While in my pantry the other day I saw a jar of freeze-dried rhubarb powder and thought “how am I going to use this? What about in bread?”
So sourdough bread it is - with rhubarb and parsnip powder in the flour.
I made my sourdough bread as usual, including the powdered vegetables as part of the flour component.
Now, because our house is so cold right now (the $1,000/month heating bill was just too much), I think the cold is a little challenging for the wild yeast to do what yeast does, but we work with what we’ve got.
The result?
At first, I thought “not good; this may be my first sourdough fail” … and then I kept eating it!!
For lunch, I had Rick cut up some fresh bread for our burgers and he grabbed the rhubarb loaf. Don’t tell him— he adamantly hates rhubarb!
But… we used it.. I held my breath and waited …. And the lunch went down the hatch and tasted delicious with the mustard and other burger fixings.
So .. I guess I have to say that the rhubarb sourdough bread was a win after all! - Debbie
P.S. .. but I won’t be making it again any time soon. It wasn’t THAT delicious.
Rhubarb science
I like to go to PUBMED, where medical researchers post their studies and findings .
I found this tidbit regarding rhubarb:
Rhubarb (also named Rhei or Dahuang), one of the most ancient and important herbs in traditional Chinese medicine […] and its application can be traced back to 270 BC. Rhubarb has long been used as an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic and anticancer medicine in China.
It will be Interesting to see what future research finds in support of this.
And Parsnip?
The most important active ingredients in Pastinaca sativa are furanocoumarins, flavonoids and polyacetylenes, and it has many pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, vasodilator, antifungal, antimicrobial and antidepressant.
