Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Welcome to the auto-blog post generator. Generating first paragraph...

"This dish is perfect for a light lunch with a sliced chicken breast, or even breakfast with a fried egg on top! And, if you can manage to wait to slice these until they've cooled, you can cut them with cookie cutters and decorate with royal frosting for a superbowl party! Sure to please any guest, these are also vegan (so healthy) since they are made with coconut oil and quinoa."

None of this is true of the recipe I made today.

It's messy; there's no way you could cookie-cutter it for a theme party. And although fried eggs are pretty, I think greek yogurt makes for a delicious breakfast combination.

There's no quinoa to rinse (that's seriously the biggest thing that keeps me from making quinoa...and I know they make a pre-washed version, but we have a big costco bag of the regular stuff. First world problems, for real). The only specialty ingredients are rhubarb and strawberries. And it's a strawberry-rhubarb recipe.

You can totally use this as a general crisp recipe, though, changing up the spices and fruits as you see fit. This article has a nice explanation of which fruits are high in pectin (the jelly-like stuff that makes fruit in fruit pies. cobblers, crisps, etc. thicken up). If your fruits have more pectin, you won't need as much flour or tapioca starch to thicken; if they have less, like strawberry/rhubarb, you'll need more.

Before and after!

And crisp is special...people can really only get it if someone makes it for them. It's not exactly something keebler sells on the grocery store shelf.

This crisp is:
gooey
tart
flavorful
perfect for dessert or breakfast
sweet but not too sweet
...and the crumb topping is perfectly buttery, chewy in parts where it soaked up the fruit juice and crisp on top.

In short, delicious.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
Yield: about 8 servings

Ingredients:
For the topping:

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Generous pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

For the filling:

• 5 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices fresh rhubarb (from about 2 pounds)
• 1 pint quartered/halved (depending on size) strawberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• juice from one orange
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• zest from one orange
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• scant 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Method:

1. For topping: Mix first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until moist clumps form.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine all filling ingredients in large (and I mean LARGE) bowl; stir to blend. Let stand until juices form, about 15 minutes.
3. Pour rhubarb mixture into large baking (casserole) dish; sprinkle topping evenly over mixture. 
4. Bake until topping is golden brown and crisp and filling is bubbling thickly around edges, about 45 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, greek yogurt, or simply straight up.

Recipe adapted from Epicurious (which I'm rediscovering as an excellent source!)