Rhubarb with less, little or no sugar
By Barbara Gibbons
Rhubarb... sweet and sour, strawberry pink... what else matches that old-
fashioned, country-fresh, 4-H flavor!
For calorie -watchers, the rhubarb season can mean good news or bad. Rhubarb is 
barely 62 calories a pound, that's the good news. However, it takes so much 
sugar just to sweeten it up to a tangy sourness, that most cooked rhubarb is 
nearly 400 calories a cupful.
That is bad news! If you're a Slim Gourmet cook you won't need a whole sugar 
bowlful to de-sour rhubarb. A pinch of baking soda and some vanilla extract will 
let you do the job with a lot less of that white stuff.
Try this:
SLIM GOURMET RHUBARB
2	pounds rhubarb, cut in one-inch pieces
1	teaspoon vanilla
5	tablespoons water
5	tablespoons sugar
	pinch of bicarbonate of soda
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan; cover with a tightly-fitting lid. Simmer 
over very low flame 10 minutes or more, until just tender. If a sweeter rhubarb 
is desired, remove from heat and stir in a few drops of calorie-free sweetener. 
Serves eight, 44 calories each.
BAKED RHUBARB -- omit water. Bake, uncovered, in an ovenproof dish for 45 
minutes at 300 degrees.
SUGARLESS RHUBARB -- omit sugar. Add 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to the water. 
Simmer until tender, then remove from heat and stir in sweetener to equal five 
or six tablespoons sugar. Sixteen calories per serving.
RHUBARB PINEAPPLE COMPOTE -- omit sugar. Combine 4 cups fresh rhubarb with 2 
cups syrup-pack pineapple (crushed or tidbits.) Cover and simmer 10 minutes. 
Forty calories a serving.
RHUBARB-BANANA COMPOTE -- Prepared cooked rhubarb. Combine with sliced bananas 
(one-half cup bananas to one cup rhubarb.) Serve well-chilled in sherbet 
glasses. Fifty calories per serving. 
Conventional rhubarb pie recipes weigh in at 300 calories a slice or more. 
Here's an unusual meringue-topped version that's less than half that:
SLIM GOURMET RHUBARB MERINGUE PIE
Slim Gourmet pie crust (recipe below)
2	cups diced fresh rhubarb
5	tablespoons sugar
2	tablespoons flour
2	egg yolks
4	teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1	teaspoon vanilla
	Meringue topping (recipe below)
Line a nine-inch pie pan with pastry and add rhubarb. Combine sugar, flour, egg 
yolks, soda and vanilla and beat together. Spoon on top of rhubarb and bake in a 
preheated 400-degree oven 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Spoon on 
meringue and bake an additional 20 minutes at 300 degrees. Chill and serve. 
Serves eight, 120 calories each.
SLIM GOURMET ONE-CRUST PASTRY: a cup all-purpose flour, pinch of salt, 2 
tablespoons salad oil, 4 teaspoons cold water. Fork blend, then knead lightly 
until pastry forms a ball. Flatten and chill thoroughly. Roll out on a lightly 
floured board. Only 459 calories compared with 730 for conventional pie pastry.)
Meringue TOPPING: Combine 2 egg whites with a pinch of salt and a pinch of cream 
of tartar. Whip until stiff and glossy. Beat in 10 teaspoonfuls of confectioners 
sugar, one at a time.
Fruit is Mother Nature's natural sweet! For a fresh Clip 'n' Cook Collection, 
including low and no-sugar desserts, send $2 to SLIM GOURMET, in care of this 
newspaper, P.O. Box 1758, NY, NY 10163. Be sure to ask for Naturally Sweet Fruit 
Recipes.


Copyright 1999, United Feature Syndicate, Inc.