Name: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp - the perfect summer recipe!
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 8 ounces strawberries, hulled and halved ((quartered if large)); 16 ounces rhubarb, trimmed, cut into ½-inch pieces; ½ cup granulated sugar; ¼ cup all-purpose flour; ¼ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ cup rolled oats ((old-fashioned or quick, NOT steel cut)); ½ cup all-purpose flour; ½ cup brown sugar; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon ground cardamom; ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg ( (freshly ground is best)); ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt; ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened ((see note)); vanilla ice cream, optional

Recipe Overview

Why you’ll love it: Warm strawberry rhubarb crisp topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is summertime bliss. It’s an easy-to-make springtime dessert that’s loaded with flavorful seasonal fruit.

How long it takes: 55 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: sharp knife, baking dish, oven, measuring utensils, mixing bowl
Servings: 8

Close up view of strawberry rhubarb crisp and vanilla ice cream on a round plate, with a spoon.

A Springtime Treat

Just when we think winter is going to last forever, the snow melts, the ground warms up a bit, and the pink knobs of rhubarb emerge. The stalks grow so rapidly, you can almost see the change overnight. Stretching toward the sun from that pink knob, long stalks with gigantic leaves beg to be harvested.

My mom dropped off a big bag of rhubarb stalks from her garden the other day. Yaaay! I thought of making a batch of rhubarb bars, rhubarb coffee cake, or a bowl of easy-to-make rhubarb sauce, but I’ve been craving a fruit crisp lately. Sweet, juicy strawberries, another early summer crop, are a perfect match for rhubarb, so strawberry rhubarb crisp is the perfect choice.

Enjoy scrumptious strawberry rhubarb crisp while it’s still warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm, so good!

Overhead view of a white baking dish full of cooked strawberries and rhubarb, topped with fresh strawberry halves.

An Easy Fruit crisp Dessert

A fruit crisp is undoubtedly my favorite dessert to make. It isn’t a fussy dessert. Who has time to mess around with pie crusts? Pile fruit in a baking dish, sprinkle on the topping, and bake. It doesn’t get much easier than that. And the result? Well, give this strawberry rhubarb crisp a try and you tell me!

You’ll want to make blueberry crisp later in the summer when blueberries ripen, or maybe peach blueberry crisp, and don’t forget apple crisp in the fall! How about apple blueberry crisp which combines two of my favorite fruits? Yes!

Ingredient Notes

Rhubarb: Buy firm red or green rhubarb stalks. It doesn’t matter if they are thick or thin. Frozen rhubarb is fine, too, when rhubarb isn’t in season. I like to freeze extra rhubarb in the spring so I can make this dessert year round.
Strawberries: Fresh or frozen, doesn’t matter.
All Purpose Flour: Whole wheat flour is good for the topping but you’ll need a bit of all-purpose flour to thicken the fruit.
Granulated Sugar and Brown Sugar: Use white sugar to sweeten the fruit mixture and brown sugar in the topping. Dark brown sugar is fine, too.
Oats: Old-fashioned or quick oats are perfect. Don’t use instant oatmeal or steel-cut oats.
Cinnamon, Cardamom, Nutmeg: This trio of warm spices will make your kitchen smell like a bit of heaven.
Butter: I usually use unsalted butter but if salted butter is all you have, that’s fine, too. Make sure it’s at room temperature.

More About Rhubarb

Color is not an indication of ripeness. Some rhubarb varieties tend to be more green, others more red. Rhubarb is ready to harvest when the leaves are completely unfurled and the stalks are anywhere between 7 to 15 inches long. They will vary in thickness.

Rhubarb leaves contain a poisonous substance called oxalic acid. Cut them off, and discard them (don’t be tempted to make a salad out of them).

Rhubarb may look stringy in its raw state but it tenderizes as it cooks, so there’s no need to peel it.

How to Make Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Fruit crisp recipes are easy to make. You don’t need any special equipment, just a baking pan and an oven.

Prepare the fruit. Wash the stalks thoroughly and chop them into half inch pieces. With a good sharp knife and cutting board, chopping rhubarb is actually kind of satisfying. Try it and you’ll see what I’m talking about; it’s kind of like celery.

Wash and hull the strawberries. If they’re large, you’ll want to cut them in half, or maybe even quarters.

Add flour and sugar. Mix the fruit in a large bowl with flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Since rhubarb is very juicy, you need a little flour to thicken the juices.

Rhubarb and strawberries in a glass bowl with flour mixture on top.

Scrape the fruit mixture from the bowl into a baking dish.

Fruit, coated in flour, in a white glass mixing dish.

Make the topping. You can use the same bowl to prepare the topping. Mix flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg, and then add a chunk of butter.

Topping ingredients, unmixed, in clear glass mixing bowl.

Blend the ingredients together with a fork, a pastry cutter, or your fingers. Like I said, this isn’t a fussy dessert. Once the mixture holds together, sprinkle it by handfuls on top of the fruit mixture. If you like big crunchy chunks, squeeze some of the topping into larger sized lumps.

Bake. Pop your fruit crisp in the oven and bake it until it’s all bubbly and browned. It smells so heavenly while it’s baking that it’s almost worth making just for the smell!

Serve. Cool before serving warm or at room temperature. Rhubarb is an extremely juicy fruit so don’t worry if your crisp is a little on the juicy side. A crisp is sort of a free form dessert; it’s not supposed to be a defined square on a dessert plate. You’ll also notice that the juice thickens as the crisp cools down. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Overhead view of strawberry rhubarb crisp and vanilla ice cream on a round plate, with a spoon.

Recipe Variations

Fruit crisps are pretty forgiving. Use what you have in your pantry and fridge to make your own special dessert. By the way, you may also know them as a “crumble.” They’re pretty much the same thing except crumbles usually don’t have oats or nuts.

Don’t have rhubarb? Just make a strawberry crisp (or vice versa).
Add nuts to the flour mixture. Walnuts or pecans would be tasty.
Skip the cardamom. If you don’t happen to have cardamom in your pantry, add a little extra cinnamon. No problem! Same with nutmeg.
Use rolled oats or quick oats. Either one works fine. Don’t use steel-cut, Irish oats, or instant oatmeal.
Make it whole wheat. Replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. I often do that.
Use white sugar instead of brown sugar.
Only have salted butter? That works, too, just omit the salt from the topping mixture.
Looking for gluten-free rhubarb crisp? Try this recipe from Faithfully Gluten Free. The rhubarb is thickened with cornstarch instead of flour and the topping is made with oats and walnuts. You could also make this recipe with 1:1 gluten-free flour.

White baking dish full of cooked strawberries and rhubarb, topped with fresh strawberry halves.

Storage Tips

Fruit crisps are best served the same day you make them. If you happen to have leftover rhubarb crisp, cover it and save it for later.

It doesn’t really need to be refrigerated if you plan on eating it the next day. If it’s going to be longer than that, I’d recommend refrigerating it. The topping won’t be as crisp but it’ll still taste really good.

Leftover Love

Enjoy leftover fruit crisp for breakfast with a big dollop of plain Greek yogurt. It’s one of my favorite breakfasts! Sometimes I add a scoop of leftover crisp to my bowl of oatmeal in the morning instead of other sweeteners. Try it, it’s really good!

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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp – the perfect summer recipe!