Beetroot Pasta

If you have kids or not, sometimes cooking three meals a day everyday can get rather tiring. Especially when you are cooking for Miss. Adventurous and Mr. Nit-Picky almost 2 year olds. One day Miss. A decides she had enough of Kiwi and won't touch it again and Mr. N has had enough of mangoes. I have to constantly cycle a variety of both their favorite and strange foods so that they don't get bored of a favorite item and stop eating it completely. I have to also give them a chance to develop a palette for new and interesting foods. So yesterday as I stared at my Tupperware tub of pureed beets, I really needed some inspiration to create something different but still old and comforting for the little ones. I searched for Beet recipes on Mahanandi's search and found Indira's indianized "borscht" recipe.

So big disclaimer, this recipe is nothing like hers; so her recipe was the inspiration for my pasta with beets. I am mostly writing this recipe up because it was a huge hit with the 2 year olds and one day just want to refer back to this on another bleh day of cooking and say "HA! Beet Pasta it is!".

Warning, this recipe is rough on measurements, my best guesses as I was cooking on the fly.. I think you can't go wrong with a little extra of this or that. Its pretty flexible recipe.

Beet Pasta Recipe

• 1.5 Cups Cooked and Pureed Beets
• 1/2 Can Tomato Paste
• 1 Bell Pepper chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 4 Cups Cooked Elbow Macaroni (al dente)
• 1/2 Cup Roasted Pistachios, powdered
• 2 Tbsp Flax Seed Powder
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Shallot
• 3 Cloves Garlic
• 1 Green Chili (more if you like spicy)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Water as needed

Method:

Cook pasta of choice and drain. I used elbow macaroni as my kids love it. In a saute pan, heat up garlic and shallots in the olive oil, till translucent. Add red bell pepper and saute till tender (~2 minutes). Add pureed beets, flax seed powder, crushed pistachios, green chili to the veggies. Stir for couple more minutes and add tomato paste into the mix. Cook on medium low till it starts to bubble a bit (~5 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste and pour in cooked pasta and mix. Serve warm. We ate it with some strawberries but I think a nice leafy salad would go well with this pasta as well as some garlic bread.

Verdict? Well, seeing my daughter gobble it up was the best part of the meal. Mr. N was more tentative but he likes beets because of the sweet undertones and of course anything pasta was another a win for him. I really liked the nutty flavors of pistachio with beets and tomatoes. The tomato paste was great because it brought the intense tang to complement the sweetness of the beets.