Can't Beet It Pasta Sauce

Beets.

You either love em or hate em.

Now we have a compromise! The nutritional power of beets without the overwhelming flavor.

PLUS it's a versatile and delicious pasta sauce that contains LOADS more veggies than your kids will realize. Mooowahahahaaa.

Eh hem.

Seriously, though. We've used this not only as a pasta sauce, but also as a pizza sauce. (It's amazing combined with Miyoko's smoked vegan mozzarella.) It's also great for lasagna.

The key is the blending.

In the pic above, Mala only blended about 1/3 of the sauce, leaving the rest chunky. If you want to use it for pizza or lasagna (or if you need to hide the sheer volume of veg from your kids), blend the whole thing to make it smooth.

Another great thing about this recipe is that beyond beets and carrots, the mix of veggies you use is totally up to you (and yes, you can use frozen in a pinch). We love to load it up with whatever's in the fridge at the time, but this is our favorite version...

2-3 T. olive oil (or your favorite cooking oil)
2-3 medium-sized beets, chopped (size is up to you; use fewer beets for less beet flavor)
2-3 medium-sized carrots, chopped
1 small-medium crown broccoli, cut up
1 small zucchini, chopped
3-4 leaves of Swiss chard, chopped (or kale)
1/4-1/2 C. veggie broth

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium and stir in beets and carrots. Let simmer for about 15 minutes.

Stir in broccoli and simmer another 5-7 minutes. (You can cover it and use the steam to cook the veggies faster.)

Stir in zucchini and chard and cook another 5 minutes.

Take about half of the veggies (or less, or more) and put it in the blender. Add stock a little at a time, blending until you get the consistency you want.

Return blended sauce to the pan and stir in with remaining chunks and let simmer together for a minute or two (or just to reheat if you blended the whole thing).

For a mega nutrition bonus, we serve this sauce over a high-protein, gluten-free pasta--such edamame, black bean, lentil, etc.--and load it up with nutritional yeast (which if you haven't had it, tastes a lot like parmesan and is packed with nutrition, including super-important B vitamins). And of course you can add salt and pepper to taste.

Pro Tip: We made a huge batch of this and froze it for the immediate postpartum period.