One fateful day I hear the words: babe, I think I’m allergic to tomatoes now. No… No, no. You can’t be. Not that AND eggs AND avocados AND dairy……One more attempt, and yup, the husband became allergic to tomatoes at the age of 32. Well, we’ve gone without before, surely we can do without tomatoes. But that means no more Mexican or Italian restaurants. And forget about breakfast places or ANY place that cooks with butter, cheese, and milk…welcome to the South. Living in a small town, life get rough when it came to eating out. You think it would have saved our wallet some, but if you can’t have the cheap stuff, that just means you drive a little ways and have the expensive stuff. Let’s just say Southlake and Denton became our FBFF’s: Foodie Best Friends Forever. Sushi and Thai became our go-tos..sometimes our to-gos haha!

And then I just couldn't handle it anymore. 6 months of a dry season and I missed making pasta sauce, homemade chili, and homemade salsas! So I’m sitting on the back porch talking to God as I often do, and I tell him (as we often want to “tell” God things) “come on, there’s gotta be something! What can I use to replace tomatoes so I can still make a bomb diggity pasta sauce or a seasonal chili? What do you got for me on this luscious green earth?!?” I put my listening antenna on, and the thought occurred to me: beets. Really? Beets? I mean, yeah I guess they are reddish, not soft like tomatoes but they could be reduced. They are sweet like tomatoes, so yeah! Maybe they could work! And because I'm a smart cookie, I said “surely someone has made a beet pasta sauce before.” So I Googled it, and low and behold there were several recipes! As I looked through them, the common factor was making a beet paste to replace your tomatoes.

In many of the recipes they used the water from boiling the pasta noodles to add starchiness to the beet paste, but I wanted to keep it gluten-free, so I opted to add a small sweet potato to the mix. Not only does the sweet potato add starchiness, but it, also, helps cut the very distinct beet taste. IYKYK. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE beets, but I also wanted my pasta sauce to taste like it was Italian pasta sauce, not a forced alternative. Personally, I’m a big fan of roasting the beets and sweet potato versus boiling them, getting a roasted flavor profile that adds a rustic autentico note. Plus, there’s less nutritional value lost in roasting than with boiling. The more I learn, the more I grow.

Speaking of nutritional value, beets have so many health benefits. They contain nitrates that help lower blood pressure. They contain B vitamins, betaine, and uridine, which help protect against dementia and memory loss. They are rich in vitamins A, C, and K to support bone health. High in fiber to support digestive health. They help detoxify the liver and improve its function.They are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. And they even reduce the risk of cancer with Betalains and phytonutrients! Beets are so beneficial for our overall health! Let’s eat more beets!

Beets with Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper, pre-roasting.

Beet Paste Recipe

Yield: 32 ounces, 4- 8 oz servings

Cost of Goods: ~$5 (price subject to preferred Olive Oil and Salt)

Ingredients:

2 Large Beets or 3 Small Beets
1 Small Sweet Potato
¼ Cup Olive Oil (or other oil for blending)
Olive Oil to drizzle (or other oil for drizzling)
Preferred Salt

Get ‘Er Done:

Cut 3-4 square sheets of foil based on how many beets/potatoes you use.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.
Remove the stems from the beets.
Rinse and peel the beets completely. Rinse the sweet potato only.
Cut the beets in quarters, and then place a whole beet on a foil square. Drizzle oil over the top of the quartered beet, covering completely, and dash with a pinch of salt. Then wrap the beets up tightly in a ball of foil and place on a cookie sheet. Do this with all of the beets you are making.
Place the whole sweet potato, not peeled or cut, on a foil square. Drizzle oil over the potato, covering completely, and dash with a pinch of salt. Then wrap the sweet potato tightly in the foil and place on the cookie sheet.
Place the cookie sheet in the oven and roast for 35-40 minutes or until softened. You can check this by squeezing the beets with tongs. If there’s some give, they are ready! If not, let them roast for another 10 minutes.
Remove the cookie sheet from the oven, open the foil packs, and allow to cool for 15-20 minutes.
Once the potato is cool enough, you will be able to peel the skin off easily, then place the meat of the potato into the blender.
Add the quartered beets to the blender along with the ¼ cup of oil, and blend until smooth. I, also, add the oil from the foil wraps to the blender too. Waste not, want not.
And now you have beet paste!

Notes about this recipe:

This will last 2 weeks in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer. If you plan to freeze the paste, put it in an airtight container, such as a mason jar, only filling to the freeze line. Don’t tighten the lid completely. You want to leave space for any expansion that will happen without it breaking your container.
It is better to blend when the vegetables are not hot, not cold, but just right, I mean warm. The Goldilocks effect is real. This protects your blender container from cracking because of the heat and avoids leaving chunky bits of beet throughout if it’s blended cold. We want this to be a smooth paste.
Peeling beets is messy business. Expect to have red hands for the night!
While white, red, gold, and purple/blue potatoes are nightshades; sweet potatoes are not nightshades!

Beets Missing Out