Vanilla roasted rhubarb and ricotta cream with Greek honey on toasted bread

Ψητό ραβέντι με βανίλια και κρέμα ρικότας με μέλι σε φρυγανισμένο ψωμί

Mar 18, 2025

∙ Paid

I didn’t grow up eating rhubarb, it’s one of those vegetables I discovered later in life, four years ago to be exact, here in the Netherlands. In Greece, rhubarb is almost impossible to find.

Now, it has become a spring tradition, to go out and get the first rhubarb of the season and make the best of it. It’s a new tradition that I cherish.

One day last week, I came home from the market with more rhubarb than I could handle but I wasn’t intimidated; I had plans. I was going to roast it, poach it, make into jam and pickle it. Yes, I had plans. Some of them came to fruition, others didn’t, but I managed to satiate my hunger for the ubiquitous vegetable and create some delicious dishes that we devoured giddily.

Three of the ways I cooked the spring rhubarb, I plan to share with you. This is the first one and it’s the simplest of the three; not that the rest are complicated, but this is perhaps the most straightforward and quick to make.

Rhubarb roasted in the oven with vanilla, a little bit of orange juice and sugar. Soft, plump and juicy, with that sweet and sour flavor that is so unique to rhubarb and that pairs well with all sorts of sweet things like ice cream, panna cotta, and even with some thick, strained yoghurt.

What I did with it, though, was use it on a dark and nutty toasted, crispy bread, and a creamy mixture of ricotta, Greek yoghurt and Greek wild thyme honey. The cream was rich and tangy with the mild sweetness of the honey, and the rhubarb on top with its pinkish-hued, vanilla-speckled juices made it so appetizing that we couldn’t stop eating it.

It’s a light dessert that screams spring and it’s even refreshing enough to be served for breakfast. Overall, the flavors are balanced and it’s not too sweet, just enough to call it dessert.