Beetroot & Goat Cheese Pasta with Lemony Rocket

If you’re after a show-stopper vegetarian number, you’ll be hard-pressed to beat this beetroot goat cheese pasta.

Inspired by the classic beetroot and goat cheese pairing, beloved in salads and tarts, this dish blends together roasted sweet beets with tangy, creamy goat feta. The result is an incredible contrast of flavours all married into a vibrant and wildly aesthetic pesto-style pasta sauce.

As a Registered Nutritionist, I’m all about finding tasty and creative ways to amp up your vegetables intake. Despite minimal ingredients, this pasta packs a mega flavour punch and offers up a good few serves of vegetables.

Gather Ingredients

• Beetroot. A root vegetable with a vibrant purple-red colour and sweet, earthy flavour. We’re after two medium or one big beetroot here – 400g total.
• Garlic. We’ll need 3 cloves, which we’ll roast until buttery soft, along with the beets. This will mellow their pungency and coax out natural sweetness.
• Rigatoni pasta. A large cylindrical ridged shaped pasta, perfect for pasta sauce to cling to it. Feel free to substitute another variety, like penne.
• Goats feta. A type of cheese made from goat milk. Its creamy texture and distinctive tangy flavour works well with the beets. We’ll be both blending it into the sauce and dotting it overtop.
• Walnuts. If beets and goat cheese are a pair, walnuts makes them a trio! A garnish overtop adds a crunchy texture that finishes the dish.
• Rocket (argula). A leafy green salad green with a distinct peppery flavour. Serve on the side to turn into a balanced meal.

You’ll also need a few basics: extra-virgin olive oil to dress the beets and pasta sauce; lemon for acidity; and salt and pepper to season it all to perfection.

Kitchen Tips

Here are tips and tricks to help your kitchen skills grow while improving the outcome of this dish:

• Get kitchen scales out. We’re after 400g total beet, without leafy tops and with skin on, and 100g goat’s cheese (60g blended in the sauce, the rest to garnish). It might sound a bit mathematical, but as we’re dealing with sweet beets and salty cheese, balance is important.
• Roast to perfection – but not too hot. Beets like a lower oven temperature compared to other vegetables. Keep it at 180 degrees Celsius bake (not fan-bake!) and dice into chunks a bit bigger than bite-sized for good roasting surface area. End goal? Lightly caramelised, tender but-not-quite-crisp exteriors, with a deep, robust flavour.
• All hail the magical pasta water. When pasta cooks, it releases starch into boiling water – and this is valuable stuff. Adding it to pasta sauce will help the fat in feta and olive oil combine more smoothly with the beets. In culinary speak, this is known as an emulsion.

Plate Up

Serve the pasta dotted with blobs of the remaining goats feta, a sprinkle of walnut, and the lemony rocket on the side for freshness.

This dish is best enjoyed immediately. If storing, spoon into an airtight container and keep in the fridge. Reheat with a splash of water or oil to reinvigorate.

Nutrition Q&A

What are the nutritional benefits of beetroot? Besides bringing a pop of colour to your plate, beets provide great nutritional bang-for-buck. Just one cup provides:

• Around 10% of the recommended daily fibre intake, or 2-3g. Fibre bypasses digestion and travels to our large intestine, feeding friendly gut bugs and helping regulate bowel movements.
• A generous amount of folate: 148 mcg or 37% of your daily needs. This essential B vitamin plays a critical role in cell growth, DNA production and the formation of red blood cells (1).
• Around 2.2 grams of plant-based protein, making beets a surprising source of protein despite their low-calorie content.

A fascinating aspect of beets are their naturally occurring nitrates, which convert into nitric oxide in our bodies, which play a role in regulating blood pressure and healthy blood flow. Some studies even suggest that nitric oxide from beet juice supplements can enhance athletic endurance (2).

Furthering their nutritional prowess, beets boast a rich antioxidant content called betalains. This gives them their captivating deep reddish-purple colour and may have a number of anti-inflammatory effects (although further research in humans is needed (3)).

Thanks for reading! Are you looking for another pasta dish that celebrates vegetables? Try this very green lemony spinach and pea pesto pasta🌱.