What Is Rhubarb?

Rhubarb’s pink-hued, celery-like stalks are crowned by large green ruffled leaves. A member of the buckwheat family, rhubarb grows seasonally in mid-spring to late summer when bushels make their way to the market. Though technically a vegetable, rhubarb is more commonly used like a fruit—paired with sweet berries or apples—and packed into pies and dessert sauces.

You can eat the stalks raw or cooked. Raw stalks are crisp and watery with celery notes. Cooking softens the flesh and brings out the plant’s sour, citrusy tang and pink color.

Can You Eat Rhubarb Leaves?

Although there is some debate about edibility, the leaves’ oxalic acid levels may cause kidney damage and aggravate joints. While you might have to eat several pounds of rhubarb leaves to reach toxic levels, it’s much safer to exercise extreme caution and toss the leaves as soon as you get home.

How to Select and Store It

Whether you’re buying one stalk or a bunch, look for firm and crisp stalks. If the leaves are still attached, check that they are vibrant and green. When you get home, trim and discard or compost the leaves and inspect the stalks for any damage you’ll want to trim away.

Any stems that you don’t use immediately will keep for at least a week wrapped in a damp paper towel in your refrigerator crisper drawer.

Prepping Rhubarb

Wash stalks and peel off any brown spots. Then chop stalks into 2-inch-long pieces (or smaller or larger pieces, depending on how you intend to use them). 

It takes just a few minutes to simmer raw stalks into a luscious sweet or savory compote to top breakfast porridge, layer in parfaits, or dollop onto scones alongside a cup of afternoon tea. To soften rhubarb’s sour tang, try cooking stalks with baking spices (e.g., cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice), vanilla, ripe orchard fruits, or sweet berries. 

Cooked rhubarb can be refrigerated for three to five days in an airtight container or frozen for one to two months.

Ways to Use Rhubarb

• Mince and mix raw stalks into fruit salad, or fold into stovetop porridges and muesli.
• Toss chopped raw stems into starchy salads, such as black-eyed pea, sweet potato, and corn.
• Roast finger-length stems with pure maple syrup until caramelized for an amazing toast-topper.
• Stew with tomatoes, yellow raisins, mustard seeds, ginger, and chili peppers for a spicy, tangy chutney.

Rhubarb Recipes

Enjoy the sweet, tangy goodness of rhubarb in these healthy plant-based rhubarb recipes from Forks Over Knives!

• Strawberry Rhubarb Oats
• Rhubarb and Red Quinoa Soup
• Vegan Strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins

Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

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Unlike other ancient wheat varieties (e.g., Italian farro or emmer), freekeh traditionally undergoes a post-harvest process that gives it a smoky flavor. This method begins by burning sheaves of freekeh, which imparts a smokiness to the intact moist grains. After the burn, inedible burnt portions are removed by rubbing. The process yields grassy-smoky flavors and a chewy texture similar to farro and cracked bulgur wheat.  

Like other starchy cereal grains, freekeh is used in side dishes, salads, and soups. It can be milled into flour for breads and pastries and fermented into probiotic and alcoholic beverages.  

Health Benefits

Like most whole grains, freekeh is a good source of protein, B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, and iron. While all whole grains are excellent sources of fiber, freekeh is especially fiber-rich, containing roughly double the fiber of red wheat berries and about four times the fiber found in brown rice. Freekeh is also a good source of prebiotics that nourish beneficial gut microbes.

Where to Buy 

Purchase freekeh in Middle Eastern grocery stores or the Middle Eastern or heirloom grain aisles of most large food stores. Alternatively, you can buy freekeh online, either in bulk or in small retail packages.

How to Cook Freekeh

You can purchase freekeh as whole, intact grains, sometimes called whole berries. Whole grains can be cooked on the stovetop using the absorption method described below. Soaking freekeh overnight shortens the cook time by about 10 minutes and softens the bran, which can help with digestibility, but it’s not necessary for a good-tasting final product.

Whole

Combine 1 cup of whole freekeh with 2½ cups water or vegetable broth and a dash of salt. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 35 to 40 minutes, until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed. (For soaked freekeh, reduce cooking time to 25 minutes.) Remove from heat. Let sit, covered, 10 minutes more, allowing the grains to absorb any remaining moisture. Fluff grains with a fork. Serve immediately, or store cooked freekeh in an airtight container in the fridge, and incorporate it into your meals throughout the week. 

Cracked

You can also find cracked freekeh, which has been broken up into smaller pieces rather than left intact. This lightly processed version of freekeh is easier to digest and quicker to cook, even without overnight soaking. Use the absorption method described above, but reduce the cooking time to 20 to 30 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.

Seasonings

For added flavor, add whole spices, such as cinnamon sticks, star anise, saffron threads, or a 2-inch length of orange peel, to the cooking water or broth. 

Blueberry Bliss Breakfast Bowls with Freekeh

Juicy fresh blueberries meld into chewy-tender freekeh in these easy breakfast bowls, which require just five ingredients and 25 minutes to make. 

Freekeh-Grapefruit Tabbouleh

Freekeh works well in recipes that would usually star bulgur, such as tabbouleh. This fresh, healthy twist on the Middle Eastern side salad gets its creaminess from avocado instead of oil. Juicy tart grapefruit rounds it all out.

For more guidance in healthy cooking, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a plant-based path. To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer.

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What Is Sorghum?

Sorghum, like barley, rye, and wheat, is a cereal grain. The kernels (or grains) range in color from pale yellow to dark red and brown tones. Its more than 20 varieties are eaten around the globe. 

Historians place sorghum as an early staple food in diets across North Africa and the Indian subcontinent, where its edible grains and leaves are used in savory and sweet dishes. In North America, sorghum cropped up in the late 1800s, eaten as a whole food and made into syrup.

In the wild, sorghum grows somewhat like corn, as a 5- to 7-foot-tall plant. Its kernels are composed of bran, germ, and starchy endosperm. 

How to Source and Store Sorghum

Kernels, meal, or flour should be stored in a cool environment and used within a month or two of purchasing. For best flavor, keep in an airtight container away from light, heat, and oxygen.

How to Use Sorghum

Naturally gluten-free, sorghum grains cook up in under an hour in a ratio of one part grain to two parts water or stock. Try swapping it in any grain-based recipe, from porridge to pancakes and soups to salads.

Whole kernels can be boiled like rice; steamed; roasted; or popped into crunchy snacks and garnishes.

Ground into flour, it adds nutty flavors to baked goods and stovetop cooking. (Try it in Lunchbox Chocolate Chip Cookies.)

When malted into a thick syrup, sorghum can replace liquid sweeteners such as corn, rice, and maple. 

Where you have access to red sorghum leaves, use them to add color and grassy notes to a dish as it cooks or ferments.

Snack on It 

Place ½ cup in an electric popcorn popper or in a covered pot until all the grains have popped. Try popped sorghum sprinkled with nutritional yeast, toasted crumbled nori, or the Japanese seven-spice blend shichimi togarashi.

Mush It

Soak grains overnight in the refrigerator. Drain. Add two parts water to one part grains; cook into a creamy porridge at the stove as you would oatmeal. Add fresh or dried fruit, nuts, and your favorite plant milk for a hearty breakfast, as in the Sorghum Berry Breakfast Bowl. Or combine cooked sorghum with roasted vegetables and a splash of low-sodium soy sauce and ginger for a warming winter supper.

Sprinkle It

In a cast-iron pan in the stove or a hot oven, dry roast grains with a pinch of salt or spices to your taste. Roasted and seasoned sorghum, once cooled, makes a deliciously crunchy garnish for salads, soups, and trail mixes. It also adds a delightful crunch when baked into bread. 

Sprout It 

Soak and rinse grains for two to three days until a half-inch tail emerges; toss onto everything or enjoy by the handful.

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With summer comes the annual bumper crop of summer squash, and, at my home, zucchini takes center stage. Skewered and grilled, stuffed and roasted, grated into slaw or pureed into a refreshing soup, zucchini is as quick-cooking and versatile as summer foods go. For most of us, zucchini is nothing new—but zucchini flowers, aka squash blossoms, are a different story. Here’s how to enhance your summer spreads by picking up a half dozen or more blooms when squash blossoms appear at your market. 

What Are Squash Blossoms?

Sometimes called zucchini flowers, squash blossoms are the bright orange edible flowers that grow on squash plants. The flowers have a mild flavor that is reminiscent of zucchini.

How to Use Squash Blossoms in Everyday Cooking

Include the beauty and delicate flavor of squash blooms at any meal.

Flower-up breakfast: Add petals and their stamens to nut-yogurt bowls or fruit salads; toss petals into hot oats during the last moments of cooking or tear into cold cereals along with berries, nuts, and seeds.

Get floral with lunch: Toss petals, chopped stamens, and stems into lettuces for a vibrant and delicious twist on your usual mixed greens.  

Stuff them for mains, sides, and snacks: Mix up a batch of basil-infused pine-nut “ricotta” (such as the ricotta found in Forks Over Knives’ Spinach Lasagna) and stuff flowers with the creamy filling. Chill and serve with toasted whole grain bread and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar. 

How to Shop for Squash Blossoms

You may see an odd squash blossom or two in a mix of baby vegetables, but for a meal-worthy amount, look for packs of intact and healthy-looking blossoms sold all on their own. You can usually find these in the “local” section of your favorite grocery store or at farmers markets. Wherever you shop, squash blossoms are usually around for a limited time; that’s because they break down quickly after harvest. (Hint: Don’t buy flowers that are wilted or bruised.)

How to Store and Prepare Them

Once home, store flowers loosely away from too much moisture or cold. Try bundling a bouquet in lightly dampened paper towels in your fridge’s crisper drawer. Try to use within a day or two, or cook and store unused portions for later use. Depending on where you purchase them, your blossoms may or may not need washing. If you are planning on cooking the flowers, don’t bother with a rinse; just look out for aphids and ladybugs and shoo those away! With cold preparations, a gentle rinse and pat dry is all you need.  

Read Next: What Are Dandelion Greens?

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Kale and collards are all the rage, but if you’re looking for greens with character and bite, dandelions don’t miss a beat. Also known as lion’s teeth (from the Italian dente de lion), the name aptly describes the leaves’ jagged edges and sharp taste. The edible flower stalks and sun-yellow petals bring a delicate flavor and brightness all their own. Available year-round, dandelion flavors and textures change a bit across the seasons. Late winter brings a tougher, chewier leaf to the table compared with spring’s more delicate offering.

How to Pick Dandelion in the Wild or at the Market

Keep in mind that cultivated greens are generally mellower and less bitter than their wild cousins, so how you use them and how long they last may differ. If you have access to pesticide-free flowers outdoors, pluck young leaves (measuring about 6 inches) seasonally, leaving the root intact for the next growth. Foraging, at least for the time being, is likely the only place you’ll find dandelion flower stalks or petals. And depending on where you shop for fresh foods and during what season, you’ll likely find a mix of quality and price. On the warmer side of spring and fall, bunches at my local market are the size of Mother’s Day bouquets with luscious leaves that last for days. As cold sets in, leaves toughen and, at least in my market, price hits a high.

How to Store Dandelions

When you get your greens home, wrap them loosely bundled in a damp paper towel. Dandelion leaves stored in your refrigerator’s crisper bin will last at least a week. For maximum freshness, wash them just before using them.

How to Use Dandelion Leaves, Stalks, and Petals

Dandelion greens can seem quite bitter at first chew. Paired with sweet flavors, such as golden raisins, and the succulent warmth of toasted nuts and seeds, dandelions raw or cooked are addictively delicious. Use flower stalks and petals, which taste more delicate and grassy, to finish a dish, just as you would with raw scallions or chives. Simply wash, gently dry, and scatter!

Here are some more ideas for using dandelions in everyday meals:

• Early season dandelion leaves pair beautifully in raw salads alongside a mix of other hardy lettuces, such as endive and radicchio, and drizzled with a sweet and savory vinaigrette (think lemon, sesame tahini, and a glug each of water and grade B maple syrup).
• Rough chop and steam tougher late-season greens and paper-thin slices of garlic for a quick side dish. Toss any leftovers with gluten-free or whole-grain pasta, chili flakes, and white beans for an easy weeknight meal.
• Need a last-minute appetizer or anytime snack? Steam a half pound of washed and dried greens with a tablespoon each of golden raisins and capers and top the finished dish with toasted pine nuts. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve on thick slices of grilled or toasted whole-wheat baguette.
• Greens wilting before you can eat them? Blanch or steam cleaned greens. Let them cool completely; then roughly chop and freeze them flat in plastic bags. The next time you’re heating up a soup or stew, toss in precooked greens and simmer until they’re heated through.

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