Saturday Thoughts...Fresh Rhubarb Salsa

 

 The weather has been good for Rhubarb this year. I wanted to try something different from the usual dessert type or bars so went looking for different recipes and uses. As many of you know Rhubarb is considered a vegetable not a fruit though it is used most often as a fruit. 
The recipe I am going to post is a combination of several using what I had on hand and not terribly hot. None of us do heat from peppers well anymore so I needed to keep this tamed down. You could certainly kick up the heat level by adding a jalapeño pepper, I used crushed red pepper flakes as I had that in my spice rack and while I wanted some heat I just added to taste. The lime juice I had fresh frozen in my freezer and so didn’t need to get a lime. Any type of acidic liquid will work, lemon or cider vinegar. 
 This is a fresh salsa (uncooked) type. I used some as a dip with chips and some served with a mild fish and a bit with brats. Would be good with fish tacos or hot dogs in buns also. If serving as a dip try putting each person’s in a separate dish so they won’t be second dipping the same chip in the bowl.

Fresh Rhubarb Salsa

Ingredients:

1 cup thinly sliced rhubarb (measure after slicing)

½ of a smaller red onion (red onions are a little sweeter than the others)

½ each of a medium to large yellow, red, and green bell pepper seeded and coarsely chopped

½ jalapeño pepper seeded and coarsely chopped if desired

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or to taste

¼ tsp of ground cumin (I used Pensey’s Spice ground cumin seed)

2 Roma tomatoes  finely diced

2 teaspoons brown sugar (start with one and taste)

2 ½ tablespoons lime juice

¾ teaspoon coarse salt or to taste

Pinch garlic powder (works better than fresh in this recipe)

black pepper to taste

Directions:

Stir rhubarb into a pot of boiling water and heat for 10 seconds, quickly drain and rinse with cold water until the rhubarb is cool. Drain and put in medium bowl. 

Place coarsely chopped red onion, green, red, and yellow onion into a food processor and pulse 2 or 3 times to finely chop. Add to the bowl with the rhubarb. 

  Dissolve the brown sugar in the lime juice and stir into the pepper, rhubarb mixture. 

Stir in the finely chopped Tome Tomatoes. Sprinkle salsa with the salt, garlic powder, and black pepper and stir salsa again. Refrigerate about 3 hours for flavors to meld but you could eat it right away also. I tried it both ways and they were both good.