This week’s recipe is incredibly easy. It’s a light, vibrant way to use beetroot and looks great on the plate. Best of all it doubles as a perfect summer pasta salad if you’d rather eat it cold.
Prep 15 min
Cook 15-30 mins depending on whether you opt for raw or pre-cooked beetroot
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
250g beetroot (raw or pre-cooked depending on your preference, or how much time you have)
Approx 50ml olive oil (slightly more if using raw beets)
Approx 50ml pasta water
150g feta cheese or vegan equivalent
250g pasta (something tubular such as rigatoni or macaroni works best)
Handful of walnuts
Sprinkle of seeds of your choosing (optional)
Method
- If you’re using raw beetroot, begin by removing the leaves and then peeling and quartering the beets. Wrap them loosely in foil with some olive oil, salt and pepper and bake en papillote at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes. Depending on your taste, you could also chuck a couple of peeled cloves of garlic into the parcel as well.
- While the beets are roasting, begin cooking your pasta according to the packet instructions. Once cooked, drain the pasta, retaining some of the gloopy water for the pesto. If serving hot, leave a lid over the drained pasta. If seving cold, rinse the cooked pasta under the cold tap for 30 seconds to bring the temperature down.
- Place the cooked beets (and garlic if using), about three quarters of the feta, the olive oil and the pasta water into a high powered blender and blitz until smooth and creamy. In terms of finding a good vegan feta, I used I Am Nut OK Fetamorphosis. We also have a new vegan greek style cheese by Kourellas which is just £2.59.
- Return your cooked pasta to the pan in which you cooked it, pour over the beetroot pesto and mix thoroughly.
- If serving hot, place back onto the heat and stir through for 2-3 minutes. If serving cold, plate up!
- Scatter over the remaining feta, the walnuts and the seeds and serve.