This savory pasta sauce is made with roasted red beets, creamy cashews, lemon juice, garlic, and sauteed onions. Serve it with pasta for a vibrant and flavorful oil-free dinner!
Why You'll Love It
Beetroots have a delicious earthy flavor and they can be enjoyed in so many different ways! You can use beets to make hummus, pickled beets, and they're even good added to a smoothie. However, my absolute favorite way to enjoy beets is to make an incredibly tasty pasta sauce!
Blended with creamy cashews, lemon juice, sauteed onions, and garlic, this beet sauce is savory, flavorful, and delicious served with pasta! It's also naturally gluten-free and oil-free. This dish makes a great dinner any night of the week, but I especially love to make it for dinner on Valentine's day (this is the heart-shaped recipe that I make for breakfast!) because the sauce is naturally hot pink!
Ingredients & Substitutions
You only need 10 simple ingredients to make this delicious meal! I listed a few important notes and possible substitutions about the ingredients below.
- Red Beets: To make the sauce hot pink, you have to use red beets. However, if you don't have red beets or you don't care about the bright color, you can still make the sauce by substituting golden beets.
- Raw Cashews: It's important to use plain raw cashews and to soak or boil them before blending. Instead of raw cashews, you can substitute raw sunflower seeds if you need to. They will make the pasta sauce very creamy just like the cashews do.
- Almond Milk: I used unsweetened almond milk, but you can use any unsweetened and unflavored (no vanilla flavored) plant milk. Unsweetened coconut milk would be my second choice because it's very creamy.
- Fresh Spinach: You can use fresh or frozen spinach, either is fine. If you don't want to use spinach, you could substitute thinly sliced kale, fresh beet greens, or swiss chard.
- Lemon: The lemon juice and zest add so much flavor to the sauce. Lime can be substituted in a pinch.
How to Make It
First, wrap one large beet in a piece of parchment paper and then roast it until tender (Photos 1 & 2). While the beet is roasting, boil the cashews for 10 minutes. In a large pan, saute the onion and garlic until soft (Photo 3). When the beets are done, take the tray out of the oven and let it cool for a few minutes until you can handle it without burning yourself. You can use a paper towel to rub the skin off or just use a knife to cut it off.
Combine the roasted beet, cooked onions and garlic, lemon juice, almond milk, cashews, salt, and pepper in a large blender cup (Photo 4). Blend until the sauce is smooth and creamy (Photo 5). Pour the beet sauce into the pan that you sauteed the onions in and warm it over medium heat. Add the lemon zest, fresh spinach, and cooked pasta (Photo 6). Stir to coat the noodles with the beet sauce. The heat from the noodles will wilt the spinach.
What Goes With It
Any of the following recipes would make a great side dish to serve with this vibrant and colorful pasta!
Recipe Variations
- Add Plant-Based Protein: Stir in (1) 14 oz can (drained) of creamy white beans (like great northern or cannellini) to add extra protein to the dish.
- Add Vegan Cheese: To make this beet pasta sauce recipe taste extra decadent, I like to swirl dollops of soft vegan cheese throughout the pasta. (I like to use Miyoko's sundried tomato garlic cheese or Treeline soft French-style herb-garlic cheese.)
- Add Fresh Herbs: Thinly sliced basil is excellent stirred into this vegan beet pasta. It's so flavorful!
Expert Tips
- Soak (for 1 hour) or boil (for 10 minutes) the cashews to soften the nuts. Doing this will make the nuts easier to blend and they will be easier to digest.
- Wrap the beet in parchment or foil to protect it while roasting. I didn't use any oil on the beets and they came out perfectly tender and not dry.
- Have you seen those packages of cooked beets (I think the brand is called Love Beets) at the grocery store? If you use pre-cooked beets instead of roasting them from scratch, you could get this dinner ready in about 20 minutes. Roasting the beets is the most time-intensive part of the recipe.
- The lemon is much easier to zest before you juice it.
How To Store It
Refrigerate it: Store leftover pasta with beet sauce in an airtight container in the fridge and it should stay fresh for 3-4 days.
Freeze It: You can freeze just the sauce by itself or you can freeze the sauce mixed with cooked noodles. Put it in an airtight freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to 2-3 months.
Reheat From the Freezer: Take the container of beetroot sauce out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost for 24 hours. Then you can reheat it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes or in a saucepan on the stovetop until it's warmed through. If the sauce is too thick, add 1-2 tbsp of water or almond milk to thin the sauce a little bit.
Frequently Asked Questions
I like to serve this sauce with farfalle or linguini noodles, but it would also be delicious spooned over gnocchi (I love the cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe's!), tortellini, or ravioli.
Roasted mushrooms, broccoli florets, or zucchini would be great additions to this dish.
Depending on how big the beets are will determine the exact cooking time, but it usually takes about 1 hour to cook the beets until they are fork tender.
Don't throw them out! Beet greens are delicious and nutritious. Add them to a salad or you can use the stems and greens in this roasted beetroot feta salad.
The pasta sauce is naturally gluten-free and vegan. To make this recipe gluten-free, you only need to use gluten-free pasta. I like to use chickpea or brown rice noodles. I think they taste the closest to traditional white flour pasta.
Want More Vibrant Vegan Recipes?
- Pesto Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
- Watermelon Mango Fruit Salsa
- Smoky Sweet Potato Salsa
- Lentil Stuffed Red Cabbage Rolls
Beet Pasta Sauce
Equipment
- Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper
- Medium Saucepan
- Large Pan
- Large Pot
- Blender
Ingredients
- 16 oz farfalle pasta (use gluten-free pasta if necessary)
- 1 large red beet peeled
- ½ cup raw cashews (or raw sunflower seeds)
- ½ cup vegetable broth or water (to saute)
- 1 medium yellow onion sliced
- 3 medium garlic cloves
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 3-4 cups fresh spinach
- 1 tbsp chives chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Trim the stems and greens off the beet. Wrap the beet with parchment paper or foil on a sheet pan and roast for 50-60 minutes or until the beet is tender. You can test it by sticking the beet with a fork or knife, it should slide in easily. It may take less time if you use smaller beets.
- Put the raw cashews in a medium saucepan and cover them with 1-inch of water. Bring it to a boil and let it cook for 10 minutes. Drain any excess water. Set aside.
- While the beet is roasting, saute the onions in a large pan over medium heat until they're soft and translucent. Add the sliced garlic and let it cook for 3 minutes.
- Remove the cooked beet from the oven and let it cool until you can handle it without burning yourself. You can cut the skin off with a knife or use a paper towel to rub the skin off.
- In a large pot, boil water and cook the pasta until tender. Drain the pasta and set it aside. While the pasta is cooking, make the beet sauce.
- Add the cooked and peeled beet, boiled cashews, sauteed onions and garlic, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 cup almond milk, ½ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp black pepper to a high-powered blender. Blend on high until the sauce is smooth and creamy. Pour the sauce into the pan that you cooked the onions in and warm it over medium-low heat.
- Add the zest of 1 lemon, 3-4 handfuls of fresh spinach, and the cooked noodles to the pan with the beet sauce. Stir to coat the noodles in the sauce. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Garnish with chopped chives before serving.
Notes
- Soak (for 1 hour) or boil (for 10 minutes) the cashews to soften the nuts. Doing this will make the nuts easier to blend and they will be easier to digest.
- Zest the lemon before juicing it.
- Store leftover sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days or you can freeze it for 2-3 months.
Wow! This is delicious. This was my first time using a beet in my kitchen, and I was a little skeptical at first. But this pasta sauce is unique, flavorful, and consists of ingredients on my list of approved IBD foods. I’ll definitely be making this one again!
Thank you, Quinlan! I'm so happy you liked the recipe!
I made this dish tonight and it was delicious! I also added the basil you mentioned and that was a lovely addition too. Thank you ! I’ll definitely make this one again.
Thank you, Linda! I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe! <3
This looks fantastic! I've been looking for new ways to use beets. I can't wait to try this out! Thanks for sharing!
I hope you enjoy it, Brittany!
I'm always trying out new ideas to get my little one to try healthy vegetable-based foods, but it's hard when all she wants are hot dogs and mac and cheese haha. Luckily the lovely color the beets gave this dish caught her eye and she was all over it, bowl clean within minutes! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you! I'm so happy your little one enjoyed it. I love the pink color too! =)
I LOVE Beets. I can hardly wait to make this recipe. And I can hardly wait to read your blog about your
beautiful wedding, esp since I was there. It was GORGEOUS in every way...YOU WERE GORGEOUS!! And Travis was so handsome. What an attractive couple you two make. Simply Stunning. Every detail was so well thought out and executed. Visually so magnificent . I wish I could experience the magical day all over again. xo
What a beautiful pasta dish! You can't NOT love the color, and I bet the flavor is amazing! Just lovely!
Thank you, Patricia!
The colors of the beets come through gorgeously in the dish!
Thank you, Katie!
I love beets! This is def worth a try!
Thanks, Neely! I hope you enjoy it!
This looks so good! I will have to try it soon:) Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Reeni!