27 Rhubarb recipes

Rhubarb is a spring favourite, encompassing sweet, sour, and tangy flavours in beautiful strips of pink fruit. Our easy and simple rhubarb recipes are a celebration of these unique attributes, combining complementary ingredients to meet the sharpness of fresh rhubarb. From cakes and crumbles to jams and chutneys, these recipes will not disappoint and instead help you explore the bright stalks in new and exciting ways.

Simple and easy desserts with rhubarb

Rhubarb is a brilliant ingredient for easy desserts, offering a fresh tartness that works beautifully with a wide range of flavours like chocolate, citrus, vanilla, and almonds. In this selection, it appears in all sorts of bakes, including soft muffins, fluffy cakes, and buttery traybakes, showing just how versatile those bright pink stalks can be. So, if you have some rhubarb waiting in the fridge, there is no shortage of delicious ways to put it to use.

The smell of these rhubarb muffins alone will invite you to take a bite, and once your teeth sink into the soft cake, your taste buds will come alive to the notes of rhubarb, white chocolate, almonds, and orange zest. In under an hour, humble rhubarb gets a tasty makeover with these muffins. The pink flesh retains a slight bite, while the white chocolate and butter ensure every mouthful feels like an absolute treat.

When the mood calls for a simple cake, this rhubarb cake should do the trick. The fluffy cake is made from a simple batter of sugar, flour, egg, and butter, brightened with small chunks of rhubarb. In the oven, the rhubarb softens and releases its juices into the cake batter, giving it a gorgeous, tangy flavour and a slight pink hue.

Melt in complete bliss with our rhubarb almond cake. It is a firm crowd pleaser, offering a twist on traditional almond cake by using almond paste, crème fraiche, and fresh rhubarb. When baked to perfection, this cake has a soft crumb and moist texture thanks to the ground almonds and juicy chunks of baked rhubarb.

Baking rhubarb slowly gives it enough time to soften and release its juices, which is exactly what makes this rhubarb traybake so good. Vanilla powder and butter bring gentle richness to the cake, while pearl sugar adds a delicate crunch on top. Served with velvety custard, it becomes a cosy dessert that is hard to resist.

Cosy and simple rhubarb crumble recipes

Crumble is one of the easiest and most comforting desserts to bake. Beneath the golden topping, the rhubarb pieces turn soft and tender, bringing just the right balance of sweetness and tartness. These rhubarb crumble recipes show how many delicious forms that simple idea can take.

Our rhubarb crumble looks as good as it tastes, celebrating the tart stalks with complementary flavours of sweet vanilla sugar, tangy crème fraiche, and earthy oatmeal. If you can, adorn the crumble with a few edible flowers, as it is the perfect way to complete the crumble and echo the beauty that lies beneath the crisp, golden topping.

For a true fruity celebration, set 40 minutes aside to make this rhubarb and strawberry crumble, complete with ginger, butter, oats, and vanilla custard to serve. The hardest part about this recipe is resisting the urge to give in to the sweet, slightly spicy scent that will waltz around your kitchen as the crumble bakes.

Sweet apples, crunchy almonds, and sharp lemon juice make this apple and rhubarb crumble as delicious as it sounds. Not only does the lemon juice complement the sharpness of the rhubarb, but it also helps retain the bold pink colour of the rhubarb.

Easy recipes for homemade rhubarb preserves

Homemade rhubarb preserves are a great way to make the most of rhubarb while it is in season. In these easy recipes, it takes many forms, including jam, compote, chutney, and cordial, each one offering a different way to enjoy its bright, tangy flavour.

Kicking things off is our rhubarb jam recipe, perfect for dolloping on top of porridge, spreading on toast, or cheekily stealing a spoonful or two straight from the jar. It takes just a handful of ingredients to make a batch of this jam. For a berry twist, try a rhubarb and strawberry jam with a delicate sweetness and mild gingery warmth. Fresh rhubarb stalks and sweet, ripe strawberries will give the jam its best flavour.

Our rhubarb compote is ideal for sweet and savoury dishes. Keep the compote in the fridge and use it to up the wow factor of pancakes, yoghurt bowls, or even meat dishes.

Rhubarb chutney offers a savoury take on rhubarb. Cinnamon and sambal oelek add authenticity to chutney, delivering a slightly fiery and pungent note that is well matched with cold meats, cheeses, and sandwiches.

Preserves do not solely include jams, compotes, and chutneys, as shown with our rhubarb cordial! Balanced with sugar, this cordial offers a refreshing oasis during warm afternoons in the sun. This recipe is easily adaptable, so get creative and add lemons or strawberries for a deeply refreshing alternative.

Simple and easy breakfast recipes with rhubarb

Breakfast is a time to prepare for the day ahead, and these simple, easy breakfast recipes with rhubarb promise to get your day off to a great start! It is even possible to prepare these recipes ahead of time for an instant breakfast the following morning.

Nothing boasts a light, refreshing breakfast like a skyr bowl with strawberry and baked rhubarb. The tangy taste of skyr is delicious in its own right, but when adorned with sweet, syrupy rhubarb and nutty hemp seeds, it becomes absolutely scrumptious.

In the mood for a breakfast that tastes more like a dessert? Look no further than our chia pudding with strawberry and rhubarb. This breakfast is a feast for the eyes and the stomach, inviting you to delve into a pink bowl of goodness featuring ingredients like oats, natural yoghurt, elderflower syrup, and baked fruit.

If time is of the essence in the morning, nothing beats our 10-minute rhubarb smoothie, ready to power you from the front door to the office. Quark makes this smoothie creamy and filling while rhubarb juice and rhubarb pieces offer a double hit of fruity flavour, balanced by ground ginger and a little sugar.

Learn how to cook with rhubarb

If you want to get more comfortable cooking with rhubarb, it helps to know what to look for and how it can be used for baking and cooking. Its sharp flavour softens as it cooks, turning the stalks tender and almost jammy, which is exactly what makes rhubarb so good in crumbles, cakes, compotes, desserts, and more.

Our guide on cooking with rhubarb covers the basics, including how to choose and prepare the stalks, what to expect when cooking with them, and useful tips on freezing, seasonality, and more. It is a useful guide if you want to make the most of fresh rhubarb during the season.

Find more rhubarb recipes to enjoy

If you feel like baking a little more with rhubarb, there are plenty of recipes to explore. You might be drawn to something sweet from our rhubarb dessert recipes. If you enjoy the combination of rhubarb and strawberries, our 5 delicious rhubarb and strawberry recipes offer even more ideas to try.