dough for 1 13-14" pizza pan
- 1 tsp cornmeal
- 1/4 cup sweet BBQ sauce (I used the Apple Honey BBQ sauce in recipe below)
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 green onions chopped *or* 1/2 med onion minced
- 3 decent sized stalks of rhubarb
- 1/4 cup basil, chopped, plus a small handful more (not chopped) for garnish
- 125g Goat Cheese (1/2 regular sized package)
- 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
- Preheat the oven to 425.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet on med-low heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, add onions, saute for 2 minutes.
- Chop rhubarb into 1/4" pieces and add to onions. Saute for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat, set aside.
- Grease your pizza pan with olive oil, and sprinkle the cornmeal evenly over the pan (this prevents the crust from sticking to the pan).
- Stretch the dough out in the pan and spread evenly with BBQ sauce.
- Apply your toppings evenly over the sauce: first the onion/rhubarb mix, then the basil, then the goat cheese, and finally the mozzarella.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until crust is starting to become golden. Add a minute or two at a time so you don't over-do it.
- Top with basil leaf garnish, serve hot.
- While other sweet BBQ sauces would work well, I think you'll have the best taste results if you use the Apple Honey BBQ sauce.
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- pinch of cinnamon
- Add everything to a small sauce pan.
- Bring to a boil on the stove, then reduce heat to low.
- Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Pour into a clean jar and cool.
- This sauce should be good in your fridge for 2-3 weeks, if you can make it last that long!!
Happy Victoria Day, everyone!!
Jenn vanOosten
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I wonder if this would make me like rhubarb any better because the stewed stuff makes me screw up my face! I like it raw dipped in sugar though 🙂
Very interesting flavour combination – I will have to try that sometime! Thanks for sharing the idea!
Did you use fresh or frozen rhubarb? I still have some in freezer from last summer.
I used fresh rhubarb. The frozen rhubarb will lose quite a bit of mass as it thaws out, so you might need to increase the amount that you’re putting into the skillet with the onions.
Yum! I think I might try this as an appetizer for book club tomorrow night … make it on some flat bread maybe? And maybe just do goat cheese – not mozzarella.
Absolutely – just goat cheese would be super tasty – and flat bread would work great!! I added the mozza to make it a little more filling & ‘child friendly’. 🙂
Interesting idea for a pizza but the BBQ sauce sounds really yummy. Thanks for linking up to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party. I’ve pinned your post to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Board
A certain sister of mine dropped off some rhubarb yesterday. Going to try this tonight. Looking forward to it!
Yay! Thanks for stopping by, Josh!! It sure has been a lot of years! Hope you enjoy!!
I’d love to try this recipe, but I know my husband will want some protein with it. Has anyone added chicken? Any other ideas on how to add protein to the toppings? Thanks!
That would be amazing, I’m guessing! Let me know if you try it!
My friend Sarah tried adding Chicken and it went over really well – I wouldn’t want to go with any pork or beef products, I think they’d overwhelm the rest of the toppings.