This sweet-tart roasted salmon is ready in no time

By Melissa Clark, The New York Times

It’s easy to forget that rhubarb is a vegetable. Much of the time, you’ll find it buried, like a fruit, under an avalanche of sugar baked into a pie, crumble or cake, or maybe simmered into a compote.

But rhubarb isn’t just for dessert. With a bracing acidity reminiscent of citrus or pomegranate and no pesky seeds, it lends brightness and tang to all sorts of savory dishes. It also adds body, cooking down into a thick sauce with a soft, pulpy texture much like tomato (an actual fruit), though sharper and pinker.

My favorite way to show off rhubarb’s savory side is to use it as a foil for rich ingredients like fatty meats, buttery sauces and oily fish, which the stalks’ tartness cuts like a light saber. Think vinegar, but with precision and finesse.

In this recipe, I match rosy rhubarb with even pinker salmon fillets for a simple, sunset-colored weeknight meal.

First, simmer the rhubarb ...