How to Make a Summer Upside-Down Rhubarb Pie

Sour-Sweet Rhubarb Pie

A sour-sweet upside-down rhubarb pie is perfect in spring and summer when this unassuming and largely ignored plant explodes to life in forgotten corners of almost any garden.

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Rhubarb is a reddish stacks and green gigantic leaves vegetable the ancient civilisations used in medicine for its numerous health benefits. Although it has a sour taste and might require sugar to make it acceptable for consumption, rhubarb is packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants (with polyphenols levels even higher than kale) and all the goodies our body needs and nature provides free of hassle.

Because it is a relentless veggie, rhubarb would grow anywhere it finds enough water and does not require any care at all. You can plant a stem in the corner of your garden and forget about it. Next season, you’ll see a large umbrella of massive dark-green leaves that hide the beautiful red stacks just perfect for compote, jam or pies.

Rhubarb originates from Asia but strives in damp environments all over the globe. 

UK’s damp climate makes this goodie the first thing to colour my allotment in bright green in early spring. For as deeper as I dug, I could not completely get rid of the rhubarb roots, so they keep making it to the surface every spring.

Rather than fighting a losing battle with a stubborn veggie, I decided to make use of the health benefits it is packed with and enjoy it with coffee! The rhubarb pie in season is perfect for a nice cappuccino!

One crucial thing about rhubarb: use the red stacks (peeled) and remove the leaves as they are poisonous and might make you seriously sick if ingested!

Since I am trying to use a healthy plant for this pie, I did not jam-pack it with sugar. I always use organic coconut sugar, less processed and unhealthy than white, refined sugar. All the other ingredients are organic, too, and so is the coffee I drink. I can only hope all these efforts matter.

Of course, there is always a debate over acidic vs alkaline. Now, everything mentioned above is acidic, which does not help prevent bad things from happening to our bodies.

Then so is the polluted air we breathe thanks to the fumes from industrial flue-gas stacks and the heavy metals exhaust fumes from buses and trucks. 

Of course, all these pollute a lot more than the gas boilers in our homes the government wants us to replace with more expensive/allegedly green ones in a few years. But, hey, aren’t the world governments hypocritically vowing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions twenty years from now? As if they are not a century too late!

It is a kind of mission impossible to reverse the incredible damage we did to our planet with the industrial revolution. Still, nobody can take from us the beautiful illusion of healthy eating. Do you see what I see when reading this? I know you do!

Back to baking and our rhubarb pie, now is the right season for collecting a few stacks, removing the leaves and giving it a go, so here is the how:

Ingredients for Upside-Down Rhubarb Pie

Rhubarb

Eggs

Sugar

Flour

Butter

Baking powder

Salt

Vanilla extract

Orange zest

Spices: cinnamon, cloves

Semolina

Method

Before you start, take the eggs out of the fridge and leave them at room temperature for about an hour. Using eggs at the right temperature will allow them to create a frothy composition and increase threefold when battered.

Wash the rhubarb stacks, peel and cut into tiny pieces, about 1 cm. Mix with sugar and spices and leave aside.

Preheat the oven and grease the baking tray.

In a large bowl, place the eggs, salt, orange zest, vanilla, and sugar and beat with an electric mixer for 5-7 minutes. You will observe how the volume increases, the colour becomes lighter, and the batter gets a creamy consistency.

Add the melted and cooled butter and continue mixing with a spatula.

Sieve the flour, add the baking powder to it and place it over the above composition. Mix until incorporated, but not for too long, or you risk flattening the batter.

For the upside-down version of the rhubarb pie, grease the tray with slightly melted butter, place the rhubarb together with the juice at the bottom of the tray, sprinkle some semolina, then add the batter. The semolina will absorb some of the excess liquid, and the batter will absorb the rest of it, becoming soft and moist when baked.

This method is similar to the upside-down orange cake, another delectable dessert popular in the winter season. The caramelized fruits make both an indulgent side to your daily coffee!

Alternatively, you can place the batter first in a greased tray, sprinkle semolina and add the rhubarb only. Discard the juice for this option as it will take longer to absorb, and it might not allow thorough cooking.

Bake for 30-40 minutes on the middle rack. When the time is up, check with a toothpick that the pie is ready. 

Allow the pie to cool in the tray, place a fitting plate over and turn it upside-down.

You might need to slightly bang it to the table several times to ensure the entire pie unglues from the tray and remains nicely on the plate.

Cut the upside-down rhubarb pie into squares when completely cool and serve with your preferred coffee.

Mine is always cappuccino, except when I don’t have enough time to make one. What’s yours?

Sour-Sweet Rhubarb Pie