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Rhubarb substitute

Best substitute

Sour or Tart Cherries (Fresh, Frozen or Jarred)

Use the same amount by weight, keep the recipe's sugar as the rhubarb you are replacing

Best for pies and crumbles

Different taste

Morello, Montmorency or other sour cherries, which are one of the few fruits genuinely as tart as rhubarb and which slump and release juice in the same way when cooked.

Other rhubarb substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Rhubarb with ratios

  1. 2Cranberries, Roughly Chopped

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by weight, plus 2 tbsp extra sugar per pound

    Fresh or frozen cranberries, pulsed a few times so they are broken rather than whole, which brings acid in the same league as rhubarb and is available almost year round in the freezer aisle.

    What changes
    Best for
    pies and tarts, crumbles, compote, sauces for meat, muffins and quick breads

    Actually more acidic than rhubarb, and tannic as well, so the filling tastes sharper and slightly drying on the tongue, which is why the extra sugar helps. The texture differs too: cranberries pop and hold their shape rather than melting down into a smooth pink slump, so a crumble comes out chunkier. Excellent flavour, different mouthfeel.

  2. 3Tart Green Apples Plus Lemon Juice

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by weight, plus 3 tbsp lemon juice per pound

    Granny Smith or another firm sour apple, sliced thin, with lemon juice doing the acid work that the apples alone cannot manage.

    What changes
    Best for
    Kuchen and streusel cakes, crumbles, pies, compote, baked puddings

    The most available and cheapest option, and the lemon juice makes it genuinely work rather than merely acceptable. The difference is texture: apples hold their shape instead of collapsing, so a rhubarb Kuchen made with apple is chunky and structured rather than jammy and soft. Slice them thin, no more than an eighth of an inch, and give them five minutes longer in the oven.

  3. 4Gooseberries

    Close match

    Use the same amount by weight

    Green gooseberries, the classic English and German pairing with elderflower, which are sharply sour with a green vegetal edge that is remarkably close to rhubarb's.

    What changes
    Best for
    pies and crumbles, fools and creams, Kompott, jam, cakes

    The closest flavour match of anything here, since they share rhubarb's specific green, grassy sourness rather than a fruit-basket tartness. They burst and thicken similarly. The two catches are availability, since they are seasonal and rarely stocked in North America, and their skins, which stay slightly chewy where rhubarb goes completely soft.

  4. 5Tart Plums or Fresh Apricots Plus Lemon Juice

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by weight, plus 2 tbsp lemon juice per pound

    Underripe or naturally tart plums, damsons or apricots, which slump and release juice much as rhubarb does and have enough natural acid to take the lemon addition well.

    What changes
    Best for
    Kuchen, crumbles and cobblers, Kompott, cakes, sauces

    The texture is a genuinely good match, since stone fruit collapses into a soft jammy mass. The flavour is warmer and distinctly perfumed with stone fruit, and the colour turns orange-gold rather than pink, so the dessert looks and tastes like a different but perfectly good thing. Damsons and other very tart plums need less added lemon; taste as you go.

  5. 6Strawberries Plus Lemon Juice

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by weight, plus 3 tbsp lemon juice per pound, and cut the recipe's sugar by a third

    The suggestion people reach for first because strawberry and rhubarb are so often paired, propped up with lemon juice and extra thickener.

    What changes
    Best for
    pies, crumbles, compote, when it is genuinely the only fruit you have

    Honestly the weakest option on this list on its own. Strawberries are far sweeter and considerably wetter than rhubarb, so without cutting the sugar and adding lemon the result is cloying, and without an extra tablespoon of cornstarch per pie the filling is soup. Much better as half the swap alongside cranberries or sour cherries, which supply the acid it lacks.

What is Rhubarb?

Rhubarb is Rhubarb is a vegetable stalk eaten as a fruit, intensely sour from malic and oxalic acid with almost no sweetness of its own, which collapses into a soft pink puree when cooked and whose leaves are toxic and must never be eaten.

Cooking tips

  • Rhubarb leaves contain high concentrations of oxalic acid and should never be eaten by people or pets. Use only the stalks, trim off every trace of leaf where it meets the stalk, and discard the leaves rather than composting them into a vegetable bed.
  • Frozen rhubarb is sold year round in most supermarkets and is a far better answer than any substitute if you can find it. Use it straight from frozen without thawing, and add one extra tablespoon of cornstarch per pie to handle the extra water it releases.
  • Taste the cooked fruit before you commit to the sugar. Stalk sourness varies enormously between early forced rhubarb and late field rhubarb, and between varieties, so recipes are always an estimate. A pinch of salt alongside the sugar makes the sourness taste rounder rather than harsh.
  • The pink comes from the skin, so do not peel rhubarb, and do not cook it in bare cast iron or aluminium. Its acid reacts with those metals and both the colour and the flavour turn dull and slightly metallic. Stainless steel or enamel keeps it bright.
  • For Kompott, cook rhubarb for only five to eight minutes and pull it while a few pieces still hold their shape. It goes from firm to stringy collapse very quickly, and once it has gone there is no bringing the texture back.
  • If a recipe involves canning or preserving, do not substitute a different fruit without checking a tested recipe. Rhubarb is naturally high in acid, but the fruit you swap in may not be, and in home canning the acidity is a safety control. Consult the National Center for Home Food Preservation at nchfp.uga.edu.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for rhubarb?

Sour cherries or chopped cranberries, both one for one by weight, because they are the only common fruits with rhubarb's level of acidity. Gooseberries are actually the closest on flavour, sharing rhubarb's green grassy sourness, but they are hard to buy. Tart green apples plus 3 tablespoons of lemon juice per pound are the most practical option most weeks of the year. Whatever you choose, the acid is the part you have to match, because rhubarb contributes almost no sweetness and the recipe's sugar is calculated against its sourness.

Can I use strawberries instead of rhubarb?

You can, but not as a straight swap, and it is the least successful of the common options. Strawberries are much sweeter and much wetter, so you need to add about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice per pound, reduce the recipe's sugar by roughly a third, and add an extra tablespoon of cornstarch or flour to a pie filling or you will get soup under the crust. Strawberries work far better as half of a blend with cranberries or sour cherries, which supply the sourness they lack. That is essentially why strawberry rhubarb pie exists as a pairing in the first place.

Can I just leave the rhubarb out?

If rhubarb is the filling, no; there is nothing left. If it is one fruit among several, you can leave it out but you must replace the acid, or the dessert will taste flat and sugary. For every pound of rhubarb you skip, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and reduce the sugar by about a quarter, and add a little extra fruit to make up the bulk. In a savoury sauce for pork or duck, where rhubarb is doing the same job as vinegar or a squeeze of lemon, plain lemon juice or cider vinegar works surprisingly well.

Is rhubarb a fruit or a vegetable?

Botanically it is a vegetable, since you are eating the leaf stalk, but every kitchen treats it as a fruit and a 1947 United States customs ruling classified it as one for tariff purposes. This matters practically because it explains rhubarb's behaviour: it has none of the sugar a fruit would have, so every rhubarb recipe adds a lot of sugar, and any fruit you substitute for it arrives with sugar already built in that you need to account for.

Can I use frozen rhubarb, and does it work as well?

Yes, and for cooked applications it is nearly as good as fresh, which makes it a much better solution than any substitute. Do not thaw it first, because it goes limp and loses liquid on the counter. Add it frozen and increase the thickener by about a tablespoon per pie or crumble to account for the extra water that comes out during baking. Frozen rhubarb is no use for anything raw or for a dish where you want distinct pieces holding their shape, since freezing breaks down the cell walls.

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