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Maple-Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia Seeds and a crumbly oat- almond topping – a vegan, gluten-free dessert that highlights spring rhubarb. Serve this warm with your favorite ice-cream! A healthier version of one of our favorite desserts, perfect for Mothers Day! 
In this warm and rustic spring-inspired crisp, strawberry and rhubarb become meltingly tender as they bake together with maple syrup. Chia seeds soak up the juices while adding nutrients, fiber and texture. The almond flour and oat topping turns out perfectly crisp and it’s gluten-free! A healthier, vegan version of one of our favorite desserts.
It’s still a little early here for local strawberries, but the rhubarb abounds in masses.
In this crisp, there are slightly more rhubarb, by volume than strawberries.
Slice the rhubarb into ½ inch thick slices.
Quarter the strawberries.
Toss with the maple syrup, lemon juice, vanilla and chia seeds.
Then sprinkle the crisp with the gluten-free, almond flour– oat topping.
Here I used coconut oil, but feel free to sub olive oil, butter or even ghee!
Sprinkle the topping over top, resisting the urge to pat down.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until bubbling and golden at 375F .
Enjoy the glorious aromas that will waft from the oven…
Serve warm in bowls with a scoop of your favorite vegan ice cream.
This is something I know my mom would have loved… and I hope your mom does too.
Happy Mothers Day friends.
xoxo
PS. For more Mothers Day inspiration, take a peek at this Strawberry Breakfast Cake or these Strawberry Almond French Toast Muffins !
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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia Seeds
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: vegan Desserts
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Northwest
Description
Maple-Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia Seeds and a crumbly oat topping – a vegan, gluten-free dessert that highlights spring rhubarb.
Ingredients
- 16 ounces strawberries
- 4 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1/2 inch thick slices ( about 4-5 stalks)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 4 tablespoons chia seeds
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch salt
Crumble
- 1 cup GF rolled oats
- 1 cup almond flour ( or sub other flour)
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil – or olive oil or butter or ghee!
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom– optional
- 1/4 teaspoon nigela seeds- optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven 375F
- Wash and quarter the strawberries. If very large, quarter again, so each piece is roughly ½ inch thick. Slice the rhubarb into ½ inch slices. Place both in a bowl and add the maple, chia, cornstarch, lemon juice and vanilla and pinch salt. Stir well. Place in a, greased, 8×8 baking dish or 2-quart baking dish. (The pan in the photo is 5 x12)
- To make the crumble, place all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix really well.
- Lightly drop crumble evenly over the top and do not press down.
- Place in the oven, uncovered for 40 minutes. If the top is golden and the edges are bubbly, it’s time to take it out.
- Otherwise, continue baking for 5-7 more minutes. Let sit 15 mins before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ¾ cup
- Calories: 259
- Sugar: 20 g
- Sodium: 443.4 mg
- Fat: 11.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 7.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 35.2 g
- Fiber: 5.5 g
- Protein: 3.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: rhubarb crisp, strawberry rhubarb crisp, vegan crisp recipes, vegan rhubarb crisp, vegan strawberry crisp,
This was so delicious for a May backyard potluck with friends. <3 I used about 5 teaspoons of tapioca pearls instead of cornstarch and I cut the maple syrup by half. Used a combo of ghee and coconut oil in the topping. Served with coconut milk based vanilla ice cream. Perfect!
Sounds Perfect Jenifer!
A friend gave me five stalks of rhubarb from her garden yesterday, so I bought some strawberries from the farmers market this morning and made this crisp. It’s so yummy! And can’t wait to have it for breakfast tomorrow morning. My mother would love this as well. She had a whole file of just rhubarb recipes, both sweet and savory.
I am so glad you enjoyed this Leslie! How special- I would love to take a peek at the file- especially curious about savory! 🙂
I remember one meal she used to make was a sheet pan dish w chicken, red onion and rhubarb. Quite tasty!
Mmmmmmmmm… Interesting! I do have one with salmon that I like. But it’s a sweeter dish.
So good! I used the base of this recipe for a cherry crisp, just reduced the amount of maple syrup with the fruit to 2Tbs and used 1/4 tsp of almond extract instead of vanilla. Wonderful gluten free crisp! Loved the topping and use of chia seeds. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Amanda- cherry crisp sounds heavenly!
Are the chia seeds used for thickening? I’d like to leave them out. Also, if I substituted tapioca starch for the cornstarch (4 tsp tapioca for the 2 tsp cornstarch), do you think that would work out?
Yes Christine- they do help with thickening. I’m not sure about the tapioca- I personally have not tried it. But if you do try this- will you let us know how it turns out? Super curious!
Thanks for your response, Sylvia! I made this yesterday, and I left out the chia seeds and used 1 Tablespoon tapioca starch instead of the cornstarch (less than the 4 tsp I originally intended, but then I also had a bit less of the rhubarb and strawberries than the recipe called for). Oddly enough, when I made the crumble mixture, it turned out rather wet and runny (not sure why – maybe I’ll try it with a bit less oil next time), so I added some more oats to make it a bit thicker. And it turned out absolutely delicious! I don’t know how it compares to the original, mine still had some liquid, but it wasn’t runny. And my mom and I both absolutely loved it! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Glad you were able to make this work!
We use this crumble (the olive oil version) with apples + frozen raspberries or blackberries (just the fruit, a little unprocessed sugar, and flour; topped with the crumble and baked). Easy, delicious, and healthy dessert. Thank you!
★★★★★
Sounds great Ewa!
simple and simply delicious! love all the flavours in there.
i second the opinion of the person who’d be in line for your cookbook!
★★★★★
This is outstanding!!! A new favorite for sure!
Does it freeze well? If so, how do you reccomend warming it back up?
I haven’t frozen, but imagine it would be fine! Just thaw in the fridge overnight first, bake on 350F till warmed through.
YUM! This was delicious.
★★★★★
I wrote this all out to keep in my “special recipes” notebook. I’ve made it three times already this spring, not being very picky about the proportions of anything, and it always comes out just wonderfully. The combination of maple syrup as a sweetener with the rhubarb, plus the crunchy chia for thickener, plus a little lemon and vanilla–and then the addition of almond flour and cardamon in the topping–make a simple crisp really almost elegant. Thank you so much for this!
Love that so much. I have been making this for years but never added Chia seeds!
I wish you would do a cook book…
★★★★★
I have made this many times. It is really delicious. Tonight dessert for your baked lamb recipe.
★★★★★
Yay Jenny, Im so glad you like this one! Thanks for the comment and rating! Appreciate it!
Just made it this since my sister went strawberry picking this weekend and dropped off more strawberries than I knew what to do with. This marked the first time I did anything ever with rhubarb as well.
Turned out fantastic!!! I was surprised by the slight tartness at first, but the sweetness of the strawberries and maple syrup balanced the dish perfectly. It’s delicious. It was easy to do and beautifully seasonal (always a plus!).
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed it Karla!
In the crumble list of ingredients it says:
“⅓ melted coconut oil – or olive oil or butter or ghee!”
I’m assuming that’s 1/3 *cup*?
Yes! Thanks Janice for catching that, I fixed it. 🙂
Delicious. So easy and so yummy. I used golden syrup as I ran out of maple syrup and it tasted delicious. My whole family loved it. Definitely on my list for making again. Thanks
Im so glad you liked it- we liked it too, but always nice to have a second opinion!!! Thanks jenny!
Thank you for the reminder that it is rhubarb season! Oh how I love the tart flavor of rhubarb. This recipe looks SO good.