I suspect that toilet paper is not the only thing people are hoarding during the pandemic. Anyone else notice the glut of banana bread recipes floating around the web these days? It seems we have an excess of rotting bananas on our counters.

But, I’m here to change all that. Move over banana bread. There’s a new loaf in town. It’s rhubarb season and I couldn’t be more excited. We live in an age of instant gratification, where we can get practically anything we want, at any time. But not rhubarb! We must patiently wait for rhubarb season. But it’s so worth it. I adore that tart, sour flavour.

It’s rare to find rhubarb at the market with the leaves still attached. Most stores cut the leaves off before selling them because they’re poisonous. So when I find some with the leaves, I really geek out. Local rhubarb is just starting to arrive in Ottawa. This bunch is forced, which results in rosier coloured stalks.

I have made many loaves over the past few weeks, turning my husband, a former rhubarb hater, into a lover. My first version featured pecans. I switched to pistachios when I ran out of pecans, and I was thrilled with the results, both in taste and in looks.

This loaf comes together very quickly. Only one bowl and no mixer required. Check out the video.

The glaze is made with icing sugar, lemon juice and about a half an ounce of freeze-dried strawberries, which I ground into a powder. One ounce of freeze dried strawberries contains almost a pound of fresh strawberries, so this glaze really packs a punch of flavour.
Freeze dried fruit is not the same as dried fruit. Dried fruit is dehydrated and only about 75% of the water is removed. With freeze-drying, the fruit is placed into a vacuum chamber where the temperature is well-below freezing and 99% of the moisture can be removed from the fruit.

After glazing, I decorated the top of the top of the loaf with more pistachios and some freeze dried strawberry dust.

This is sure to become a new favourite in your house. This is a super moist loaf. I love it because it’s not too sweet. The tangy rhubarb flavour really shines through.