Berry Rhubarb Sauce | Easy Fruit Topping
This sweet-tart Berry Rhubarb Sauce is the best compote to top pancakes, waffles, french toast, and desserts, made quick and easy with an Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This sauce has the perfect spoonable texture and just the right amount of sweetness to pair with fluffy pancakes, and much more. Plus, it’s easy to customize however you like.
We’ve been making this berry rhubarb sauce for years, whenever my grandmother gives us rhubarb from her garden. I love the tart flavor it adds to sauces.
The rhubarb breaks down as it cooks and adds a nice texture to the sauce.
If you love fruit toppings, you’re going to want to make this recipe ASAP!
We use our Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker to make many different varieties of sauces and compotes. We love to serve them over pancakes, waffles, and ice cream, and to use them in and spread them over cheesecakes.
Update: I’ve updated the post with new tips and photos to help you make this delicious sauce at home!
INGREDIENTS YOU NEED
Here’s the short ingredient list for berry rhubarb compote:
- Rhubarb. You can use fresh or frozen rhubarb with no change to the cook time.
- Berries. We love the mixture of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. Again, fresh or frozen will work just fine.
- Sugar. Regular granulated sugar works well in this sauce.
- Lemon juice. This perks up the flavor a bit!
- Cornstarch. This is a great thickener for spoonable fruit compotes.
How to Make Berry Rhubarb Compote in an Instant Pot
This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.
In your pressure cooking pot, combine the sliced rhubarb, a half cup of the blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Lock the lid in place and cook on High Pressure for 3 minutes. When the cook time is over, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release. Carefully remove the lid.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and a tablespoon of water. Add the cornstarch slurry to the pressure cooking pot. Bring to a boil using the Saute function, stirring constantly. Stir in the remaining blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries, and your sauce is ready to serve.
Important Tips for Making Berry Rhubarb Sauce
Fruit releases a lot of liquid when it’s cooked in the pressure cooker and the sugar dissolves. So you don’t need to add extra liquid when you make this sauce. However, if your pot struggles to come to pressure, you could add a little water or fruit juice.
Nigella recommends peeling your rhubarb first with a vegetable peeler. This reduces some of the stringiness.
Our readers have shared some great tips for harvesting rhubarb if you have a plant at home. For example, if you’re wondering when it’s ready to pick, if the leaves are big, they are ready!
To harvest, just pull firmly so the entire stem pulls from the root. Trim off the leaves (which are poisonous) and the brown bits off the bottom. Keep harvested rhubarb in the fridge until you’re ready to make your sauce.
Also, at sometime during the season, the red and green stalks (the edible part) start softening up. Those are past their prime and aren’t good to use.
What to Serve with Berry Rhubarb Sauce
In addition to using this sauce to top your favorite pancakes or waffles, you could also use it as an ice cream topping, or serve it over shortcakes, angel food cake, or my favorite Cream Cheese Bundt Pound Cake. It also makes a great topping for Instant Pot Cheesecake.
Frequently Asked Questions about Fruit Compote
Yes. Another way to thicken this berry rhubarb compote is with chia seeds. To avoid grittiness, I like to pulse the chia seeds in a clean coffee grinder before adding them.
You can mix up the fruits if you like. For example, in the fall or winter, cranberries would make a great addition.
Store fully cooled berry rhubarb sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. You can serve it cold, at room temperature, or warmed it in the microwave or on the stove.
If you’re looking to boost the flavor in your fruit compote a bit, feel free to add a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom for warmth.
MORE Instant Pot Fruit Sauce Recipes
Here are some more flavorful fruit compote recipes to make in your Instant Pot:
- Fresh Berry Compote is made with mixed berries for a pretty jewel-toned sauce.
- Blueberry Compote cooks with frozen blueberries, so you don’t have to wait for summertime!
- Cherry Compote uses fresh or frozen sweet cherries.
Do you LOVE this recipe?
Leave us a review below to tell us why!
Berry Rhubarb Sauce
This Berry Rhubarb Sauce is made in the Instant Pot pressure cooker for a fast and easy topping you can serve for breakfast or dessert.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sliced rhubarb
- 1 cup blueberries, divided
- 1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Add rhubarb, 1/2 cup blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice to pressure cooking pot; stir to combine. Lock the lid in place and select High Pressure and 3 minutes cook time. When the cook time ends, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Add to pressure cooking pot. Select Saute and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Stir in the remaining blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries.
- Serve hot, or cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until ready to serve.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 73Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 2mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 2gSugar: 15gProtein: 1g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
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This sauce is SO GOOD! I served it over plain cheesecake and it was a huge hit. I had rhubarb in my freezer from last season and it worked perfectly. Also, blackberries were on sale and raspberries were not, so I did that substitution. I wasn’t sure this would work with only 2 Tbsp of lemon juice, but the rhubarb released enough liquid that it wasn’t a problem getting up to pressure at all. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Thanks Amy! Rhubarb and blackberries sound like a great combination.
I had been given a beautiful bag of rhubarb and this recipe sounded heavenly after buying lovely fruits at the opening of our new Fresh Thyme store. Then my world turned upside down for a few days including sudden surgery but when I finally got home (just a few days later) my husband got the ingredients out, I loaded up the instant pot and viola “pure magic”. This sauce is indeed delicious and believe me, it brightened my week tremendously. Can’t wait till tomorrow morning, husband is promising me pancakes! Thank you so much for sharing this easy, tasty recipe.
Hi Joan – glad you’re doing better now and that you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for commenting! That’s great that the sauce brightened your day. Enjoy the pancakes 🙂
this looks so delicious.
My instant pot calls for always using a cup of water when cooking.
Does this recipe make it’s own liquid equal to the cup of water my instant pot would require?
Hi Sylvia – I created this recipe using the Instant Pot so you shouldn’t have any problem. The fruit does create about a cup of liquid as it cooks.
Hi, This looks delicious and I am going to make it. I wondering if this could also be used in a pie crust for a pie, what do you think? I also like the idea of making your pound cake and putting it on top too. Thanks again for a wonderful recipe….Claudia
Hi Claudia – yes, it would make a great pie filling. Thanks!
That sauce sounds amazing. I THINK I’ll be able to pick some rhubarb from my plants this year-they look healthy but I’m pretty rhubarb stupid when it comes to knowing when is the right time to do what. Sure miss my Dad-he knew all this stuff. Bob isn’t a maple syrup lover so always likes fruit sauces on pancakes and such. I bet he’d love this one!
For picking rhubarb, it’s pretty easy. If the leaves are big, they are ready! Sometime during the season, the stems, what you harvest, start getting softer when you press your thumb on the top of the stalk, where it’s flat. Those are past prime and aren’t good to use. Keep it watered and well fertilized and you should have rhubarb for a longer season. To harvest, just pull firmly so the entire stem pulls from the root. Trim off the leaves (poisonous) and the brown bits off the bottom, refrigerate.
Thanks so much for the great advice Jeannine!
Thank you so much Jeannine-I do have big leaves on the plants so I guess they’re ready! Once it stops raining I’ll go out and pick a few. Thanks too for the tip on how to tell when the stalks are “past prime”…I’ll be on the lookout for that too. 🙂
Hi! I was wondering what adjustments to make if I was just using rhubarb and strawberries? Looks delicious and I’m hoping to try it tomorrow!
Hi Allison – you shouldn’t need to make any changes if you’re just using rhubarb and strawberries.
Thanks Carol! I’m sure if Bob likes fruit toppings, he’s going to love this one. Jeannine gave you great advice about harvesting rhubarb.
I’ve been eating rhubarb from the garden all my life, and it is the EASIEST thing to grow, with the highest yield of any plant! It is always the very first thing to pop up in the spring, and the last thing to go to sleep in the fall/winter. I have grown it in the UK, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Northern Illinois and Colorado. I have it in my ornamental garden now! The leaves are so pretty, with the red tinge. It continually grows new stalks all season, and the stalks are best and tenderest when young. So I make a habit of picking stalks , thereby ‘thinning out’ the plant, every 2 weeks. Then I cook it up with sugar, and freeze in small containers, and use it in everything. I have made rhubarb ginger jam, yum! I also always end up giving lots of stalks to friends, as there is always too much.