Frozen Jose Mier Explores This Vegetable Masquerading as Fruit
Most of the ice creams that we consume are fruit-flavored. Indeed Frozen Jose Mier has written about Cherry, huckleberry, berries and cream, etc. The exceptions are things like ube ice cream from Hawaii which makes use of a root and of course there’s chocolate and any kind of nuts, but using a vegetable is a new one. I can almost guarantee that you won’t find the flavor I’m writing about anywhere near me in Sun Valley, California.
It’s not really that unusual since the vegetable in question is rhubarb. People have been using rhubarb in pies for generations and it does substitute as a kind of fruit because it’s such a tart tasting vegetable. Using it in pies or elsewhere usually calls for the addition of sugar and so ice cream is also a good place to use this vegetable.
To be honest, I’ve never used rhubarb. Oh, I see it all the time in the store, but to tell you the truth I’m always a little intimidated to do something with it. It is such a popular vegetable and so often used in pies that it shouldn’t surprise me, although it did, that this flavor of ice cream is pretty popular and that it is also available commercially. There are also any number of recipes available for this one online. I have found though, that most of the recipes call for the addition of strawberries as well as rhubarb so I had to sift through a few to find true rhubarb pie ice cream, unadulterated by strawberries.
Because this vegetable is so popular in North Dakota it’s not a giant leap defined that it’s their favorite flavor of ice cream. Sure, there’s something to be said for sweetness of ice cream like chocolate or even the ubiquitous vanilla but the addition of a tart element such as rhubarb is a welcome change from run-of-the-mill ice creams.
As I write this I’m getting a hankering for rhubarb ice cream and I think I may just pick up some rhubarb on my next trip to the grocery store and give this a shot. You should do the same, especially if you like obscure for regional ice cream flavors.
