Sweet and tangy at the same time, this crisp has an intense flavor and an excellent crunchy topping. Be sure to cook it until the topping is nice and golden (about 45 minutes). I love to make this in a ceramic quiche dish or in a 2-quart oval gratin dish, but a 2-quart Pyrex baking dish will work too. (You can use two smaller dishes, if you like, too.) Serve with vanilla ice cream.

For an alpha-gal friendly version of this recipe, scroll down.

Feel free to make the crisp with other summer fruit, especially stone fruit like peaches and plums (photo below).

Serves 6

For the topping

• 8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened, more for baking dish
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup finely chopped toasted pecans
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup oats
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground ginger

For the filling

• 2 ½ cups quartered strawberries 
• 2 ½ cups thick-sliced rhubarb stalks  (cut 1/2-inch thick)
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour (if your strawberries are not very juicy, use a little less flour than 3 tablespoons)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Ice cream, frozen yogurt, or heavy cream for
• serving (optional)

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Rub a shallow 2-quart baking dish or large ceramic quiche dish all over with a little butter.

2. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the crisp topping and mix together with your fingers until well-combined into large “crumbs.”  

3. In a large bowl, combine the filling ingredients and mix thoroughly. Arrange the filling mixture in the baking dish and top evenly with the crisp mixture. (Arrange topping only one layer deep. If there is too much crisp topping for more than one layer, freeze the topping for another use.)

4. Bake the crisp until the topping is firm and golden, about 45 minutes. (The juices will have been bubbling around the edges for a bit.) Let cool for 15 to 20 minutes and serve warm with ice cream, frozen yogurt, or heavy cream.

Recipe by Susie Middleton, Fresh From the Farm: A Year of Recipes and Stories

To make this crisp alpha-gal friendly:

Below are the changes you'll need to make to the recipe to make it alpha-gal friendly. For the most part, the results will be very similar. The biggest change is to the topping- replacing butter with plant butter creates a topping that isn't quite as snappy as the original. But still perfectly good.

• use unbleached, unenriched flour (enriched flours can contain animal-derived vitamins)
• replace the 4 ounces of butter with 3 ounces of plant butter, melted very briefly in the microwave (it will be liquidy but still creamy)
• use organic light brown sugar and organic cane sugar (white sugar can be filtered with bone char)
• if you or the person you are serving is very sensitive to conventional white sugar, replace the crystallized ginger with organic crystallized ginger (the small amount of sugar in the crystallized ginger won't bother most alpha-gal folks, but each person must make their own decision on that)
• skip the vanilla ice cream. Don't replace it with anything unless you are sure that the non-dairy ice cream does not contain carageenan or other ingredients like "natural flavors" that can be a problem for alpha-gal folks.