Vegan "full of good stuff and tastes amazing" Rhubarb Fool

I reckon rhubarb looks like the flamboyant city dwelling cousin of the humble celery, but that is where the similarity ends. To me celery is like stringy water, difficult to grow and only fit for stocks and such like, but rhubarb is a whole different kettle of fish.  It is like a loyal friend, hanging around to supply you with a bounty of tart stalks for longer than most pets live. It’s pink and pretty, keeps you regular and is also fairly poisonous if you eat the wrong bit. That’s the leaves. So don’t eat that bit.  

When I saw some at the markets on Sunday it called my name and made my mouth pucker a little at the thought of its tarty pink goodness. So it went in the trolley and my imagination ran a little riot thinking about what I could make with this vegetable which thinks it’s a dandy fruit.

Im a wee bit on the vegan tilt at the moment so I thought I could make a dairy free rhubarb fool. If you don’t know what a fool is (aside from the obvious) it’s a British dessert steeped in history, having been made from around the 15^th century.  Composed of stewed fruit stirred through custard or whipped cream it is super-duper easy to make, nice on a hot evening and tastes and looks delicious.

This particular one ditches the cream and uses pinenuts and macadamias to form the cream bit. These two nuts (pinenuts aren’t really despite the name) are packed full of nutrients, in fact I could completely justify the price of these two ingredients when I read about all their nutritional goodness!  They both contribute a fair whack of protein, zinc, iron and omega 3, 6 and 9. 

Pine nuts also contain a fatty acid called pinoleic acid which is thought to suppress appetite, pretty awes after the Christmas facefeeding.  Macadamia nuts are packed full of the good oils and also contain one pretty nifty one called palmitoleic acid which seems to have an affinity for moisturising the skin and mucous membranes (it’s also supposed to be responsible for old people smell, but that’s a different story)  

Anyhoo, it tasted amazing and even my lovely, bearded man ate it without one iota of constructive criticism!

So what does it have in it?

Stewed Fruit

• About 6-7 decent sized rhubarb stalks
• 10-15 strawberries
• 1-2 tablespoons of sweetener- I used coconut nectar but you could use sugar, palm sugar, agave, maple, and orange juice, whatever tickles your fancy!
• Few slices of lemon or orange ( this is totally optional)

Cream part

• ½ cup of macadamia nuts
• ½ cup of pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla paste
• 3 tablespoons of preferred sweetener as above
• 120 ml of water (or you could use coconut water!)

How do you do it?

The fruit

Cut the rhubarb into chunks (my friend insisted on peeling off the stringy bits but I’m not so sure it is necessary) and add to a pot with the strawberries, the sweetener a little bit of water and the lemon or orange if you want it. Cook for 10-15 minutes until it’s all softened and yum.

Take a few spoonful’s of the chunky bits if you want it to have a bit more texture and put the rest in the processor and blitz until blended.  Set aside and then cool in the fridge.

The cream

Put the pinenuts, the macadamias, the vanilla and the sweetener in the processor and whizz until combined. Slowly add the water and whizz it until it has a cream like consistency, about 3-5 minutes. Put in the fridge for an hour or so.

When cool, layer fruit, then cream etc. finishing with a dollop of fruit on top in a fancy glass or bowl.  Top with coconut or whatever you so wish (just not angelica, pet hate!)

This is soooo pretty, yummy, vegan and you have to make it. Go on, do it now.

Enjoy!!