Frozen Rhubarb Puree

by Diane R.

Make frozen rhubarb puree over the summer months and in the winter you will be very happy to have it on hand.

When it's time to harvest, which can be any number of times over the season, sometimes there's too much it seems if you are one of the lucky ones. It can be chopped and frozen, or used immediately in a recipe.

Why not make a nice rhubarb sauce and save yourself time later on? Enjoy your rhubarb produce all year long.

We find that if we add different ingredients to some of it, it's a ready-made topping suitable for what we are eating at the time.

You can add a little ginger, or orange juice which makes it quite nice as a filling for a tart-shell.

Keep it plain for on toast, to eat by itself, or as a topping on ice-cream.

Add some maple syrup, a little garlic, ketchup and mustard and you have an instantly ready-made grilling sauce for ribs or a nice addition to chicken or pork tenderloin.

Keep it plain as you make it and do whatever you want with it later when you heat it up.

Frozen rhubarb puree in any form is very nice to have when rhubarb is not in season and very simple to do.

Method for making frozen puree:

Take any number of rhubarb stalks you have and cut them up into small pieces, about a half inch in size.

In a heavy saucepan, add sugar to taste - about 2/3 of a cup plus 1/4 cup of water.

Let it sit for 15 minutes so the sugar will start to draw out the juice from the rhubarb. Give it a stir to combine it all well.

Over medium heat, bring to a boil and stir it occasionally while it slowly simmers. If you are adding in any particular flavors you can add those now in too.

It will take about 30 minutes to cook down and thicken into a lovely puree.

Remove from the heat and let it cool until it's completely at room temperature.

Pour the puree into plastic containers or freezer bags. Be sure to label them if you added other specific ingredients and then freeze.

When you need it, just thaw the frozen rhubarb puree out on your counter. You can reheat or use it cold.

This will store well in the fridge for a week.