“Love love love this recipe. And soooo easy! ” ~Jennifer
I’m madly trying to get the most out of the short rhubarb season. The other day when I asked my produce guy for some he went in the back and brought me out a HUGE armload of stalks. We’re leaving town this week so I need to preserve it for later. And I’ve always loved old fashioned fresh fruit butters, I love the smooth, silky texture, and I love the way the flavor is intensified.
Fruit butters don’t require sugar like traditional jams, and so the essence of the fruit comes through stronger. The only reason I used a little sugar in this recipe is that rhubarb is super tart. You can do this with lots of different fruit, from apples to peaches and plums. Berries too, but you’ll want to strain out the seeds. I have an incredibly silky Cranberry Butter recipe that you can make in the slow cooker. And in summer, don’t forget to make a batch or two of my amazing Peach Butter!
With no pectin, and very little, if any, sugar, this is an easy way to preserve fruit. You can blend varieties, or just stick to one. You can add spice or flavoring, too. I added cardamom to my rhubarb, but next time I’m going to use a vanilla bean.
More reasons to hoard rhubarb!
Rhubarb is such a unique flavor, and it’s around for such a short time, I go a little crazy with it during the season:
- Rhubarb Jelly
- Rhubarb Curd
- Rhubarb Bread
- Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie
- Rhubarb Crisp with Cardamom and Vanilla
- Easy Rhubarb Breakfast Cake
- No Bake Rhubarb Dream Bars
“Just made this and it was soooo good! Delicious while still warm over vanilla ice cream! Mmmmm!” ~ Linda
Easy Rhubarb Butter
Ingredients
- 1 lb rhubarb, which is approximately 3-4 cups chopped
- 1/2 cup sugar
- squeeze of fresh lemon
- optional: 1/4 tsp cardamom, or cinnamon, or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean
Instructions
- Rinse the rhubarb and trim the ends Slice it into 1 inch pieces and put in a heavy bottomed pot along with the sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of water and the lemon juice, and stir to combine.
- Heat, stirring constantly, until the rhubarb starts to give off juice and the mixture comes to a boil. Boil gently for about 20-30 minutes, until the rhubarb is very soft and mostly broken down.
- Puree the mixture, in batches if necessary,. Be careful when pureeing hot liquids, as they can ‘explode’ up through the spout of the processor or blender.
- Put the puree in a clean pan back on the stove and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it gently bubble away until reduced and thickened about another 20 minutes, Stir often, and be careful not to let the fruit scorch. If you are using the spice or vanilla bean, stir it in now.
- Spoon the finished butter into a glass jar. Let cool, then cap and refrigerate. It will thicken further as it cools. You will have about a cup.
Notes
- If you want to make a larger batch, you can freeze this, and you can also can it. I just keep it in the fridge, it will be scarfed up within a couple of weeks.
- There is no firm rule about how long to cook the pureed fruit. The longer you cook it and reduce it down, the thicker it will be. It’s a matter of personal taste.
Nutrition
Rhubarb butter?!? I need it in my life. Stat!
Woah. That looks amazing! I bet it is so sweet and tart and delicious on a slice of toast!
Mmmm, this sounds delicious and I love the color 🙂 I bet it’s amazing with cardamom!
looks like we were both in the butter frame of mind this past week! Love your butter though. it is silky and smooth and sweet. Best thing to top a warm out of the oven scone or biscuit with
MMmmmmm
Love the color.
I especially like the styling of your lead photo.
The Kerr mason jar, the coffee cup and the vintage knife bring such old home memories to mind.
Delightful.
The rhubarb butter is a beautiful thing!
Velva
Perfect timing!
I cut massive amounts of Rhubarb out of my garden last night and this sounds wonderful 🙂
I’ll freeze some and especially enjoy it during the -35 C snowy winter, a reminder that spring will come again just when I’ll need it the most!
Too bad you didn’t live here, I always have tons of Rhubarb and can’t seem to give it away unless it is in the form of Rhubarb Coffee Cake 🙂
Oh I would LOVE to get some neighborly rhubarb!
Hi Sue,
I just made the Rhubarb Vanilla Butter (used 3 lbs of rhubarb & still have a lot left in my yard) and it is absolutely amazing!
It reminds me of the stewed rhubarb my grandmother made, I ate copious amounts of it on toast and also on ice cream when I was little.
I could never quite duplicate the flavour of hers and this is as close as I’ve ever gotten. Heaven on a spoon 🙂 Thank you!
This butter sounds amazing! I bet it would be excellent as a quick filling for a lemony cake…or maybe almond? Or both! 🙂
This is wonderful – I recently made Kumquat marmalade and thought it was way too sweet. I didn’t even post it on the blog. It was pretty but I would have preferred rhubarb butter! Love the color and I know it is tasty. Have a great trip!
Rhubarb butter sounds wonderful. Blessings, Catherine