richard I know what you are thinking. Rhubarb soup? Savoury rhubarb soup? Never heard of that before. Sounds intriguing. Could be tasty. Could be unpleasant. Could be a toxic coupling of sour fruit and salty meaty water. Must get some rhubarb and give it a go. Well that’s what I thought anyway. Besides, the recipe was in Colin Spencer’s ‘Vegetable Book’ which in the past has always proved to be great source of unusual yet tasty recipes.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- rhubarb – 700g
- stock (see footnote) – 1 litre
- sugar – 1/2 – 1tbsp
- Tabasco – to taste
- s & p
- yoghurt
Trim the rhubarb and cut into rough 1″ chunks.
Place in a heavy-based saucepan and pour over the stock.
Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, by which time the rhubarb should be cooked. Allow to cool a little.
Thoroughly liquidise with a hand blender – you want to pulverise all the stringy bits.
Return to the heat and add some sugar and tobasco to taste. You want to get balance between sweet/sour/salty/heat. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.
Serve with a spoonful of natural yoghurt.
*Colin Spencer expressly states that this recipe requires a rich meat stock, ideally made from game. Being a non-meat eater I flagrantly disobeyed this instruction and used a light (but good) powdered vegetable stock instead.
Verdict: Well I never, this was actually quite good. Unusual, but good. It’s sour yet slightly sweet, salty as a soup should be, and has a slight kick from the Tabasco. Having said that, I think this would have been greatly improved if I’d used the prescribed meaty stock.
Drink: A selection of Meantime ales.
Entertainment: Finished off the first ‘The Shield’ DVD.
