A rustic Rhubarb Tart with lemon, cardamom and vanilla tucked into a flakey free-form buckwheat crust.  Simple, elegant, and delicious!  

A rustic Rhubarb Tart with lemon, cardamom and vanilla tucked into a flakey free-form buckwheat crust.  Simple, elegant, and delicious!  

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. ~Alan W. Watts

This recipe for Rhubarb Tart is simple and it celebrates vibrant complementary flavors. We combine the tangy rhubarb with lemon, cardamom and vanilla.  These flavors are so harmonious!  We add a little buckwheat flour to the crust to give it an earthy depth.  This is optional of course.  You can also use rye, whole wheat, or just stick to all-purpose flour.

Spring has fully arrived once Rhubarb hits the markets!  There is something special about having things, like fresh rhubarb, available only for a short period of time.  It grounds us in the moment and activates our senses more deeply.  It can create ritual and a deeper connection to daily experiences, thusly nourishing our whole person!  This, to me, is a kind of seasonal magic that makes life more joyful.

Rhubarb is classified as a vegetable that is packed with nutrients: vitamins A (especially the red variety), B, K, and C, fiber.  The tangy flavor comes from tannins in the plant that are said to improve digestion and gut health, among many other touted benefits!  So eat your rhubarb tart with complete pleasure!  This will truly nourish you on so many levels.

A rustic Rhubarb Tart with lemon, cardamom and vanilla tucked into a flakey free-form buckwheat crust.  Simple, elegant, and delicious!

Ingredients in Rhubarb Tart

  • flour– all-purpose and buckwheat (or sub rye or whole wheat or just all-purpose)
  • sugar
  • unsalted butter (or vegan butter) 
  • rhubarb
  • cornstarch
  • lemon juice and zest
  • cardamom
  • vanilla

 

How to make Rhubarb Tart

measuring ingredients for crust

STEP ONE

Tart Crust: Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.  Cut in butter with a pastry cutter (or knives or hands that are not too warm).  When butter is around the size of a pea, add in water a few tablespoons at a time until the dough just begins to come together.  Chill dough at least 30 minutes.

EXPERT TIPS for a Crisp Bottom Crust

  1. Place a metal sheet pan in the oven while the oven preheats.
  2. Chill the entire tart after assembling and before baking.  This is important to help prevent the butter from leaking out of the crust.
  3. Bake the tart on the bottom rack of the oven.

STEP TWO

Make the Rhubarb filling:  Toss together cut rhubarb, sugar, salt, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, cardamom, and vanilla.

STEP THREE

Assemble: Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/8 ” thick.  Use just enough flour to keep it from sticking to the surface and the rolling pin.  Trim the edges if needed.  Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper.  Place on a sheet pan without a rimmed edge or you can turn the sheet pan upside down and place the dough and parchment on the underside.  (You will be transferring the assembled tart to the preheated pan, having no sides helps transfer the tart way more easily.)

STEP FOUR

Leaving roughly a 1 1/2″ border around the dough, arrange the coated pieces of rhubarb in rows, keeping them in one layer will ensure it cooks evenly.  Angle the rhubarb in opposite directions in each row if you want to create a kind of chevron pattern.

Fold the dough in over the edges of the rhubarb so you have roughly a one to two-inch border, letting the corners double up as you fold.  You may need to trim some of the rhubarb edges in order to shape the corners.

Scrape out the liquid remaining in the rhubarb bowl and pour it evenly over the tart.

Brush the edges with egg wash (optional) and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

STEP FIVE

Place the pan with the tart, in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 10 minutes.

STEP SIX

Carefully remove the hot sheet pan from the oven.  Grab the parchment edges and transfer the tart to the heated sheet pan.  Bake on the bottom rack of the oven. Turn the oven down to 375.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling in the center.

NOTE: It may look really juicy but it will firm up just enough creating a luscious moist filling.  Let sit for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

A rustic Rhubarb Tart with lemon, cardamom and vanilla tucked into a flakey free-form buckwheat crust.  Simple, elegant, and delicious!

Can this be made Vegan?

Yes, you could make it with a vegan crust, using vegan butter.

More recipes you may enjoy

A rustic Rhubarb Tart with lemon, cardamom and vanilla tucked into a flakey free-form buckwheat crust.  Simple, elegant, and delicious!

We hope you make this Rhubarb Tart, share it with friends, and revel in the rebirth and glorious beauty of Spring!

~Tonia

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon

Rhubarb Tart

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: Tonia | Feasting at Home
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
  • Yield: 8 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Description

A rustic Rhubarb Tart with lemon, cardamom and vanilla tucked into with a free form flakey buckwheat crust.  Simple, elegant and delicious!


Ingredients

Units Scale

Crust

  • 1 1/2 cups, 200 grams, AP flour
  • 1/3 cup, 50 grams, buckwheat, rye or whole wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 8 ounces, 110 grams, cold unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into approximately 1/2 inch pieces
  • 78 tablespoons cold water

Filling

  • 1 pound rhubarb cut into 1 1/2 inch diagonals
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • coarse sugar to sprinkle on the edges

Instructions

  1. Tart Crust: Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.   Cut in butter with a pastry cutter (or knives or hands that are not too warm!).  When butter is around the size of a pea, add in water a few tablespoons at a time until the dough just begins to come together.  Chill dough for 1/2 hour.
  2. Place a metal sheet pan in the oven and preheat the oven to 400.
  3. Rhubarb filling: In a bowl toss together cut rhubarb, sugar, salt, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, cardamom, and vanilla.
  4. Assemble: Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/8 ” thick.  Use just enough flour to keep from sticking to the surface and the rolling pin.  Trim the edges if needed.  Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper.  Place on a sheet pan without a rimmed edge or you can turn the sheet pan upside down and place the dough and parchment on the underside.  (You will be transferring the assembled tart to the preheated pan, having no sides helps transfer the tart way more easily.)
  5. Leave a 1 1/2″ border around the dough, and arrange the coated pieces of rhubarb in rows, keeping them in one layer will ensure it cooks evenly.  Angle the rhubarb in opposite directions in each row if you want to create a kind of chevron pattern.  Start arranging in the center, working out to the edges.
  6. Fold the dough in over the edges of the rhubarb so you have roughly a one-inch border, letting the corners double up as you fold.  Brush the edges with egg wash (optional) and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Scrape out the liquid remaining in the rhubarb bowl and pour it evenly over the tart.
  7. Place the pan with the tart, in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 10 minutes.
  8. Carefully remove the hot sheet pan from the oven.  Grab the parchment edges and transfer the tart to the heated sheet pan.  Bake on the bottom rack of the oven. Turn the oven down to 375.
  9. Bake for 40-50 minutes.  Until crust is brown and filling is bubbling in the center.  It may look really juicy but it will firm up just enough.  Let sit for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Notes

Rhubarb Tart is best enjoyed on the day of preparing.  It holds up well to make a few hours ahead of serving.

EXPERT TIPS for a Crisp Bottom Crust:  1)Place a metal sheet pan in the oven while the oven preheats. 2) Chill the entire tart after assembling and before baking.  This is important to help prevent the butter from leaking out of the crust.  3)Bake the tart on the bottom rack of the oven.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size:
  • Calories: 402
  • Sugar: 21.2 g
  • Sodium: 297.6 mg
  • Fat: 23.4 g
  • Saturated Fat: 14.4 g
  • Carbohydrates: 45.8 g
  • Fiber: 2.3 g
  • Protein: 3.9 g
  • Cholesterol: 60.7 mg

Share this with the world!

Subscribe
to get recipes via email

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

Comments

  1. This turned out soooo delicious and beautiful. Amazing how crispy the pastry was. As you mentioned, best to eat the day it is made as in the morning, it was less crispy. Why not indulge when it is at it’s best anyway. I love the cardoman and vanilla flavors with the lemon ribbons. Great new rhubarb recipe!

  2. I think it’d be really great if
    1) you could mention “pour remaining liquid from rhubarb mixture onto tart” in the recipe as well. I only noticed it in the article part of the recipe briefly after I’ve started baking.
    2) you could mention that when assembling rhubarb pieces onto the rolled out dough it’d be smart to start from the center of the dough-middle rows in general-then going to the sides. That way regardless of how many pieces people have we’d end up with a more or less centered rectangle of rhubarb pieces. That’s what I basically had to do after realizing that I didn’t have enough pieces for the dimension of rectangle that I was going for more than halfway through the process and it was a bit annoying. The 1 1/2in edges note is great but really an estimation because both the size of dough and the number of rhubarb pieces we have could vary.






  3. I’ve been looking for ways to use up my rhubarb and this was absolute perfection.

    I decreased sugar to 1/2 cup and replaced cornstarch with 2 tbsp flour. One thing I might change next time is to add a bit less cardamom, I didn’t realize what a strong flavour it is! Anyway, this was truly awesome. Thank you!






    1. I think you could use tapioca flour, though I have not tried it on this recipe. You will want to double the amount. For example 1 teaspoon of cornstarch = 2 teaspoons of tapioca flour.

  4. Gorgeous, stunning, exquisite! I made this as written for company brunch, and it was divine. The Rhubarb really stands out in its beautiful form, not mushy or washed out in color as so many treatments are. It is a perfect balance of tart and sweet. This is the best Rhubarb recipe I have ever made… And I LOVE rhubarb.






    1. Yay, Carol I am thrilled you enjoyed this! I totally agree, it is nice to just let the rhubarb shine!

  5. I’m always looking for great ways to use rhubarb (because I love it so much) and this recipe speaks to me! Thank you Tonia for your creativeness! I’ll be making it soon!






Categories

Our Latest Recipes