Made with just 8 ingredients, this Creamy Beet Pasta is a delicious and out-of-the-box way to add veggies to the table. The stunning and delicious pink sauce is made with blended cooked beets, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, and garlic. Toss it with your favorite pasta, as this veggie-loaded recipe is done as soon as your noodles are cooked and is perfect for those busy weeknight dinners.
Pasta is one of my favorite savory vessels for veggies. Easy, comforting, and budget-friendly!
My green Spinach Mac & Cheese and has been quite the hit in many of your homes and I thought it might be fun to turn up the beet on pasta for this go.
This stunning and EASY pasta gets its gorgeous color from cooked beets. But don’t worry about that earthy flavor that so many associate when it comes to beets. We’ve blended the beets with cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic, and seasonings to create this creamy, dreamy, balanced sauce that ticks all the boxes. Cook your beets ahead of time (I share several ways how) or use precooked beets from the store, and this naturally vegetarian (when you use vegetarian parm) pasta recipe comes together as quickly as you can boil your favorite pasta…so done in under 15 minutes! Easily gluten free when you use your gluten free pasta and making 6 servings, you can bump up the protein in this pasta recipe by adding in cooked chicken or shrimp or make it with chickpea or lentil pasta.
How to cook beets for this pasta
Cooking your beets for this pasta recipe is going to help cut the earthy flavor that many people find off putting about beets. Plus, it will enhance and bring out this beautiful root veggie’s natural sweetness. Here are several ways you can cook your beets before blending into the sauce for this dish.
- Roast (my suggested method). Especially if you want the vibrant, rich color you see here. I also feel like roasting gives beets the best flavor. The other methods will work fine, but the color may be more muted.
- Boiling
- Instant Pot
- Steaming
Time saving hack! Many grocery stores have pre-cooked beets in their fridge or freezer section. You can grab some of those to use in this Beet Pasta recipe to make life and this recipe a little easier. But as mentioned above, your pasta sauce might be a softer pink color than mine.
Best kind of pasta to use for this recipe
I liked this beet pasta dish best with small pasta shapes like bowtie, elbow, shell, orecchiett, or cascatelli. However, this pasta will work with pretty much any pasta you prefer, including gluten free!
How to make Creamy Beet Pasta
Suggested Adaptations
- Use whatever pasta you like. Any kind of pasta will work for this recipe including whole wheat, gluten free, or bean-based pastas.
- Don’t want to sauté the garlic? Toasting the garlic in the olive oil gives the sauce so much flavor, but there are also a few other ways to use garlic in this recipe depending on how much time you have. If you are roasting the beets, you could also roast a head of garlic at the same time and then add a few cloves of the roasted garlic to the sauce. If you like a strong garlic flavor, blend one or two cloves of raw garlic into the sauce. If you are short on time, you can use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic.
- Use ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese.
- Top with toasted chopped walnuts makes a great crunchy addition to the top of the finished pasta dish.
Other veggie-loaded pasta recipes you will love!
- Quick & Easy Creamy Broccoli Pasta
- 15-Minute Creamy Leek and Mushroom Pasta
- No-Boil Creamy Vegetable Pasta Bake
- Pesto Veggie Pasta Salad
- Baked Spinach Artichoke Pasta
- Baked Pasta with Eggplant
- 15-Minute Spinach Mac and Cheese
- Easy Veggie Pasta Sauce
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Creamy Beet Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound pasta
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic thinly sliced. Can sub 1 teaspoon garlic power.
- 6-8 ounces cooked and peeled beet depending on your taste. Roasted recommended to achieve vibrant color, but any method will work.
- 1 cup cottage cheese I used reduced fat
- ⅔ cup grated Parmesan cheese plus extra for serving
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Finely chopped parsley optional garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water then drain the pasta and place it back into the pot.
- While the pasta cooks, heat a pan over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the olive oil. When oil is hot, add sliced garlic and cook the garlic slowly until it’s golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Once done, set aside.If using garlic powder, skip this step and add oil and garlic powder right to blender.
- Add the cooked beets, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to a blender. Add the toasted garlic and olive oil. Blend until smooth.
- Pour the beet sauce over the cooked pasta and stir to coat. If the pasta has cooled, stir over low heat, adding a splash or two of pasta water as needed to thin the sauce.
- Once the pasta is hot, serve topped with extra parmesan and garnish with parsley, as desired.
Notes
-
- Roast (my suggested method). Especially if you want the vibrant, rich color you see here. I also feel like roasting gives beets the best flavor. The other methods will work fine, but the color may be more muted.
- Any kind of pasta will work for this recipe including, whole wheat, gluten free, or bean-based pastas.
- Roasting beets gives this dish the best flavor and color. However, you can use precooked or canned beets found at the grocery store instead if you don’t have time to roast raw beets.
- Toasting the garlic in the olive oil gives the sauce so much flavor, but there are also a few other ways to use garlic in this recipe depending on how much time you have. If you are roasting the beets, you could also roast a head of garlic at the same time and then add a few cloves of the roasted garlic to the sauce. If you like a strong garlic flavor, blend one or two cloves of raw garlic into the sauce. If you are short on time, you can use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic.
- Ricotta cheese could be used instead of cottage cheese.
- Toasted chopped walnuts makes a great crunchy addition to the top of the finished pasta dish.
Nutrition
The nutritional information is provided as an estimate only and may vary based on the product type, servings and other factors. If you are following a diet, please consult with a professional nutritionist or your doctor. Stay healthy!
Comments
This recipe looks great, but sadly it can not be considered vegetarian if it contains Parmesan Cheese.
As a protected origin product, Parmesan Cheese must comply to a specific recipe that contains animal rennet. (https://vegsoc.org/info-hub/veggie-need-to-know/cheese/).
There are Parmesan style cheeses that can be used instead though. 🙂
Huh. Today I learned. Thanks for the info and I will update the post.
This pasta was absolutely delicious! It has a bit of an earthy taste, which I don’t mind because I like beets, but the walnuts and Parmesan cheese send the flavor over the top. I think I will like it even better with the ricotta cheese because I prefer it to cottage cheese anyway. Well done. Taesha!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this so much, Melissa! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!