Strawberry Rhubarb Shrug

Like so many Canadian gardeners, I have a huge rhubarb growing in the corner of my veggie garden. For me, the decision to include it in my garden was my childhood memories of cutting off a stalk and dipping it directly into sugar before taking each bittersweet bite. I know I’m not alone and I wanted my kids to have the same memories.

This is an easy to grow plant that can be just as impressive in the flower bed, where its giant leaves offer a nearly tropical contrast to smaller flowering plants, as it is in the vegetable garden.

The only trouble with it is that it is prolific, and bitter. Prolific is only an issue if you feel the need to use as much of your garden produce as possible, bitter is an issue if you are trying to cut or eliminate sugar. I fit into both categories and I am also failing in both when it comes to my rhubarb.

My favourite way to use rhubarb is in a strawberry rhubarb crumble, but I have been coming across a lot of recipes for shrugs lately and wondered if that might be an interesting way to use up at least a few stalks of my plant.

A shrug is a combination of fruit infused syrup and vinegar, and they have become very popular of late. Once mixed, they are often mixed into soda water, or used in cocktails. Using a live vinegar gives them some health benefits but lets get real here, they are very sugary so should definitely be put into the ‘once in a while’ category if watching your sugar intake is important to you.

I figured a shrug might be a perfect way to flavour kombucha, as secondary fermentation needs a bit of sugar and the fruit flavour would flavour the kombucha. Kombucha likes acid too so the vinegar would be a benefit, not a detriment.

Making a shrug is easy. Cut up fruit is left to sit with sugar until the natural juices are drawn out and a syrup is created. That takes about a day. Then the fruit is strained out and apple cider or another vinegar (preferably unpasteurized) is added in equal volume. Mix and store in the refrigerator.

The shrug can be added to kombucha either when you are ready to drink it, or to create secondary fermentation and flavouring, or it can be mixed with a little soda water for a pretty and refreshing summer sipper. I tried to get my bartender kid to come up with a way for me to mix it into a cocktail but he had no idea what a shrug was. You can find lots of ideas online. I figure the soda shrug mix would be a natural mix for gin or vodka but I’m not a big hard liquor drinker so my motivation for finding out isn’t very high.

Strawberries and rhubarb are a classic combination and although this recipe only uses about 2 cups of chopped rhubarb, which is about one stalk, it makes me feel better to be using at least a bit of it. The first time I made it I used about 2 cups of fruit to 2 cups of sugar (I know – holy insulin spike Batman) but the second time I went with a 3 cup fruit/1 cup sugar ratio, which though more tart worked just as well I thought. I think anywhere between these two ratios would be just fine depending on how sweet or tart your personal tastebuds enjoy. I also added a few sprigs of strawberry mint, just because I had it in my patio herb pot (it’s delicious by the way).

To assemble the shrug, you literally just mix your fruit and sugar and leave in on the counter. Cover it to keep out any pesky fruit flies. In about a day’s time all of the sugar will have dissolved while drawing out the natural juices from the fruit. 

Once the fruit is strained out, you are left with a gorgeous pink syrup!

Measure out your syrup, or eyeball it, I doubt it matters much, and add an equal volume of apple cider vinegar. Store covered in the fridge and mix with soda or sparkling water.

It’s so pretty.

Rhubarb has quite a nice bit of vitamin C but lets be serious here, this is an indulgence for those moments when your sweet tooth is looking for a soda pop substitute. It’s waaay more healthy than that at least!