Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
What’s your favorite pie? Mine is strawberry rhubarb, without a question. When it’s the season (mid spring here), and both strawberries and rhubarb are available in the market, it’s the one pie that we must make.
Do you cook with rhubarb? It looks like pinkish red celery, or the stems of really fat swiss chard.
In the store you’ll only find the stems, as the green leaves are poisonous. The stems however, are tart and delicious, especially when cooked into a pie or cobbler.
I know, it’s weird. Rhubarb is a vegetable that behaves like a fruit.
Rhubarb grows wild in many parts of the U.S. (not here in Sacramento unfortunately). My father remembers when he was a kid in Minnesota, picking it from the back yard and dipping the raw stems in sugar to eat, like nature’s version of a jolly rancher candy.
Rhubarb loves to be paired with strawberries, in a pie, they’re BFFs. The tartness of the rhubarb just intensifies the flavor of the strawberries.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe
Quick cooking tapioca works well as a thickener for pies, especially strawberry rhubarb. Though if the pie is still warm when you cut it, it will be a little runny. If you don’t have access to quick tapioca, you can use cornstarch as a substitute, same amount.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups rhubarb stalks cut into 1/2 inch pieces (Trim away and discard the leaves which are poisonous; trim ends.)
- 2 cups strawberries, stemmed and sliced
- 3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar (depending on how tart/sweet you like your pie)
- 4 tablespoons of quick cooking (“minute”) tapioca
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of orange zest
- 1 double crust pie dough recipe* for a 9 inch pie (or your favorite pie crust recipe)
(If making a 10 inch pie, or just want more filling, use 4 cups of rhubarb, 2 1/2 cups strawberries, and up to 1 1/4 cup of sugar)
*Here’s my favorite pie dough recipe. In a large bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, a teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons of sugar. To the flour mixture add 1 cup butter (2 sticks) of butter that has been cut into cubes. Use your hands to squish the flour and butter together until you have what resembles a coarse meal with some pea-sized bits of butter. To this mixture add 1/2 cup sour cream. Use a fork to incorporate. Then form a large ball of dough with the mixture. Cut into two even pieces. Form each piece into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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