We love rhubarb, especially rhubarb pie!
This is my Rhubarb Pie Filling recipe:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
Combine well in pot and simmer on low, stirring well. Cook on low until slightly thick and bubbly, stirring more or less continually.
Pour into prepared pie crust, put the top on and bake immediately at 350F for 45-50 minutes, until the crust is well done, top and bottom.
You don’t need to cook the filling while baking the pie, since you did most of that before you put the pie in the oven. If you are adding the hot filling to a pie crust, you have to bake it right away. The hot filling will melt the fat in the crust and it won’t be the same if you wait. If you are not baking it right away, store the filling separately in another container until you are ready to bake the pie.
To freeze the filling: let it cool completely then spoon into a freezer bag. Get out all of the air and flatten it. Flat bags stack in the freezer and take up less space.
My rhubarb grows in the lasagna garden with my salad things, herbs and berry collection. Most of that garden is perennial so it makes sense to grow it there, since it is perennial. I like to till up the vegetable gardens in the fall and spring. I am adding to my rhubarb this year, since we have discovered rhubarb pies. I originally planted it for wine making, which I still plan to do. I will only make one gallon this year, just to see if we like it and because I don’t have a lot of rhubarb right now.
The rest will go into the freezer or be canned for winter pie filling storage. I like to make the pie fillings ahead of time and freeze them. I also make pastry ahead and freeze it, so pie making is simple and quick.
Rhubarb should be picked when the entire stalk is red. The green parts are not that good to eat since they are not ripe yet. If you pick it when it is green at the top and add that to the rhubarb you use, it will be extremely tart. The secret to good rhubarb is to use it only when it is ripe enough. Your rhubarb is going to be very tart, that’s its nature. You will just need to add more sugar to it. The bottom of the stalk should be a dark wine colour.
The peel of the rhubarb cooks to a very tender state. When the rhubarb is cooked you won’t be able to tell the peel from the rest of it, so it doesn’t need to be peeled first. Its not like celery, where the peel stays tough and stringy. You will waste a lot of good fruit if you peel it first. Do cut any brown or black spots off, however.
These have a bit of green at the top that will need to be cut off.
Chop it up into little pieces before you cook it and it will be more tender and cook faster.
Just an important note: Rhubarb leaves are very poisonous. You can make insecticide out of them that will kill anything.
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Rhubarb Pie.
Sheryl blogs at Providence Acres.Interested in contributing a guest post to the Farm Bell blog? Read information here for Farm Bell blog submissions.
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glenda says:
Sheryl, that is my kind of rhubarb pie….I don’t want a custard base…just rhubarb and sugar and flour.
I don’t precook the rhubarb though. Just toss it with the sugar/flour mixture dump into the shell and bake.
DH doesn’t share my love of this pie, but I make it anyway.
The strange thing is that even though I consider myself a gardener with lots of experience, I have never successfully raised rhubarb on this farm!
Once again, I have a plant in a pot waiting for a home and I will try once again. My sis in Iowa takes pity on me each year and freezes me several bags.
On September 26, 2010 at 6:17 am
Cathy Jones (catray44) says:
I love rhubarb pie! Last week I made blueberry rhubarb pie and it was wonderful, as well. That was the first time I had tried cooking my filling before putting it in the pie crust. It worked beautifully!
On September 26, 2010 at 6:51 am
Laura says:
Do you make the pie with rhubarb from you freezer? I have some in mine and I have a hubby that would love a pie. Would you need any extra flour to make up for the extra juice when it thaws or just cook it a bit longer?
On September 26, 2010 at 6:54 am
Pete says:
We planted rhubarb for the first time last year, late, so this was the first growing season for it. It grew and spread beautifuly, but the stalks never got red. Most didn’t even get a hint of pink.
Here’s hoping for better results next year, because I am yearning for a rhubard pie!! Oh, yum!
On September 26, 2010 at 7:48 am
Sheryl - Runningtrails says:
Frozen rubarb makes great pie and you don’t need extra flour. I sometimes freeze it first too and I also freeze pie filling after making on the stove top. Feel free to add a little extra flour if you really, really don’t like pies a little runny (Not that it will be, I’m just saying, you know…no guarantees 🙂 but the flour will act as a “filler” and dull the flavour of the rhubarb somewhat.
I always precook pie filling, that way I can sweeten to taste before making the pie and it also ensures that the filling is cooked before the crust burns (a problem I used to have with fruit pies). If the filling is made, cooked and then frozen, all I have to do to make a pie is thaw the crust and filling, roll, fill and bake. Makes a great, fresh baked pie every time.
You can also freeze whole fruit pies, UNBAKED. They’re not very good frozen after baking.
On September 26, 2010 at 7:53 am
Sheryl - Runningtrails says:
Glenda, I think rhubarb needs a frozen winter to grow each year. It also needs to drain well. The crown rots if its too wet.
I’m so glad it worked for you, Cathy! I always cooked my filling now.
Pete, some types of rhubarb are green. I don’t know if they taste the same or not. My rhubarb stalks are red even from a tiny new plant and begin to turn at the bottom as soon as they start growing.
I planted 14 mroe rhubarb root pieces in July, making an entire 20′ row of it! I had the pieces from cleaning out my MIL’s garden, so I planted them. They are all growing and doing well. I’ll be drowning in rhubarb next year! I figure I’ll give some to the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen and maybe sell the rest on my corner, or maybe to the cooking school in town, or something. We’ll have lots of pies next year!
I wish I could share some root pieces with those here who want it. I love plant trades! It wouldn’t make it across the border, unfortunately – seeds only 🙁 Maybe one day I’ll have rhubarb seeds! I have to go do some research on that now…
On September 26, 2010 at 8:12 am
farmershae says:
I would love to have the “recipe” for the insecticide too! What a great idea!
On September 26, 2010 at 11:10 am
Patrice says:
I love rhubarb and seldom get it. With strawberries, it makes great desserts! Now I’m hungry…
On September 26, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Sheryl - Runningtrails says:
Just boil the leaves in water. Compost the leaves and use the water, cooled.
On September 26, 2010 at 3:17 pm
maybeth says:
Oh boy, another rhubarb recipe (just love rhubarb!) And this rhubarb pie is simpler than other recipes I have seen so will be trying this one. Thanks for sharing, Sheryl – Runningtrails. A dear friend of ours has been supplying us with rhubarb from her garden for years now so there is always rhubarb in our freezer.
On April 20, 2012 at 5:32 am