Beet Orzo Pasta Salad Recipe

Orzo salad is an easy one-dish, summertime meal. You could add anything you like, so you can adapt the recipe to fit whatever you find at the market. The most labor intensive work involved in preparing the salad is chopping all the ingredients. For this version, I added cherry tomatoes, broccoli, sugar snap peas, pickled carrots and canned black beans. The main event though, was the addition of the roasted beets. I prepped them in the morning and let them cool to room temperature.

We spent a very low-key, relaxing weekend and I didn't feel like cooking a ton, raising the temperature in the kitchen with the stove and oven during the afternoon, as the temperature got higher. This cold pasta dish was light, complete but still flavorful, and we got to enjoy it by the scoopful in our garden.

Beet Cream with Goat Cheese

I’ve used the combination of beets and goat cheese several times, and I think that it works incredibly well. The color is so vibrant it only makes sense to use it as an appetizer. To brighten up the purée, I added marinated artichoke as a garnish and covered it in crumbled goat cheese as a hint of what’s inside. Just serve it in small shot glasses along with some tasty black sesame crackers, and you’ll have an easy appetizer that still brings the wow factor.

It also goes great alongside the hummus that I published yesterday, so mix and match and have fun!

Beet and Goat Cheese Crepe Recipe

I love the combination of beets and goat cheese. They pair wonderfully, and I’ve used them in many recipes. I had both ingredients on hand today, so I mixed them together and stuffed them in crêpes.

Making crêpe batter is very basic. I first learned how to make crêpes in kindergarten back in France, and I haven't forgotten since then. The quantities go like so: 2 eggs, 250 grams of flour (1-3/4 cups) and ½ liter of milk (2 cups). Allow to rest for a few hours. I then adjust the quantities of liquid by eyeballing until the perfect consistency is reached (see tips).   

Our friend Carole (she is by the way the editor of PhamFatale.com) always sends me wonderful cooking tips along with the corrections of my daily recipes. Carole and her husband David recently hosted a crêpe party at their home. She told me that leftover cooked crêpes store incredibly well in the freezer, which I immediately wanted to try. I’ve made several batches of crêpes since then, but even after my third attempt, no leftovers. What can I say, I live with wolves!

Beet Marinara Pasta Sauce with Mozzarella

March has definitely been beet season in my house. I made salads, beet risotto, drinks, and more recently, beet pasta sauce. Beets have a gorgeous, rich color; I experimented more by mixing marinara sauce with beets for a simple pasta dish. The acidity from the tomato sauce cuts the sweetness of the beets.

Tomatoes are not in season, so I cheated and used a store-bought jar of tomato sauce. I finished the dish with pieces of mozzarella for extra creaminess.

Linguine Pasta in Beet Sauce

Beet sauce isn't your average pasta sauce. Instead of using the usual boring tomato sauce, I created a sauce made of colorful beets. First, they were boiled, then blended into a smooth purée with caramelized fennel, fromage blanc, crumbled goat cheese and rosemary. I used the vibrant sauce as a a great way to mask the fact that I was serving whole wheat pasta. Our family prefers regular pasta, but I used wheat pasta for its good nutritional value. I find that the types of wheat pasta with the most pleasant texture are linguine and spaghetti; other shapes tend to get gummy when cooked.

I came up with this dish shortly after my friend Olivier shared his genius idea of using puréed beets as a dressing for a simple salad. The beet vinaigrette was so original that it inspired me to find ways to incorporate the sauce in other dishes. Pasta made a lot of sense to me since it requires a sauce. It turned out to be quite a hit at my house; the mouth-watering sauce balances beautifully with the texture of the pasta. Merci Olivier!