Strawberries and rhubarb, that’s just like peas & carrots, a match made in heaven. These sourish and sweet fruits are at their best if combined with creamy textures, like panna cotta or ice cream for example.

In our opinion the watery Spanish strawberries of the early season can in no way live up to the Belgian (or Dutch) variant. We always have to wait eagerly until the end of April or the beginning of May to enjoy the sweet and juicy ones. Nice to know is that strawberries belong to the rose family. Clearly a family with good genes. 🙂

Rhubarb is at its best during spring or early summer. The later in the season, the more sour it gets, apparently. Regardless of the flavor, rhubarb is also a very beautiful vegetable(!). Too bad we are going to eat it real soon…

Ingredients

• 100 g Mascarpone
• 75 g Greek yogurt
• Half a tray of strawberries
• 3 egg yolks
• 15 ml water
• 45 g milk
• 85 g granulated sugar
• 50 ml heavy cream
• 8 g gelatin leaves
• vanilla
• 2 rhubarb stalks
• 1 white celery stem
• Cucumber
• Mint

How to prepare?

It’s best to start the day before to prepare the mousse of mascarpone and Greek yogurt, otherwise it will never be sufficiently thickened.

• Put the yolks, water, milk and sugar in a pot on low heat.  Beat firmly and mix thoroughly.
• Cut a vanilla pod open and scrape the vanilla beans from the pod to add it to the mixture.
• Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water, wring and add them.  Allow to boil and remove from the stove.
• Mix the mascarpone, the cream and the Greek yogurt thoroughly.
• Add it to the mixture of eggs and gelatin.
• Divide everything in silicon molds and allow to thicken in the refrigerator at least for 6 hours.

For the finishing touch you will need around 15 minutes.

• Prepare a sugar syrup with 1 portion of jam sugar and ¾ water. You can use it later for other drinks or an aperitif too (link to thyme and plum prosecco).
• Chop  ⅔ of the rhubarb in very small pieces and add it in a bowl together with about 20 strawberries. Pour in champagne or lightly sugared water and blend smoothly.
• Chop ⅓ of the rhubarb and the celery in big pieces, put them in a bowl and submerge in sugar syrup. Let it rest for a couple of minutes, then take everything out and cut into thin slices to decorate the plate. Because of the sugar mixture, the structure of the fruit will soften and release the juices.
• Cut the cucumber into very thin slices with a mandoline. Roll the slices.
• Put a scoop of thickened mascarpone with Greek yogurt in a soup plate. Pour the strawberry-rhubarb soup over the mascarpone-yogurt scoop and decorate with mint.