I grew up eating the Rhubarb plant by tipping the root side (stem?) In sugar and just eating it like that. It's very sour like that, which as a kid I loved.
Rhubarb pie. Rhubarb cake. Rhubarb bread. Rhubarb cookies. Rhubarb crisp/crumble/grunt. Rhubarb jam. Rhubarb chutney. Stewed rhubarb (used anywhere you'd use applesauce including standalone in a bowl, with plain yogurt, swirled into rice pudding, or baked over pork chops). Raw rhubarb dipped in sugar.
We have a very productive rhubarb patch. Right beside the zucchini patch.
Chop it into pieces, put it in a pan with some sugar and possible a little bit of water. Heat it up and the sugar should help draw out some liquid and cook it until the pieces become soft or disintegrate. Takes about 5-10 minutes.
In The Netherlands ate Rhubarb for dinner. Cooked with crumbled rusk (beschuit [0]) mixed with sugar and eaten with cooked potatoes. And some meat (e.g. steak or sausage).
The crumbled rusk is meant to give the cooked rhubarb a thicker structure and the sugar is meant to counter the sourness.
Since it is quite sour and fresh, apart from sweet dishes like pie or crumble, it pairs quite well with heavy meat dishes like venison. Basically you make a glaze with the rhubarb and can use the stems as a garnish/veggie side. Still needs quite a bit of sugar to tone down the sourness, but it is great.
In general you can often use it as an alternative for lemon zest or juice. I'd say though that it is one of those veggies you buy when it grows locally. I love rhubarb, but if you have to import it, there is probably a better local alternative.
