Rhubarb Slush

I love rhubarb, and I love frozen drinks … so what better way to celebrate than by making some frozen rhubarb slush?

Every spring when the rhubarb is ready, I usually make some jam varieties with it. We also like rhubarb bars and rhubarb cake. There are actually a lot of ways we like to use rhubarb. When we are done making what we want to make in the spring, I usually dice a couple of gallon bags to go in the freezer.

As I type this, it’s April, and I realized last week that I still had one bag of rhubarb left in the freezer. Since the FRESH rhubarb for the year will be ready before too much longer, I figured I better do something with the stuff from the freezer! (I know in some areas of the country it is ready, but I’m in Minnesota. We still had snow on the ground a week ago, ha!)

Reducing the Sugar

My mom sent me a variation of this recipe, but it had a pretty hefty amount more sugar than this adapted version I’m sharing with you today. We try hard to reduce our sugar intake when possible, so I made a few adjustments to the original version to our taste.

I make all of my homemade jams and fruit preserves with less sugar than most traditional recipes – usually by at least half as much sugar, if not even less than half. If you aren’t accustomed to doing that, you might think it sounds crazy … but your taste buds will adjust. Give it a try! I love how you can taste the actual FRUIT so much more in the low-sugar versions. Even as I eat (drink?)  this rhubarb slush, I can actually tell it’s rhubarb. By nature, rhubarb is kind of tart – but between the sugar and the gelatin that goes into this recipe, the slush is still quite sweet – not sour!

So, let me tell you about the process and show you some pictures!

Making the Rhubarb Slush

The full recipe with a printable option is below, but I took 8 cups of frozen rhubarb and mixed it with 1 cup of sugar as it thawed. Once it was thawed, put the mixture and 8 cups of water into a saucepan on the stove. Bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally, and cook on medium heat until rhubarb is tender and mixture has thickened some.

Let the mixture cool some, and then pulse the warm mixture in your food processor until it’s smooth. Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir in a box of strawberry (or flavor of your choice) gelatin until dissolved. You may need to heat the mixture back up slightly at this point to make sure the gelatin dissolves completely. Also at this point, add a can of frozen lemonade concentrate and stir until blended.

When everything is mixed together, let it cool almost completely before stirring in two cups of vodka. If you put the vodka in while the mixture is too hot, it can dissolve the alcohol.

Stir the vodka in well, and put the mixture into an airtight container and freeze. It will take it 18 hours or so to freeze fully.

To serve, scoop slush into a fancy glass like these blue goblets. Top with sparkling water, lemon-lime soda, or ginger ale. We like it best with sparkling water because the soda and ginger ale just add more sugar to the drink.

 

Non-Alcoholic Version

For a non-alcoholic version of this slush, add two additional cups of water instead of the vodka. Once frozen, it will freeze more solid than the alcohol version. To serve, take it out of the freezer a bit sooner so it can thaw slightly before serving.

Alcohol version or not, I hope you enjoy this sweet summer treat! (Hint: it tastes better in the sunshine!)

 

The Recipe