Regular readers of my blog will know that I love fruit and yogurt for breakfast. This baked rhubarb compote with honey yogurt and toasted slivered almonds is a great spring version.
We’ve been in this house nearly eight years now. At our previous house we had an allotment. It was a five minute walk away and we used to set off on a Sunday afternoon with the wheel barrow and tools, the girls catching a ride in the barrow, or peddling along-side on their bikes. A few hours later we would return, the barrow full of fruit and veg, the plot weeded and watered, tummies full from the barbecue we had had with fellow allotment holders we’d made friends with.
Just before we moved here we were given a rhubarb plant from one of our friends there. We planted it on the allotment but there was no way we were going to leave it behind so the day before we moved, Dan went down to the allotment and dug it, and our blueberry plants, up and brought them home. The blueberry plants went into big pots full of ericaceous compost. However, the rhubarb had no special treatment. We simply wrapped its roots in a plastic bag and hoped for the best. The day after we moved here we dug a little hole at the base of the washing line, for want of a better place, and popped it in.
Almost eight years later I have just taken my fourth picking of the lovely pink stalks and, at the time of writing, it is still only late March. The plant gets no sunshine except in very high summer and is given no food or care at all, yet it ploughs on stoically. Every year I wait to see its first leaves pushing through the soil. It comes before any other sign of spring, even before the snow drops. And it continues to fruit well into the autumn, although I don’t pull those stalks, I reckon the poor thing needs a rest by then.
I discovered baked rhubarb a number of years ago. I prefer it to stewed rhubarb because, as long as you do not allow the fruit to come to the boil in the oven, you are rewarded with lovely whole pieces of rhubarb and a beautifully clear, pink syrup, made as the sugar dissolves in the rhubarb juices.
The recipe serves four but, as I’m the only person who really enjoys rhubarb in my family, I make the quantity shown and keep it in the fridge. That way I have breakfast sorted for most of the week. I simply have to toast the almonds and add the fruit and yogurt each morning. If you don’t like honey yogurt then go for vanilla or even natural yogurt, sweetened with sugar or a little of the rhubarb syrup.
This sharp yet sweet rhubarb, teemed with creamy honey yogurt and toasted slivered almonds, which sizzle as you add them to the bowl, make for a delicious, quick and easy breakfast.
Baked Rhubarb Compote with Honey Yogurt and Toasted Slivered Almonds
Ingredients
- 500 g rhubarb
- 200 g caster sugar
- 1 x500g tub honey yoghurt
- 75 g slivered almonds (flaked)
Instructions
For the rhubarb
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Top, tail and wash the rhubarb then cut into 5cm long pieces.
- Place the rhubarb into a glass or ceramic baking dish and sprinkle over the sugar. Pour a couple of tablespoons of water over the sugar so that most of it is wet. Cover tightly with foil and place in the oven. Cook for 15-25 minutes until the rhubarb is tender and sitting in a pool of clear pink juices*. Cool.
For the slivered almonds
- Place a dry frying pan oven a medium heat and allow to warm up for a minute. Sprinkle the almonds into the frying pan giving it a shake so that they spread out into one layer. Keep the almonds over the heat, tossing them in the pan occasionally (you can use a fish slice to do this if you wish), until they are lightly browned and smelling gorgeous. As soon as they are ready, tip onto a plate to cool as they will burn if left in the heat of the pan.
To serve
- Divide the yoghurt between the bowls. Gently spoon the rhubarb over the yoghurt and sprinkle over the almonds. Pour over as much of the rhubarb syrup as you fancy. Any left over syrup is great in a gin and tonic!
Notes
Nutrition
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