Beetroot Pesto Pasta

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This started out as a simple idea to get vibrant pink-coated pasta, but ended up an incredibly beautiful dinner! Use your favourite pasta – wholemeal for a healthier version.

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Takes 35 minutes minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

• 200 g uncooked beetroot
• 400 g dried wholemeal spaghetti or penne pasta
• 130 g pine nuts
• 100 g frozen peas
• 1.5 cloves garlic
• 2 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 30 g rocket

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 200°C/fan/220°C/gas 7.
• Wash the beetroot and remove any dirt and blemishes, then roughly chop into bite-size pieces and put them on a baking tray. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and drizzle with a little olive oil. Bake for 20–30 minutes, or until they are well roasted and slightly charred around the edges.
• Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil, then add 1 tablespoon of salt and the pasta and cook as per the packet instructions.
• Put the pine nuts into a dry frying-pan on a high heat and cook for 5minutes, stirring regularly until golden. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• Drain and rinse the pasta, keeping the pasta water. Put the peas into abowl, pour over the pasta water and leave them sit for 5 minutes. Thendrain and rinse.
• Peel and chop the garlic and put it into a food processor with the cookedbeets, balsamic vinegar, 150ml of oil and 1 teaspoon of salt, then blenduntil smooth. Add the pine nuts and pulse so they are broken up, but stilla little chunky to give some nice texture.
• To bring the dish together, put the cooked pasta into a large pan and addhalf the beetroot pesto, half the peas and the rocket. Fold together andwarm on a medium heat for 2–3 minutes, stirring regularly. Keep the restof the pesto for another pasta dish or to use as a fabulous sandwichspread.
• Divide between 4 bowls and serve with the remaining peas scattered ontop.

Notes

Any spare pesto, just keep it for a sandwich spread, which will last for a week in the fridge. You can use ready-cooked beetroot, but the colour will be less vibrant.

Nutrition

Calories: 250kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 6gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 11gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gSodium: 6mgPotassium: 296mgFiber: 3gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 379IUVitamin C: 12mgCalcium: 28mgIron: 2mg

Video

  P r i n t   R e c i p e

We absolutely love this our Beetroot Pesto Pasta recipe! The nutty beetroot pesto packs so much flavour and when is pink pasta

never a fun dinner to serve up? We use wholemeal spaghetti in this recipe as it’s high in fibre but you can use whatever pasta

you have in your cupboard. Equally, we’ve topped it with a peppery rocket but you can garnish with anything you fancy. Basil

works wonderfully but if you’re really looking to minimise your waste, you can even boil down you beetroot stem and leaves

(finely chopped) and toss them through your pasta just before serving. We promise, it will be delicious.

Beetroot Benefits: Beetroot is packed with antioxidants, evident from its bright red colour. When we first opened our juice bar,

our aprons and hands used to be stained pink from juicing fresh beetroots. A simplistic way to think of antioxidants and their

benefits for the body is that another name for rust is oxidation, so antioxidants help slow down the build-up of ‘rust’ in our body

by slowing down cellular degradation. Research published in the journal Nutrients showed that eating beetroot can help dilate

blood vessels because of its dietary nitrates, enhancing our physical performance. It really is a winner, this dish.

This is a winning dish in both our households, with our kids loving the look and taste of it. It’s so easy that if your kids are into

cooking, they can roll up their sleeves and give you a hand in the kitchen, with some of the simpler steps…we all need a chief

button presser for the food processor.

If you want to see how we make it, step-by-step, click our video below. It really is so simple and so delicious. If you have any

questions about this dish, feel free to drop a message below and we’ll get straight back to you.

Dave & Steve x