Healthy Rhubarb Crisp 9 x 13 | Easy Recipe

This healthy rhubarb crisp is a delicious easy dessert. It has the perfect balance of tart filling and sweet crunchy topping. You'd never know it, but there's a secret ingredient that helps offset the tangy rhubarb in the fruit filling - diced apple!

Where I live in North America, rhubarb is a very common garden vegetable. My grandma has the most giant rhubarb plant in her garden!

Wait a minute, you read that right- it's a vegetable! I didn't know until now either, but it makes sense once you think about it. It doesn't have any seeds inside and it basically has the texture of celery.

But really, as far as I've seen, it is treated only as a fruit. It's a favorite in pies, jams and of course, crisps. I know of a lot of rhubarb desserts, but no rhubarb dinner recipe, so in my mind, I think it'll always be a fruit.

My sister-in-law actually tosses chunks of rhubarb in sugar and dehydrates them. It's pretty much candy.

Anyways, we have rhubarb in our garden and so do many family members. It's very easy to grow and requires almost no maintenance. By the end of summer, there's always rhubarb to eat!

This large 9x13 rhubarb crisp recipe is a great way to use up some fresh rhubarb. But if you don't need to make one that large, you can half the recipe and use an 8x8 baking dish instead.

This is a favorite dessert because it's easy, quick, delicious and healthy, as far as desserts go.

A strawberry rhubarb crisp is a classic, so this rhubarb crisp without strawberries is something a little different, a little unexpected!

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream for an amazing treat.

Healthy Rhubarb Crisp Ingredients

This easy rhubarb crisp is made with wholesome real food ingredients and no white sugar. It has also much less sugar than most dessert recipes. The great thing about healthy desserts is that you can enjoy them guilt-free.

Rhubarb - High in fibre and a good source of Vitamin K and antioxidants and a decent source of calcium. Because of the high fibre content, rhubarb may help lower cholesterol.

Apples - Like rhubarb, apples are high in antioxidants and fibre. They also have a good amount of Vitamin C and potassium. Adding apples to the fruit mixture sweetens up the naturally tart rhubarb without any added sugar!

Sprouted wheat flour - Wheat naturally contains phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that prevents the body from absorbing the many nutrients in the grain. To make these nutrients available, wheat must first be soaked, sprouted or fermented. Wheat is high in protein, fibre, copper, manganese, phosphorous and folate.

Learning to sprout wheat is actually quite easy to do! You can also substitute whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour if you don't have sprouted wheat.

Sprouted rolled oats - Oats are packed with nutrients. They are high in protein, fibre and many vitamins and minerals.

Like wheat, oats contain phytic acid. Sprouting the grain reduces or neutralizes the phytic acid, which makes the nutrients more available to your body. It's best to buy sprouted and glyphosate free oats, so get them if you can! However, regular rolled oats will work fine and still provide some nutritional value.

Butter - Grass-fed butter is an excellent source of vitamins, antioxidants, and a variety of fatty acids. You can substitute coconut oil if you are dairy-free.

Coconut sugar - This is one of my favorite sweeteners because it's completely natural and contains a small amount of minerals. It also tastes almost exactly like brown sugar, so is perfect in a fruit crisp like this. I always use the smallest amount of sugar possible to still create a tasty treat.

Why This Recipe Works

The addition of some apples helps to balance the tartness of the rhubarb, without adding a lot of extra sugar. However, it's not so much apple that it tastes like an apple rhubarb crisp!

How Do You Cut Rhubarb for Crisps

Cutting the rhubarb into ½ inch pieces will allow for good texture once the crisp is baked. If the pieces are a lot smaller, they'll turn mushy and if they're larger they'll just be too big.

Healthy Rhubarb Crisp Variations

Dairy-free - Substitute coconut oil or a dairy-free butter substitute for the butter. Coconut oil is the healthier option, but either would work. Dairy-free butter spreads, like earth balance spread, are usually made with refined vegetable and seed oils, which wreak all sorts of havoc on the body.

Gluten-free - Oats are naturally gluten-free, just ensure yours are processed in a gluten-free facility if you have celiac disease. You can use a gluten-free flour or buckwheat flour in place of the flour in the recipe. You can also substitute cornstarch for the small amount of flour in the rhubarb filling.

Half recipe - Use an 8x8 baking dish and half all the ingredients. Baking time will be the same.

Frozen rhubarb - If you don't have fresh rhubarb you can use frozen. Don't let it thaw at room temperature, just mix it right in as you would fresh.

Tools You May Need

9x13 baking dish

Medium bowl

Food processor (optional)

How to Make Healthy Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients:

Filling

• 14-15 stalks of rhubarb, about 2 pounds
• 2 apples
• 2 tablespoon flour

Crisp Topping

• 1 cup sprouted wheat flour (or whole wheat or all-purpose)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sprouted rolled oats
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1½ cups cold salted butter
• ¾ coconut sugar

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Cut the rhubarb into ½ inch pieces. Two pounds should yield about 6 cups of rhubarb. Peel, core and dice the apples into ½ inch pieces as well. Mix together the fruit and flour right in the baking dish. (You could mix them in a large bowl first, but that's an unnecessary dirty dish!)

Combine sugar, flour, oats and salt in a mixing bowl.

Cut butter into cubes and add to mixing bowl. Use a rigid pastry blender to combine the butter with the dry ingredients, until it's combined and the mixture is crumbly.

If you have a large food processor (7+ cup capacity), you can also combine all the topping ingredients by pulsing in there.

Spread the topping evenly over the fruit in the dish.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the crisp topping is golden brown.

Cool for a few minutes before serving.

How to Serve Healthy Rhubarb Crisp

Everyone knows that the best way to serve any kind of hot fruit crisp is with a cool creamy treat! A scoop of ice cream or whipping cream is great, or coconut whipped cream or dairy-free ice cream alternative if you can't eat dairy.

How to Store Healthy Rhubarb Crisp

Store leftover rhubarb crisp in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Did you try this recipe? If so, I would really appreciate a 5-star rating and your comments below! Thanks!

More Healthy Desserts

• FUDGY DAIRY-FREE BROWNIES
• LEMON POPSICLES
• VANILLA CUPCAKES
• CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER EGGS
• CREAMY LEMON BARS
• CRANBERRY CAKE