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June 18, 2007

Strawberry Rhubarb Vinegarette

I know I'm supposed to be taking a blogging break, but this recipe is too good to keep to myself.

Strawberry Rhubarb Vinegarette

Put two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and a stalk of fresh rhubarb, finely chopped, in a small sauce pan and bring to a low boil. Add 5-10 frozen, unsweetened organic strawberries and continue stirring until they thaw, allowing their juices to seep throught the balsamic rhubarb mix. Turn the heat down or add a dash of water if the vinegar starts to caramelize, as you definitely don't want that. This makes enough dressing for one salad, so adjust the recipe accordingly if you want to dress more salads.

I served this dressing this weekend on a salad of fresh from the Farmers' Market romaine topped with a heaping helping of avocado and a teaspoon of flax oil. I think it would also be a lot of fun on a salad that contained fresh strawberries, maybe tomatoes, maybe cucumber and red onion. You could also try marinating some diced red onion in the vinegarette in advance for an added punch. I was serving a huge vegetable main dish, so I made the salad rather small, but you could certainly put together a giant dinner salad with a source of protein like grilled chicken, shrimp, tofu, eggwhites, whatever.

My other favorite rhubarb recipe, which I made this weekend, is another entree that you can mix and match your proteins depending on your tastes and nutritional needs. I used Quorn tenders this time.

Rose Rhubarb:

Put 3 oz of a dry rose wine and a stalk of rhubarb, sliced like you would slice celery, in a saucepan. Bring to a low boil and add half a pint of grape tomatoes. Allow to boil until the grape tomatoes pop, and give them a hand when they get squishy by popping them with a wooden spoon so that they release their tomato liquid into the broth. You may need to add a bit of water to keep the pan from boiling dry. Add either a clove of garlic minced or a dash of garlic powder and a dash of half salt or No Salt (but just a dash.) Add your protein source: in this case I used Quorn tenders (already thawed in the microwave) but I think this dish would be excellent with chicken. I've even thought about doing it with tilapia. You really need a light tasting protein source, as it is easy to overwhelm the flavor of the rhubarb. For a variation, you could also add diced red peppers. In fact, I think I'll do that next time. The red peppers would change the taste significantly, but I think their weird savory sweetness would provide an interesting counterpoint to the slight tart of the rhubarb.

Thanks to all for your nice comments. I'm really quite well... just chilling out a bit and focusing on getting my own CR back on track and my work, which continues to be insanely demanding and will be so ever. This weekend was good, got a lot done and ate and cooked very well. I'm sure I'll be blogging full steam again soon. Sorry if I alarmed anyone!

But whatever you do, go try the strawberry rhubarb vinegarette recipe. It's subtle and strange and delicious and says "Summer Farmers' Market!!!" loud and clear. Also, if you come up with a variation, perhaps with another fruit (blueberry rhubarb vinegarette?) do let me know how it turns out.

Posted by april at June 18, 2007 8:02 AM

Comments

Posted by: Sara at June 18, 2007 11:19 AM

Posted by: Judith at June 18, 2007 12:32 PM

Posted by: Angela at June 18, 2007 5:08 PM

Posted by: april at June 18, 2007 6:54 PM

Posted by: Steph at June 19, 2007 6:07 AM

Posted by: Mizzi at June 19, 2007 6:23 AM

Posted by: Rosanne at June 4, 2008 2:03 PM

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