A lovely way to use up the seasonal rhubarb glut, and one that tastes like a treat while actually being pretty healthy.

Makes 20 squares

Ingredients
450g rhubarb, chopped into 2cm pieces
30g caster sugar
30g soft brown sugar
100g dates
200g butter
100g desiccated coconut
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
30g oats
1 egg yolk

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 5. Put the rhubarb in a roasting dish (divide it into two if it’s over-crowded) and sprinkle over the caster sugar. Roast for 25 minutes until soft, then set a sieve over a bowl and leave the rhubarb to drain as much as possible. Keep the liquid you catch – it’s delicious over yoghurt, with soda water or Prosecco.

While the rhubarb’s cooking, blitz the flour, butter and ginger in a food processor until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Tip it into a weighing scales bowl and measure off half; put this into a bowl with half the dessicated coconut, the oats and the soft brown sugar – this is the crumble topping.

Put the remaining flour mixture back into the food processor, add the egg yolk, the rest of the coconut and the dates and whizz until it forms a dough. Grease and line a tin or baking dish about 25 x 20cm – line up the sides of the dish too. Spoon the dough in, spread it across the base of the tin with a knife and press it down, and into all the corners. Prick it with a knife and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Spread the rhubarb on top, covering the dough evenly. Grab a handful of crumble topping and squeeze it together slightly, then distribute it over the rhubarb – break any big clumps up, but you’re trying to get it to stick together a bit. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the topping is golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and cut up into squares. They’ll keep for up to a week in an airtight container, and freeze well wrapped separately in tinfoil.