Rhubarb Crisp for Summer Dessert

Summer is time for fruit, flowers and favorite foods. I just learned that one of our favorite foods isn't a fruit like I thought, but a vegetable! I thought the tomato was the sole claim of that confusion. I used to tell the kids in the nutrition classes I taught that if we were talking horticulture it was a fruit, and if we were talking food it was a vegetable. Rhubarb is just the opposite, a vegetable that is mostly eaten as a fruit in pies, cobblers, and often paired with strawberries. Maybe it's tartness and need for lots of sugar is what pushes it into the fruit dessert category. 
Rhubarb stalks look like red celery with large leaves. Just remember the leaves are poisonous, so only harvest the stalks. A friend gave me about 20 stalks recently, just right for rhubarb cobbler. Here's my favorite recipe that could use fresh or frozen rhubarb. 

RHUBARB CRISP

Ingredients:

6 cups rhubarb (can add blueberries to make it to 6 cups)

3 tablespoons flour

2/3 cup sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Topping: 

¾ cup rolled oats

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

6 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

6 tablespoons butter

Instructions: 

1.    Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

2.    Wash and rinse rhubarb and cut into 1/2” pieces.

3.    Toss rhubarb with flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Place in a 2qt. baking dish. 

4.    In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients with a fork or pastry blender. Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture. 

5.    Bake for 35 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and topping is golden. 

6.    Cool 5-10 minutes before serving. Top with ice cream, cream, or vanilla yogurt. 

chopped rhubarb and blueberries with sugar, flour,
 and cinnamon. Ready for topping. 

With topping, ready for baking.