Rhubarb oatmeal: a recipe

Too much shadow, but you get the idea

You are probably going to stop taking me seriously as a ninja when I admit this: I have never tried rhubarb before this weekend.

Seriously? Seriously.

I have mentioned before that I did not grow up in a very food-adventurous family so you can well imagine that rhubarb wouldn't have crossed our threshold very often. Hell, ever, as far as I remember.

And, for some reason, no one I have known has ever made a killah strawberry-rhubarb pie that gets forced on you ever year or anything like that.

So, like the fiddleheads, I decided to give rhubarb a try.

I had no idea what I had been missing.

I sampled a raw piece before using it in the recipe: big mistake. Too tart to tolerate.

But cook it down or stew it up for a few minutes? Sweet and tart!

You will likely wind up seeing some more rhubarb recipes over the next few weeks, trust me. But this one is a great place to start because it will help you jazz up your breakfast a little and is not time-consuming.

Share some more rhubarb recipes with me if you have them! Comments are always welcome.

Rhubarb Oatmeal (recipe from Eating Well magazine)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups nonfat milk or soymilk
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup 1/2-inch pieces rhubarb, fresh or frozen
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar or maple syrup

Directions
Combine all ingredients EXCEPT the sweetener in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, cover and cook at a very gentle bubble, stirring frequently, until the oats and rhubarb are tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in sweetener.