Tasty, tasty rhubarb

Rhubarb is one of those foods that I never wanted to try. As my dear husband puts it, "It looks like celery and you make dessert out of it? WTF?"

I'd seen people make pie, and coffee cake, and sauces, and jam out of it. It was a beautiful color, but beyond that, it held no interest. Why in the world would I bake a vegetable into a pie?
Now that I've decided that vegetables can actually taste good and I want to eat more of them, I've decided to try my hand at the epitome of all rhubarb dishes, rhubarb crumble.

Rhubarb Crumble adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Serves 6

• 1 1/2-2 pounds rhubarb stalks (from Anselmo Farms)
• 1 1/4 cups Emmer flour (from Bluebird Grain Farms)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Slice the rhubarb into pieces that are no more than about half an inch thick.
3. In a 13x9 glass baking dish, mix the rhubarb pieces, the sugar, and 1/4 cup of the flour.
4. Cut the butter into chunks.
5. In a food processor, combine the butter and the rest of the flour. Pulse until the butter is reduced to small pearls.
6. Add the oats and the cinnamon and pulse to combine.
7. Pour the topping over the rhubarb and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.
8. Cool slightly and serve.

Patricia's Notes: I was nervous about this recipe, but I've made it twice within a week and it's very good. I think rhubarb tastes a lot like a sour apple, so it lends itself very well to a crumble or crisp. There is a lot of sugar in this recipe, but I did replace about 1/3 of a cup of the sugar with an organic sugar substitute and the taste didn't suffer. We reheated the crumble several times for dessert and even ate it cold one day. If you heat it, pairing it with some rich vanilla ice cream would be excellent.