Follow our step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe for making this delicious Rhubarb Pie. No Strawberries are included, and we use a Crumble Topping as opposed to a regular top crust. We’ll also share our review of the OXO Greensaver produce keepers, and the story behind making our pie. A printable recipe is also included.
Rhubarb Pie with Crumble Topping Recipe
I’m going to make this introduction short. It’s not my general style, but I’ll explain more as we go along with today’s recipe.
With much thanks and gratitude to OXO and their line of kitchen products, and to Melissa’s Produce who sells fresh produce over the Internet, I also sincerely apologize.
Several weeks ago, OXO contacted me about participating in another product review for their new line of OXO Greensaver products. They have several new cooking tools that will help keep produce fresh much longer in your refrigerator.
I jumped at the chance.
I wrote back and told OXO that I was one of the world’s worse for wasting fresh fruits and vegetables. I buy them with the best of intentions, with hopes of producing a new recipe for Taste of Southern, or for preparing something healthy for myself here at home.
With the best of intentions, I buy it, bring it home, then get busy and fail to use it. It happens more often than I will admit, or care to admit. It’s just me.
So, when they said they wanted me to test and write about the new line of Greensaver products, I said “Please count me in.”
Happily they agreed, and gave me my choice of which size container I wanted to try. Naturally, I selected the largest one they had. It’s a man thing. They also would be sending me my choice of fruit or vegetables to try in the Greensaver, and to write a review and recipe about.
For reasons I’m not really sure about I selected “rhubarb.” I’d never worked with it. So, with Strawberry season in full bloom here in the heart of North Carolina, I figured I’d pursue a Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie.
Having said that, here’s what happened along the way, and here’s the actual recipe I ended up using.
I’m going to share with you how NOT to use the OXO Greensaver, and openly and honestly share what I experienced in trying to test and review this product. OXO may never call on me again, and I couldn’t blame them.
This review and recipe is a bit long, but should be a good adventure if you’d like to follow along. The full step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe is further down. But we must start at the beginning. Are you ready?
Let’s get cooking!!!
Rhubarb Pie: You’ll need these ingredients for the filling, plus about 2lbs of rhubarb, not just two pieces. You’ll also need to make your own pie crust, or use one of the ready made crusts. If you decide to add the Crumble Topping, we’ll share those ingredients with you further down the page.
OXO Greensaver: Prolongs the life of produce.
This is the OXO Greensaver Activated Carbon System. It’s about the size of a shoe box, and this was the way it came straight out of the box.
The Greensaver consists of three basic parts.
You get the main box, pictured below the lid above. The lid, which has the vent with the replaceable charcoal packet underneath. The vent itself is adjustable to control air flow, and the filter will last about 90 days before it should be replaced according to OXO.
The inner “basket” keeps produce up off the bottom of the box, and helps to promote better airflow around whatever vegetables you are storing in the Greensaver. The basket could also be used as a strainer to rinse fruits and vegetables as needed. Cool huh?
Greensavers come in several different sizes. This is the largest, rated at 5 quarts.
Fresh rhubarb delivered overnight from Melissa’s Produce.
The timing of the shipment of rhubarb was scheduled to be delivered a couple of days after I had received the OXO Greensaver.
OXO wanted to be sure I had the Greensaver already on hand, so I could immediately put it to use once the rhubarb arrived.
Can’t hold it against them for not knowing much about me. Everything was shipped in good faith, and arrived on time, just as they had told me it would.
The real problem was ME.
I had left a note for FedEx to just leave the package at my door, knowing I would be gone most of the day. Normally, I get packages delivered to my home late in the afternoon.
I’m not sure what time the rhubarb actually arrived, but it didn’t matter, I wasn’t home.
It was almost 10:00pm before I arrived, so the box could have possibly sat outside for most of the day and the evening hours. As you can see, it is marked PERISHABLE.
Upon arriving home, I knew I didn’t want to get involved with taking pictures and placing the rhubarb in the Greensaver that Friday night. So, I just placed the whole box, unopened, in my refrigerator for safe keeping overnight. Well, so I thought.
Friday night turned to Saturday, and I thought I would just go ahead and wait until Sunday afternoon to work on setting up for pictures, taking the same, and getting started on my “test” of the Greensaver. I figured the rhubarb was still good, and would be holding up well for a few more hours, so no need to hurry. Well, so I thought.
My box of rhubarb didn’t get opened until ONE WEEK LATER.
As it would turn out, I ended up having to make a trip out of town on Sunday. I may have forgot about that on Saturday morning while I was at home sitting in front of the computer trying to get caught up on some work.
Also, as it would turn out, that Sunday trip, was just the beginning of my trips for the whole week ahead.
If you subscribe to my Newsletter, you should already know that I help my older brother with deliveries of his Carolina Pig Cookers grills. We were leading up to Memorial Day weekend, and wanted to get as many of the cooker orders delivered before the weekend as we possibly could.
Long story short, I put in 2,550 miles starting with the trip on Sunday (which we don’t normally do) plus a couple of trips up near Richmond, Virginia, a trip down near Atlanta, Georgia, and a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. I traveled enough in this one week, between Sunday and Thursday, to have gone from Raleigh, North Carolina to Hollywood, California.
Each night I came home, I saw the box of rhubarb, still unopened, sitting in my refrigerator.
It was finally the following Saturday morning, before I opened up the box and saw the contents as pictured above.
Note To Self: Rhubarb does not store well at all inside of a cardboard box.
I was really disappointed in myself. Here I was, 8 days later, looking at a box of bad rhubarb. It was totally MY fault, and had nothing to do with the shipment from Melissa’s Produce. I hope you understand that. I had just been too busy, to do anything with it.
So now what?
I didn’t have any rhubarb worth placing inside the OXO Greensaver. I had made the commitment to participate, and here I had already let the shipment of fresh rhubarb go bad.
See why I told OXO that I would be an excellent choice for this test?
This is what FRESH rhubarb is suppose to look like.
I had to go to three different grocery stores, trying to find some large rhubarb like what I had received from Melissa’s Produce.
Most of what little rhubarb I’d seen in the past was very slender stalks, about the size of celery. I did find that at one store, one store didn’t have any at all, and finally, I found some wide pieces just like had been in the box. I was a happy man once again.
I purchased two pounds of fresh rhubarb, at a cost of about 3.99 per pound. Yikes. I had let about 10.00 worth of rhubarb go bad in my refrigerator this past week. Still, I was happy to find something suitable, and made the purchase.
I brought the rhubarb straight home, and placed it inside the OXO Greensaver box. I couldn’t let it happen again. Or could I?
OXO Greensaver with rhubarb, in the fridge. I think I’m doing something wrong.
It was once again my “best intentions” to take the rhubarb out on Sunday and take some pictures of placing it in the OXO Greensaver box.
It just never happened.
The photo above, is one week later, when I finally got around to snapping the photo. This was on Sunday, and I had made up the pie crust dough the day before.
But wait… what about all that moisture in the box? Isn’t the Greensaver suppose to prevent that?
Too much moisture. I made a mistake.
This really isn’t what I expected to see when I opened up the Greensaver. I’d already seen the accumulation of water droplets on the inside of the box, and the rhubarb just glistened with droplets when I took the lid of the box.
This had been in my refrigerator for 7 full days. As you can see the ends with the leaves have turned to mush.
Thankfully, most of the pieces of rhubarb were still good, and I only threw one piece out because it had split open and turned dark brown.
The top of the OXO Greensaver has a vent, with the charcoal filter beneath it. Had I read up on the box more, I would have known that I could adjust the vent to help control the amount of moisture. And wouldn’t you just know it – OXO placed a chart on the bottom of the vent that actually shows you whether to keep the vent opened or closed for popular fruits and vegetables.
Who knew?
Obviously, I must have misplaced the instruction sheet that I’m practically positive must have been included with the OXO Greensaver system.
I have since discovered that OXO does indeed print a colorful little chart on the bottom side of the vent. Since I didn’t know how to remove this, and was afraid of breaking it, I held my breath as I pried the vent from the top of the box. It snaps right off very easily, and you can see the small, but colorful, chart that shows you what vegetables need air and which ones do not.
I wonder why they didn’t print this on the TOP of the lid. Hmmm.
REVELATIONS UPON REVELATIONS: And probably my biggest embarrassment of all… OXO placed the carbon filter INSIDE a protective plastic wrapper for shipping. I had left that on the entire time, so the filter didn’t do me one bit of good.
I really think they should have a sticker on the top of the box to tell you this stuff. Are you listening to me OXO?
Surely, the women of the world will just say it’s a MAN thing. We never read instructions. You might be right. (Smile)
I really bet this is a great little storage box for my fruits and vegetables, but I felt it was my duty to make all these mistakes so you wouldn’t have to. It’s just me. You can thank me later, after you order your own OXO Greensaver and get to use it the proper way it was intended. I will do that myself very soon, now that I know how to use it
Once again, I must offer up my sincere apologies to OXO and to Melissa’s Produce. They did their part.
Looking back on this, I can see the GREAT BENEFIT in having made all these mistakes. Anyone else would write about all the great wonders of using the OXO Greensaver, but I felt it my duty to show you how NOT to use it. It’s just me, and you can thank me later.
I’m also sure that “when used properly,” the OXO Greensaver will prove itself to be a worthwhile addition to any kitchen.
Did you know, that almost 25 percent of all the fresh fruits and vegetables that are purchased, end up in the garbage? Sadly, I must admit that I’m one of those that seem to be constantly throwing away food that should have been used before it went bad. I’ll try to do better from here on out.
Ordering produce online is a pretty neat concept I think. We don’t have local produce available year round, and often the stores don’t carry it either. Be sure to check out Melissa’s if you can’t find what you’re looking for.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. On with the actual recipe.
The leaves on the stalks of rhubarb are toxic. You can’t eat them.
That’s probably why you will not see them on the rhubarb you purchase in the grocery store, or order online from Melissa’s Produce. They already cut it off before it hits the grocery store shelf.
Still, you’ll want to trim off the small amount of leaves remaining, about an inch or so down the stalk. Trim off the other end while you’re at it, and toss them both away or in your compost pile.
Next, slice the pieces of rhubarb into about 1/2 inch thick pieces.
You’ll need about 4 cups of sliced rhubarb. I had just enough.
Place the slices in a large mixing bowl and add the Sugar.
Add the Flour. I used All Purpose.
Add the Vanilla Extract.
Add the Salt.
Stir it all up to coat each piece of the rhubarb. Set it aside for now.
We’ll be adding the butter that the filling calls for later on below, right before we pour the filling into the pie crust.
Rhubarb Pie – Crumble Topping: You’ll need these ingredients.
You could certainly just add another top crust to your pie, or even make it without anything on top at all. It’s just that this crumble topping really makes it taste a whole lot better in my opinion. Choice is totally up to you. Let me know what you decide in the Comments section at the end of the recipe. I’d love to know.
Grab another mixing bowl and place the Flour inside. Again, I’m using All-Purpose Flour.
Add the Light Brown Sugar. Lightly pack the sugar into your measuring cup.
Add the Old Fashioned Oats.
Add the Nutmeg.
Add the Cinnamon.
Add the Salt.
Stir all the dry ingredients up really good.
Cut the Butter into small pieces and add it to the dry mixture.
Use a pastry cutter, or a couple of knives, and cut the butter into the dry mix. You’ll need to work the butter in until it’s about pea sized. Just like making a pie crust. Set this aside.
Prepare your pie crust.
I’m adding this photo just so you’ll know that I make my own crusts. It’s really easy, and you can see how I make them by visiting this link: How To Make A Basic Pie Crust
Mama always pressed a fork into the edges of the pie crust for a little added decoration.
Mix together one teaspoon of Sugar and one teaspoon of flour. Sprinkle this over the bottom of your pie shell. It will help absorb some of the liquid from the filling mix and give you a firmer bottom crust. Oh my, the things you are learning today. (Smile)
Melt the amount of butter called for in the recipe for the filling, then pour it over the rhubarb mixture.
Gently stir it all together.
You’ll probably have a fairly good amount of liquid in the bottom of the bowl.
I used a large slotted spoon to scoop the rhubarb from the mixing bowl into the pie crust shell.
You really don’t want to add a bunch of liquid into the crust. We’ll save what liquid is left for use in a minute.
Spread the rhubarb out evenly in the crust.
Sprinkle the Crumble Topping all over the top.
Place the pie on a baking sheet. It’s apt to start bubbling over once it gets to baking, and you don’t want it to make a big old mess in your oven.
I bake mine on the middle rack position. Your oven should be preheated to 425F degrees.
Oh yeah, any leftover liquid from your rhubarb filling can be drizzled over the top. I had about 1/4 cup left so I just spread it over the top of the Crumble mixture.
Part One: Place the pie in your preheated 425F degree oven.
Let the pie bake at this temperature for 20 minutes. We’ll reduce the heat after that amount of time.
Part Two: REDUCE the heat down to 350F degrees.
Turn the pie a bit inside the oven. At this point, you may want to place some 2 inch wide strips of aluminum foil around the edges of the crust to prevent it from browning to quickly.
I got smart last year and purchased one of the metal rings to go around the pies, so I used that.
You’ll need to let it bake for about 25-35 more minutes until the top is lightly browned and the rhubarb is tender. If you’re afraid the rhubarb isn’t done, but the center is getting too brown, cover it lightly with a sheet of aluminum foil to prevent it from burning.
Remove the pie when it’s done and place it on a wire rack to cool.
It’s really best if you can let it sit for at least an hour before serving, or even make it a day ahead of time if possible.
The pie is probably best when served warm and topped with either Ice Cream or a Whipped Topping.
I think you’ll love the sweet-tart combination of the pie, and the really nice Crumble Topping. I hope you’ll try it soon.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: While OXO provided me with a free Greensaver for this review, and worked with Melissa’s Produce to provide the free rhubarb, they did not pay me anything for this post. All the comments and opinions are totally my own.
