Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a plant from the sorrel’s family (knotweed) and with aerial stalks plus leaves which contain of food storage and acidic, so that’s why people use it in their foods.
Rhubarb is found in three varieties: red, green or speckled. The colors refer to the fibrous edible stalk of the plant.
The rhubarb plant is large and typically requires one square yard of garden space. The smooth stalks can reach a length of 18 inches and a width of 2 inches. Cross sections of the rhubarb stalk are solid. Rhubarb leaves are large, smooth, dark green when mature and have curled edges.
This Sour nutritious plant can be found in different parts of Iran like near hillsides, rivers, and places with calm weather in spring. Thick and meaty leaves of this plant are used in Foods. Proliferation of this planet is with cultivation in green house and transmission to the field, or with plant new seeds.
You can use Rhubarb in desserts, pastry, and so on. Raw rhubarb is naturally sour.You can cook it with sugar or honey to make it sweet, after that cook pastry with them.
Rhubarb along with strawberry is used in jam or jelly. Seasonings which are used with rhubarb are lime,ginger, and cinnamon.
You can Keep rhubarb for two days in refrigerator. For keeping it for a longer time, you can freeze them after cutting the stalks.
In the eastern plateau of Iran’s farsi speakers called it Rawash or Ryvach.
How to Freeze Raw Rhubarb
Rhubarb is available cut up and frozen or as long, fresh stalks, and it is also possible to grow it in your garden if you live in an area with cool summers — temperatures less than 75 degrees F — and cold winter temperatures of less than 40 degrees F. Rhubarb has a high water content and is fairly low-calorie. It has only 26 calories in one cup, and it contributes to your daily vitamin A and C and potassium intake. Should you find rhubarb taking over your yard or encounter a particularly cheap sale at the market, stick the extra rhubarb in your freezer. Pre-freezing preparation is minimal.
Step 1
Wash and dry the rhubarb completely.
Step 2
Cut off any wilted or otherwise unsightly, and pull off stringy parts. Remove all leaves.
Step 3
Chop the rhubarb into smaller chunks, as you prefer. Cut rhubarb in containers is more convenient for storing.
Step 4
Spread the pieces on a tray in one layer, or measure out specific amounts and place them in a freezer-safe container, with at least 1/2 to 1 inch of space between the fruit and the lid. For example, if you regularly make a pie that uses 1 cup of rhubarb, measure separate one-cup portions. Freezing the rhubarb in a portion means the pieces could stick together. Freezing them separately on a tray first keeps them loose, so you can take only what you need without thawing the entire container.
How to Grill Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a stalk vegetable that looks similar to celery. Rhubarb commonly serves as a dessert food, such as in a pie. The characteristic tart flavor of the vegetable is usually cut with sugar. Grilling rhubarb with a touch of sugar caramelizes the stalks, making for a sweeter, lighter and healthier end to your meal. You can grill rhubarb easily on a gas or charcoal grill.
Step 1
Wash the rhubarb to remove any dirt or silt that remains on the stalks. Dry with paper towels.
Step 2
Cut the stalks into 2-inch, bite-sized pieces.
Step 3
Place the rhubarb in a zip-top plastic bag with up to 1/3 cup of sugar. Let the vegetable and sugar soften for at least an hour. As the rhubarb and sugar mixture sits, preheat your grill to medium-high heat.
Step 4
Remove the rhubarb, shake off any excess sugar and place it in a grill basket. Use a heat-proof frying pan or casserole dish if you do not have a grill basket. The purpose of the vessel is to prevent the small pieces from falling between the grill grates.
How Many Calories Are in a Cup of Cooked Rhubarb With No Added Sugar?
Rhubarb is most often stewed, baked or preserved in jams or jellies. Because of its tart, acidic flavor, it is typically sweetened with sugar or honey, though doing so can more than quadruple its calorie content per serving, points out Dianne Lamb of the “Brattleboro Reformer.” Without added sweeteners, cooked rhubarb is low in calories and rich in essential nutrients such as dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin C and calcium. Use cooked, unsweetened rhubarb as an ingredient in sauces for fish or meat, or prepare it with fruits like strawberries, apples or pears for a sweet but low-calorie topping for ice cream or in baked goods.
Total Calorie Content
A single cup of cooked rhubarb that includes no added sugar contains approximately 50.4 calories. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this amount is roughly equivalent to the calories you would receive from consuming 1 cup of cooked chopped broccoli, 1 cup of chopped raw carrots, 1 cup of raw, peeled apple slices or 1 cup of cooked yardlong beans.
Calories from Fat
Rhubarb is very low in fat: 1 cup of unsweetened cooked rhubarb provides only 4.3 calories from fat, or about 11 percent of the vegetable’s total caloric content. Most of rhubarb’s fat calories come from polyunsaturated fat — approximately 2 of the 4.3 calories — with a small amount also contributed by monounsaturated and saturated fat. Rhubarb does not contain any cholesterol.
Calories from Carbohydrates
A 1-cup serving of cooked rhubarb without any added sugar contains nearly 11 grams of total carbohydrates, which supply 43.6 of the 50.4 calories per cup of the vegetable. Rhubarb has 4.3 grams of fiber in each cooked cup, though fiber does not contribute any calories to the total amount. The bulk of rhubarb’s carbohydrate calories is supplied by simple sugars such as fructose.
Calories from Protein
Rhubarb is low in protein, with each cup of cooked, unsweetened rhubarb containing about 2.2 grams of protein, or 8.8 calories. This amount is 17 percent of the caloric content of each cup of plain, cooked rhubarb. The protein in rhubarb is incomplete — the vegetable does not provide all of the amino acids that your body requires every day. Eating a wide variety of plant products regularly can ensure that even people who don’t consume any animal products can get adequate protein.
The Health Benefits of Rhubarb
Rhubarb with cool temperament contains of vitamins and various minerals. Rhubarb, as a nutritious plant, incredibly and miraculously increases the efficiency of your body.
Before 18thcentury people had not used rhubarb for their foods.
Rhubarb appears to look like red celery, but it has large leaves and is actually considered to be a member of the fruit family. The stem of the rhubarb plant is usually cooked and used in desserts, such as pie, but it can be eaten raw as well. Rhubarb is also available in frozen form, but choose one that does not contain added sugar, because it will have more nutritional value. Rhubarb offers many health benefits, and finding a way to add it to your diet can help you take advantage of them.
Calcium
Your diet should include plenty of calcium because it is a nutrient essential for the health and strength of your bones and teeth. Having adequate stores of calcium will help prevent softening of the bones as well as bone and tooth loss. One cup of rhubarb supplies 105 mg of calcium, which is about 10 percent of the 1,000 mg of calcium average adults need in their daily diet.
Lutein
Rhubarb is also a good source of lutein, a compound that has many health benefits. Including plenty of lutein in your diet is a healthy way to take care of your skin and eyes. The Lutein Information Bureau reports that your skin and eyes are the only organs in your body that are exposed to the environment and need additional nutrients to keep them healthy and prevent disease. Lutein helps neutralize free radicals, which are dangerous compounds that can lead to cancer. A 1-cup serving of rhubarb contains 207 mcg of lutein.
Vitamin K
Another notable vitamin in rhubarb is vitamin K. Your diet should include sufficient amounts of vitamin K because this nutrient helps form blood clots when you are injured. If you have a vitamin K deficiency, you may have a more difficult time clotting your blood, which can lead to an unhealthy amount of blood loss in the event of an injury. One cup of rhubarb supplies 35.7 mcg of vitamin K.
Antioxidants
The compounds that give rhubarb a vibrant red color are powerful antioxidants that can promote good health and help prevent disease. Roberta Larson Duyff and the American Dietetic Association report in their book, “American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide,” that red fruits and vegetables contain several beneficial antioxidants, such as lycopene and anthocyanins. These compounds help promote the health of your heart, eyes and immune system, as well as help prevent cancer. Cooked rhubarb supplies a good dose of lycopene, but raw rhubarb supplies none.
When to Plant
Plant or divide rhubarb roots in early spring while the plants are dormant. Planting seeds is not recommended except in extremely southern areas of the United States.
Spacing & Depth
Plant the roots with the crown bud 2 inches below the surface of the soil. Space the roots 36 to 48 inches apart in rows 3 to 4 feet apart. Good garden drainage is essential in growing rhubarb. Planting on raised beds ensures against rotting of the crown. Working plenty of well-rotted manure or compost into the rhubarb bed before planting greatly increases production .
Old roots may be dug and divided to make new plantings. Cut the roots into four to eight pieces. Each piece must have at least one strong bud. To improve vigor and leaf size, many gardeners divide the old plants and establish a new planting after at least 5 years of full harvest. Plantings older than this tend to begin crowding themselves out. Dig the roots of the most vigorous, healthy plants to establish a new bed the spring before the old planting is to be discarded.
Care
Cultivate shallowly as often as necessary to remove weeds. Apply a complete garden fertilizer before growth begins in the spring and side-dress with a high-nitrogen fertilizer in late June. Except in poorly drained sites, organic mulches help moderate soil temperature and moisture. Irrigate during extended dry periods. An application of manure or compost is beneficial in late fall or early winter. Do not cover the crowns.
Harvesting
Do not harvest rhubarb during the first year of planting. Newly set plants need all their foliage to build a strong root system. Stalks may be harvested for 1 or 2 weeks during the second year and for 8 to 10 weeks (a full harvest season) during the third and subsequent years. Harvest in the fall only when the plants are to be discarded the next season. To harvest, pull the leafstalks from the plant and trim off the leaf blades. The leaf blades contain large amounts of oxalic acid and should not be eaten. To keep the plants healthy, vigorous and producing well, remove only about one-third of the leaves from a plant at any one time.
If seedstalks and flowers develop during the spring and summer, cut them from the base of the plant as soon as they appear and discard them. Vegetatively propagated, named varieties usually have been selected to produce fewer seedstalks than cheaper, seed-produced plants. The petioles (leafstalks) are of the highest quality (maximum color, flavor and tenderness) in early spring. They should be crisp and fairly thick. Yield and quality are highest if petioles that have just reached full size are harvested before any coarse fiber can develop.
Stew rhubarb
Delicious stew with sour taste is stew rhubarb that is a special one for spring. You can prepare it with mint & parsley (like celery stew) with a unique scent.Ingredients for this amazing stew include:
Rhubarb, onion, sugar, deboned meat, pepper, salt, oil, fresh mint and fresh parsley .
First peel the onion and wash them. Chop them to sliced pieces. Put some oil in the pan and let it to get hot then add the onion. Fry them until they are golden.
Second wash and slice deboned meat and add it to the onion in the pan. Let the color of meat change. Now add 2-3 glass of hot water to the mixed of onion and meat. Wait until the meat is cooked.
Third wash and peel rhubarb and chop them to 3 cm pieces. Simultaneously wash fresh mint and parsley and finely chop them.
Forth put oil in a small pan and let it to get hot. Add mint and & parsley.
Note:Too much mint makes your stew bitter.
Fifth add mint and parsley to cooked meat and let to boil together for 10 minutes, then add rhubarb, sugar, salt, and pepper to the mixture and let them to cook for 10 more minutes.
Note: As the rhubarb crushes early, so after adding it to the stew, do not boil it too much.
Note: As you like sour taste of rhubarb you don’t have to add sugar to the stew.
