Rhubarb Crisp

The first and only time I'd ever had rhubarb was about 7 or 8 years ago.  My roommate at the time made a homemade rhubarb crisp one afternoon, and lucky for me, she was willing to share.  Needless to say, I was impressed.  Impressed not only by how delicious it was, but also because I never would have guessed a red celery look-alike type vegetable could taste so good.  

Well, that memory came flashing back to me the other day when I spotted fresh rhubarb at the grocery store.  It was just sitting there screaming to be made into something yummy.  It's a popular spring time vegetable so it didn't surprise me to see it in the stores once again, but the gorgeous bright red color of these stalks did.  I of course grabbed as many as I could and set out to make my first homemade rhubarb crisp.  After researching a few versions, I decided on one that sounded similar to what I had several years back.  A few slight modifications later, and we had a winner. 

I love this dish best when served straight from oven (or reheated) and topped with a nice healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on top.  My husband, however, didn't care how I served it.  He was just impressed that I made a vegetable into dessert.  Obviously I'm not the first, but who am I to tell him otherwise?

Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 5 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8x8 cake pan with cooking spray or grease with butter.
2. Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter in a large bowl.  Mix together until crumbly, and  press half of the mixture into the bottom of the greased cake pan.
3. Heat the sugar, water, salt, cornstarch, and vanilla in a saucepan set over medium high heat.  Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.  Add the rhubarb and toss to coat. 
4. Pour the rhubarb on top of the crust and top with the remaining crumb mixture.

5. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until bubbling.   

Note:  My crisp ended up bubbling over just a bit and almost caused the smoke alarm to go off (but surprisingly didn't), so you might want to play it safe and put a large rimmed baking sheet lined with foil on the rack below the crisp to catch any syrup that might bubble over while cooking.  Or, you could just clean your oven the  next day, as I did...oops.

*Adapted from this recipe.