Creamy Vegan Beetroot Almond Pasta Sauce

Inspiration

Pasta sauce is one of my must have staples in the fridge. As you know, I love having my bread for breakfast. But for dinner, I prefer a good ol’ bowl of vegan pasta. Truly, the invention of pasta sauce are definitely a gift to busy people. Sometimes, after a whole day of work, you just don’t want to cook up a storm in the kitchen. Most noteworthy, with this pasta sauce ready, all you need to do is to boil some pasta or any kinds of noodles you prefer, udon works pretty nice too. Here I used black bean noodles because I like the taste, as well as the extra protein boost to the dish. 😆

Even more, you can pre-cook the pasta, so when you got back home, just warm up some sauce and pasta in the pan. As a result, this creamy vegan beetroot almond pasta sauce, my friend, is an absolute savior for lazy and/or busy people who want healthy delicious food without spending much time.

And there you go, a simple, comforting and delicious dinner is ready. This pretty looking pink pasta sauce consists of beetroot, bell pepper and tomato. Hence, it’s a good way to sneak in some veggies in one’s diet if you struggle in your daily vegetable intake.

Not Your Ordinary Pasta Sauce

However, not all pasta sauce are created the same to me. Normal marinara sauce doesn’t bring happiness to me and I think most vegans will understand that. Have you ever experienced going to a fancy Italian restaurant and found that the only vegan option is probably pasta with tomato sauce and some boring vegetables? Sadly, no matter how good the pasta is, it’s just not something you want to order when dining out. What’s more, it only shows that the restaurant doesn’t even bother to cater to vegans.

How I Came Up With This Recipe

When I’m creating a recipe, there are 2 major criteria I will consider – Taste & Aesthetic (surprise, surprise😝). For most recipes, I take inspirations from dishes that I had at restaurants when I travel. For the others, I usually combine and experiment with ingredients I have on hand. This recipe is the latter.

One day, I ran out of my vegan alfredo sauce (recipe coming soon) because my family love it so much and they finished it all up much quicker than I’ve expected. As I was freaking out for not being able to have pasta that day, my mom, as always, came to the rescue. She brought home a local organic beetroot. My original plan is to make a salad with roasted beetroot. Yet, while I was baking the beetroot in the oven, I came up with the idea of this recipe – super creamy vegan beetroot almond pasta sauce.

Alongside with the roasted beet, I blended together some roasted red capsicum (aka bell pepper) and tomatoes. I know what you are thinking. It seems like an ordinary tomato sauce, but it’s not. The veggies we used here provide a hint of sweetness, while the almonds make the sauce creamier without using any cream, as well as complimenting the roasted flavors. More importantly, for even more umami flavor, I used some miso paste and vegan Worcestershire Sauce. One point to note is that I’m using adobo seasoning in this recipe.

Adobo Seasoning

For those of you who are not familiar with adobo seasoning, it’s a staple in Latin American’s kitchen and is mainly used in meat-based dishes. When I was first introduced to this seasoning by my former domestic helper, and ever since I started using it in my veggies, I’m hooked and addicted to it. It is basically a mix of herbs and spices such as cumin, garlic, onion, oregano, paprika and turmeric. I also included the recipe of my adobo mix below if you want to try it out.

Ways To Use This Recipe

Although this is a “pasta” sauce, I sometimes like to use it as salad dressing and spread on bread. You can even use it as a dip for vegetable sticks, hence a perfectly simple afternoon snack for work or school. Click here for more dressings and sauce inspirations. Among all those recipes, I especially love my carrot dressing recipe, which (fun fact) is also my first ever recipe on the blog 😎

If you are feeling fancy, you can also bake this sauce with some pasta and vegan mozzarella cheese.