Let’s be honest – when we adults look at this dish, we see a rather unusual colour combo that may look less than appealing! But – in our experience – little ones LOVE colourful food! Someone must have told them that brightly coloured fruits and veggies equal good nutrition… and this wonderful purple beet sauce is no exception!
We hit upon this rather unorthodox meal idea when our third child was a baby. We happened to have some beets (also known as beetroot) left over from our own meal and turned them into this simple sauce, then simply spooned in on top of her all time fave finger food… cooked pasta!
Well, she loved it and ate it often and it’s also been a success with babies 4 and 5!
The sauce has a very subtle, sweet flavour – and if your baby is an independent little self feeder, tossing his pasta in this sauce helps get some added nutrition into him. We like to serve a finger food dish like this with rotini pasta, because the sauce really does get stuck in those grooves when you stir it all together (as shown!)!
This dish is ideal from 8 months onwards.
To Make Baby’s Spinach Pasta with Beet and Apple Sauce You Will Need…
small handful of spinach rotini pasta
1 small beet, peeled and diced
1 dessert apple, peeled*
pure apple juice or water
Place the diced beet in a saucepan and just cover with apple juice.
Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently until the beets are just beginning to feel tender (around 20 mins).
Add the apple dice and cook for another 5 to 10 mins until the beets and apple are fork tender.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the directions on the packaging.
Remove the beet and apple from the saucepan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a blender.
Puree until smooth, adding back the apple juice until you reach the texture you desire.
Stir into the cooked pasta, cool to a safe temperature and serve.
Yummy variations:
- Try spicing this up a little with a good pinch of cumin and a good pinch of curry powder, added as you puree the ingredients together… sounds strange but adds a lovely extra dimension to the dish!
- You can also create a more robust flavour by separately sauteing 1/2 an onion (chopped) and a crushed garlic clove, then adding those as you blend the other ingredients.
- For a creamier sauce, try stirring in a blob of natural yogurt.
Find out more about introducing beets to your baby and try some more tasty beet recipes