Sweet treat

Rhubarb is in abundance at the moment, both in the garden and in the supermarket, says Rachel Allen, who has some wonderful recipes for this delicious vegetable (yes, it is!)

Many of you have been requesting sweet recipes in the last month, so this week, I’m going to focus on rhubarb. It is growing in many gardens right now, and is happily still in abundance in the supermarkets. Rhubarb, strictly speaking, is a vegetable, but it is treated like a fruit, and is super versatile.

It’s completely delicious cooked into a jam to serve on buttered toast; or baked into a pie, a crumble, or a bread and butter pudding; or simply roasted with some sugar or honey and served with custard — rhubarb has that old-fashioned ‘nursery pudding’ feel about it.

It’s also wonderful with the floral and aromatic flavours that are favoured in the Middle East, as in the roasted rhubarb with sweet labneh recipe, right.

Labneh is a delicious thickened yoghurt enjoyed in many parts of the Middle East, and is sometimes called yoghurt cheese. It is made by putting natural yoghurt in a muslin bag so that the whey drains out, leaving you with a thick, rich, creamy mixture (if you don’t have any muslin, see my Top Tip, above right, for an alternative method of making labneh).

The labneh is then flavoured with everything from roasted cumin, garlic and salt (this is divine on toast or crackers) to orange blossom water and cardamom — labneh can be either sweet or savoury.

This version, right, which works so well with rhubarb, is sweetened with honey, saffron and a small splash of rose water. If you don’t have any saffron, use a small dash of vanilla extract or a pinch of ground cardamom instead.

I adore this upside-down rhubarb and ginger cake, far right, which, if you can get hold of some flour (which can be a little tricky at the moment!), is well worth baking for a teatime treat. For a change, you could leave out the ginger, and add orange zest — or half a teaspoon of ground cardamom. Either way, make sure to turn the cake out of the pan and on to a plate while it’s still warm so you don’t lose any of the delicious juices.

And for a really simple but delicious take on rhubarb, try making the rhubarb fool, also far right. It should be soft and billowing, like a fluffy cloud on a spring day. Serve it with buttery shortbread biscuits, or sweet meringues. Now that’s lovely.

“Labneh is a delicious thickened yoghurt enjoyed in many parts of the Middle East”