Paleo Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

by lisa | 20 April 2013 10:22

We’ve had a horribly long and dreary winter this year. I am seriously solar powered and the lack of light has been getting me down. The sun finally arrived last weekend! Blue skies and warm spring temperatures. I ran right out to the store and bought some spring flowers to plant in my garden. (sadly, those spring flowers are covered by snow a week after planting)

I’m pretty excited for spring!

I also bought some sweet smelling strawberries and gorgeous rhubarb. You know it’s spring when you can get strawberries and rhubarb at the store.

Ripe and fresh

I used to make strawberry rhubarb crisp every spring (pre-paleo) with loads of brown sugar and oats in the crumbly topping. That was always my favorite part, so I wanted to make a paleo topping that wouldn’t be disappointing. I started thinking that traditional granola is a lot like a fruit crisp topping and I do, after all, make a really delicious paleo granola, so it should be pretty easy to make a yummy crumble top.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

For the fruit filling part:

3 cups of rhubarb, diced
3 cups strawberries, diced
zest from one orange
4-6 Tablespoons honey (6 is pretty darn sweet)
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder

Dice up the rhubarb and strawberries.
Put them in a large mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Great colors

For the topping part:

1/4 cup pistachio nuts, chopped
1/4 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
3/4 cups almond flour
2 Tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup honey
4 Tablespoons butter or coconut oil (I used butter)

Chop the nuts. I threw mine into a plastic bag and pounded them a bit with a meat tenderizer (a rolling pin would work just as well).
Mix the nuts, flours, cinnamon, salt and honey together in a medium mixing bowl.
Cut in the butter and mix well with a fork. It should be sticky and clumpy.
Topping

Putting it all together:

Grease an oven proof casserole or pie dish and spoon in the fruit filling (you can also make individual servings in ramekins *see picture below).
Use your hands to dot the topping all over the top.
Bake in a 180 C (350 F) oven for 25 minutes. It’s done when the topping is browned and the fruit is bubbling.
Ready for the oven

Just out of the oven

And a mini crumble for portion control

The verdict

This was delicious and I was so happy with how the crumble top turned out. The fruit was of course delicious, but as usual, the topping was my favorite part. I whipped up some paleo coconut milk vanilla custard to pour over the top, but some vanilla ice cream would be fabulous as well. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s lovely just plain 🙂 I see many more fruit crumbles in my future….now if summer would just hurry up and get here with fresh peaches!