Strawberry rhubarb muffins

Strawberry rhubarb muffins with a dash of cinnamon, using greek yogurt instead of milk and applesauce instead of oil. This is a great way to bake with rhubarb and eat up some of your strawberries too! 

Confession time: I had never eaten rhubarb before these muffins.

Maybe I should say I never knowingly ate rhubarb, as I don’t think this was something my mom tried to slip in to meals growing up, but it can apparently be snuck into many foods.

It’s a tricky little vegetable.

Side note: When I googled rhubarb I learned that while it is widely thought of as a vegetable, it actually is considered a fruit in the US for tax purposes.

I don’t even really know what that means, but I felt like I should share.

Anyway, it felt like everyone was talking about rhubarb these days so I thought I should get in on the action.

Not really sure where to start, I found this recipe for cinnamon rhubarb muffins, and then I saw this one that added strawberries which sounded even better.

My recipe is kind of a combination of the two with a few extra changes of my own.

I liked that the second of those recipes used greek yogurt instead of milk or butter, and I went one healthy step further and used applesauce instead of oil.

I also added more strawberries and rhubarb, just because I was feeling adventurous.

Since this was my first time trying rhubarb, I naturally wanted to taste it before I put a whole bunch in my muffins.

Don’t do that!

Nobody told me this was a bad idea – rhubarb on its own is quite bitter and not at all tasty.

Enough so where I almost abandoned the whole idea of my strawberry rhubarb muffins and instead turn them into cinnamon strawberry muffins.

And then I read some more about rhubarb, learned this was normal, and realized that’s why everyone adds sugar.

The finished muffins were a great combination of flavors – there is still a hint of tartness from the rhubarb, but the strawberries and all other ingredients mask it just enough where it’s a balanced amount.

I wanted to make a rhubarb simple syrup to glaze these beauties with, but I didn’t get a chance to make it before all these suckers were gone. Whoops.

Have you ever baked with rhubarb? Tell me about your favorite ways to eat it!