Rhubarb, Blood Orange, Coconut Cream

I made this for a dinner party last night!  This is such a great seasonal plant based dessert, and although you might think mine looks fancy, it can literally be thrown together quite easily.  This is the beauty of finding some nice rhubarb, the colour means that half the work is already done for you.  I used frozen blackberries for the compote but you could just use extra blood orange juice and segments for drizzling over.  I made a whipped coconut cream from a tin but you could use a coconut yoghurt for speed.  I like the vanilla coconut yoghurt from the brand, Coyo.  Any leftover fruit can be thrown into a morning smoothie!  

If you wanted to keep this nut-free, then use toasted coconut flakes.

GF/DF/Vegan

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the rhubarb

400g forced pink rhubarb (it needs to be bright pink from the start), end trimmed and sliced into 4-5cm equal pieces

2-3 tbsp unrefined caster sugar

Zest and juice of 1 blood orange

2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod

1 tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)

For the blackberries:

100g frozen blackberries

1 tbsp unrefined caster sugar

Squeeze lemon juice

For the coconut cream:

160ml tin of coconut cream, stored in the fridge for another hour

1 tsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Handful of almond flakes

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a baking tray with a baking sheet.  Add all the ingredients for the rhubarb pieces, toss together.  Arrange the rhubarb so that they are neat lines not touching each other and place into the middle of oven for about 10 minutes.  Check and see that they are soft but still holding their shape.  Remove and leave to cool.

Put all the ingredients for the blackberries into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  When hot, bring down to a simmer for about 3 minutes. Fish out the blackberries and allow the leftover syrup to reduce and thicken a little for about 1-2 minutes.  Taste to check the seasoning and it needs to be gently sweet, add a little more sugar if needed as the rhubarb can be a little bitter. Then add the blackberries back and leave to cool. 

If using coconut cream instead of yoghurt, take the chilled tin out of the fridge and scoop the separated cream into a bowl.  Add the icing sugar, vanilla and whip to a fluffy consistency.  If the cream is quite hard, wait a few minutes for it to soften before whipping.  Store in the fridge until needed.

Plate up with the rhubarb flat (as pictured) or make a sundae and add into glasses, top with blackberries and coconut cream.  Drizzle over sauce and sprinkle almonds.