Pickled Rhubarb On The Side

I am always looking for quick and easy sides in the summer. Pickled Rhubarb On The Side is a little twist on this  vegetable. It is technically a vegetable, but many of us treated as a fruit.  Rhubarb is common in a lot of desserts and does well as a jam, but I like to pickle it.  I have also blanched it and tossed it with olive oil and balsamic.  The trick is removing all the little strings.

There is something about an outdoor market that makes me want to buy everything.  Today I brought home this rhubarb and you can see how the vibrant colour pops.  I cut the leaves off and can’t get enough of the smell coming from the whole plant.  The leaves are poisonous:  do not eat.  The stalks require stringing.  Wit a sharp knife I take most of the red off by making a small slit under the outer edge of the skin of each stalk. I grasp that edge of each slit and pull down on it.  I peel away the stringy fibres of the rhubarb stalks.  You don’t want to leave these on the stalks for cooking.

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The leaves cut and into the trash they will go.

The strings are very pretty.

I cut the stalk into small pieces.

Once the brine goes into the pot it comes to a boil and then in goes the rhubarb. 

The rhubarb goes into the jars with the brine.

It looks pretty in the jars and now I zest some lemon into each jar.

1/4 teaspoon of peppercorns goes into each jar.

The brine takes on a pink hue.  So pretty!!!

My little blue recipe book.  This is how I work the recipes.