Rhubarb Sauce Recipe and How to Make Rhubarb Compote Parfaits

This rhubarb sauce recipe is simple to make, with just 3 ingredients and little water. It’s technically a rhubarb compote, meaning a chunky fruit sauce, but whatever you choose to call it, we know you’ll want to eat lots and lots of it.

RHUBARB COMPOTE RECIPE UPDATED

This recipe was first posted in June of 2011. I’m updating the post in 2018 with more info on cooking with rhubarb and the difference between a fruit compote and fruit sauce. Here is the original intro:

We lost our kitty on Monday. One day I’ll be able to write a great post about him, but for now, the wound is too fresh. I will post a breakfast recipe in his honor though.

Every morning the first thing I’d do was say hi to Cappucino, then he would curl up in my lap while I had my breakfast. In cold weather I usually eat something hot for breakfast, toast with peanut butter, or oatmeal.

Now that the weather is warming up I’ve been craving yogurt, and this rhubarb compote is the perfect pairing.

RHUBARB COMPOTE OR RHUBARB SAUCE?

There are so many different names for sauces in the culinary world, and the variety of cooking terms can get a bit confusing.

A compote is a kind of fruit sauce. So all compotes are fruit sauces, but not all fruit sauces are compotes. Make sense?

When you make a fruit sauce (like this rhubarb sauce) if you puree it completely smooth and strain all the pulp out, you’ve made a sauce called a coulis (koo-LEE).

If you leave your sauce a bit chunky (like we do with this rhubarb sauce) then you’ve made a sauce called a compote.

So you can call this a rhubarb sauce recipe. That’s exactly what it is. Or you can sound incredibly fancy and sophisticated, and call it a rhubarb compote recipe. It’s especially impressive when entertaining!

I call it both, because I go back and forth between my past life of eating in 4-star restaurants, and my current life of the family clamoring for macaroni and cheese two days a week.

HOW TO MAKE RHUBARB SAUCE

As I said above, a compote is a puree of fruit that’s been cooked in sugar and water. But you don’t need any special equipment like a food processor or immersion blender to puree it. The rhubarb cooks down so well in the sugar syrup that you can just use your spoon to break it apart.

• Slice your rhubarb into ¼ inch thick chunks.
• For every 2 cups of chopped rhubarb, you need ¼ cup sugar (or sugar substitute), ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ cup water.
• Add rhubarb, sugar, salt and water to a large saucepan, combine all ingredients, and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium to simmer about 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally.
• When rhubarb is tender, use your wooden spoon to mash it up until you have a thick rhubarb sauce.

WHY ADD SALT TO RHUBARB?

Rhubarb is not just incredibly sour, it also has a bitterness to it. Salt naturally counteracts the bitterness, while the sugar counteracts the sourness. So adding salt and sugar to the rhubarb sauce helps keep one taste sensation from being too overpowering so that you can actually taste the flavor of the rhubarb.

DO YOU HAVE TO PEEL RHUBARB?

No need to peel rhubarb! If you cut your rhubarb with a sharp knife, you should avoid those strings, similar to slicing up celery. The only time you may have to peel rhubarb is late in the season when it gets quite a bit tougher.

CAN YOU FREEZE RHUBARB SAUCE?

Yes you can freeze rhubarb sauce! Refrigerate your rhubarb sauce for up to one week or freeze it in an airtight container up to one year. You can even freeze it in an ice cube tray then store the cubes in a baggie in the freezer for single serve portions to use throughout the year.

HOW TO USE RHUBARB COMPOTE?

I love making compotes because they have so many uses. You can stir them into applesauce, mix them into smoothies, pour them over vanilla ice cream and pound cake, spread them on toast like jam.

You can even use this rhubarb sauce for meat! The sweet tart flavor is amazing over pork chops, duck, or some roasted lamb. Use it as a dip for Chinese meatballs or potstickers, a sauce for Korean tacos, or spread it on salmon.

GRAB AND GO BREAKFAST

My latest favorite use is to mix rhubarb compote with vanilla yogurt and granola.

I haven’t tried making my own yogurt yet, but it’s on my list. In the meantime, it’s much cheaper to buy plain or vanilla Greek yogurt in large tubs and add my own fruit compote than it is to buy the flavored yogurts.

You can also get yogurt without HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) more easily in the plain or vanilla flavors than in a fruit flavor. And using this homemade rhubarb sauce means YOU’RE in control of the sugar content.

But the best part about having this special layered breakfast? I get to sleep in another 20 minutes!!!

Instead of getting up and fixing breakfast and eating it at home, I make jars of yogurt layered with the 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the rhubarb compote and some homemade granola. I can store them in the fridge and grab one on my way out the door to eat on the go. Perfect!

If you love the grab and go breakfast option too, make sure to check out our microwave omelet in a jar, bulk breakfast burritos, and easy eggs in a basket recipes.

What would you do with this lovely rhubarb compote?

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MORE OF OUR FAVORITE RHUBARB RECIPES

• Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp
• Cherry Rhubarb Skillet Pie
• Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade
• Rhubarb Banana Muffins