Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce
This 5-ingredient strawberry rhubarb sauce makes a great topping for pancakes, biscuits, vanilla ice cream, and so much more. Served warm, chilled, or at room temperature, it’s simply delicious.
Today’s recipe highlights one of the most iconic springtime flavor pairings, strawberries and rhubarb. Strawberries bring the sweet and rhubarb brings the tart creating the perfect balance of flavors in this delightful sauce. Made with just five ingredients and ready in 25 minutes, this strawberry rhubarb sauce makes a great topping for pancakes, waffles, crêpes, Greek yogurt, angel food cake, vanilla ice cream, biscuits, oatmeal, and the list goes on.
Lucky for me I was introduced to rhubarb at a young age as we had a couple of rhubarb plants in our garden. Every spring these gigantic green leaves attached to bright cherry red stalks would emerge from the ground. The plants came up year after year, needed virtually no care, and were a gorgeous addition to the garden. If you’re new to rhubarb, let me tell you a little bit about it.
Rhubarb is sometimes referred to as “pie plant” because that’s what it’s often used for (think rhubarb pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, rhubarb custard pie, rhubarb sour cream pie, or rhubarb meringue pie). Though botanically considered a vegetable, rhubarb is typically thought of as a fruit. While many varieties of rhubarb exist, most fall into two categories – hothouse and field grown. Hothouse rhubarb has pink to pale-red stalks and yellow-green leaves. It’s milder than field-grown rhubarb and less stringy. In some regions, hothouse rhubarb is available almost year-round. Field-grown rhubarb has cherry-red stalks and darker green leaves. It’s usually available from late winter to early summer, peaking from April to June.
Beyond pie, you’ll find rhubarb in jams, coffee cakes, tarts, cobblers, and crisps. Like cranberries, rhubarb is intensely tart and requires a fair amount of sugar no matter how it’s cooked. To tamp down the tartness, it helps to pair rhubarb with sweet strawberries as I did in this sauce recipe.
Rhubarb provides a healthy dose of vitamin C and potassium. If you are prone to kidney stones, specifically calcium oxalate stones, your doctor may suggest that you avoid rhubarb because it contains oxalate, which may accelerate stone formation in susceptible people.
When buying rhubarb, choose crisp stalks that are brightly colored. If the leaves are attached, they should look fresh and blemish-free. Be sure to remove and discard the leaves before storing in the refrigerator. Never eat the leaves as they are highly toxic. Fresh rhubarb stalks should be tightly wrapped in a plastic bag and stored in the refrigerator crisper where they’ll keep for about a week. Cleaned rhubarb can also be diced, placed in a zip-top plastic bag and put in the freezer for later use.
To your health,
Darlene
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STRAWBERRY RHUBARB SAUCE
Yield: 8 servings
Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
Prep: 10 minutes
Ready: 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup chopped fresh rhubarb
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
DIRECTIONS
Place strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
Cook sauce until thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.
Serve warm, chilled, or at room temperature. This sauce makes a great topping for pancakes, waffles, crêpes, Greek yogurt, angel food cake, vanilla ice cream, biscuits, and oatmeal.
Nutrition Information per Serving
40 Calories, 0 g Total fat, 0 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 0 mg Cholesterol, 1 mg Sodium, 10 g Total carbohydrate, 0.5 g Dietary fiber, 9 g Total sugars, 8 g Added sugars, 0 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 20 mg (2%) Calcium, 0.1 mg (0%) Iron, 80 mg (2%) Potassium
© 2026 RECIPES MADE HEALTHY BY DARLENE ZIMMERMAN, MS, RD LLC
