🥤 DRINK
Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial)
Early summer rhubarb simmered to threads, strained clear and sweetened into a pink saft to dilute with cold still or sparkling water.
Norwegian · easy · serves 12
prep 15 min · cook 20 min · plus 30 min hands-off time
~163 cal · 0g protein · 42g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 42g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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In Norway saft means a fruit concentrate kept in a bottle and mixed with water, and rabarbrasaft, made from the first rhubarb of the year, is one of the classics, the drink grandmothers bottled every summer. In the north the stalks are only ready in late May and June, so the first glass of it is a sign that summer has arrived.
Rhubarb came to Norway in the 1700s, grown at first as a medicinal plant. It moved into the home kitchen during the 1800s, as sugar became cheaper, and Norwegians have turned it into jam, compote, cakes, puddings and saft ever since.
The method is plain and thrifty: the chopped stalks are simmered in water until they fall apart, the juice drips through a cloth, and sugar and a little lemon go in at the end. Leaving the rhubarb unpeeled gives the saft its pink colour. It keeps in the fridge or freezer, so a taste of June can be poured long after the rhubarb patch has finished.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 12
- 1.5 kg rhubarb stalks, leaves removed
- 1.5 l water
- 500 g sugar, a little more if your rhubarb is very sour
- 1 lemon, juiced
Instructions
- 1Rinse the rhubarb, trim the dry ends and cut the stalks into small pieces. Do not peel them.✎ Chef’s noteThe red skin gives the saft its pink colour. Throw away every scrap of leaf: rhubarb leaves are poisonous.
- 2Put the rhubarb and water in a large pot, bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the rhubarb has completely broken down into threads.
- 3Line a sieve with a clean, damp cloth, set it over a bowl and pour in the rhubarb. Leave it to drip for about 30 minutes, without pressing.✎ Chef’s notePressing the pulp clouds the saft. Let gravity do the work.
- 4Pour the juice into a clean pot with the sugar and lemon juice, bring it to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and skim off any foam.
- 5Pour the hot saft into hot, clean bottles, seal and cool, then keep in the fridge. It also freezes well.
- 6To serve, mix 1 part saft with 1 or 2 parts cold still or sparkling water, to taste, and add ice.
Norwegian home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Vestland (Bergen). The everyday dish is raspeballer, dense potato balls bound with flour and simmered in salted broth, eaten with salt meat and a sweet swede mash. In Bergen they belong to Thursday, a habit left over from the days when shops stayed open late and restaurants fed the shoppers cheaply.
🗺️
Norway. Norway dries its cod two different ways and the difference matters. Torrfisk is hung on wooden racks in the cold Lofoten air with no salt at all, a trade that has run for centuries; klippfisk is salted first and then dried. Lutefisk is dried fish brought back with lye. The salmon on modern menus, by contrast, is overwhelmingly farmed.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Norway
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Norway meal
FårikålDinner
RømmegrøtDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial)?
Early summer rhubarb simmered to threads, strained clear and sweetened into a pink saft to dilute with cold still or sparkling water.
Where does Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial) come from?
Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial) is a Norwegian dish from Vestland (Bergen), Norway.
Can Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Rabarbrasaft (Norwegian Rhubarb Cordial) take to make?
About 1 h 5 min in all: 15 minutes prep and 20 minutes cooking, plus 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 12.
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