Pasta with Beetroot Sauce and Feta Cheese
This vibrant pasta features sweet cooked beetroot blended into a silky pink sauce, tossed with rigatoni and finished with salty feta and toasted walnuts. The Thermomix turns the beetroot, chilli, lemon and nuts into a velvety sauce in seconds, making it a striking vegetarian main course with minimal effort and maximum colour.
About this recipe
Pasta with beetroot sauce and feta cheese Thermomix TM7 is one of the most eye-catching vegetarian pasta recipes you can make in an all-in-one kitchen machine. Cooked beetroot is blended with lemon juice, chilli flakes and walnuts into a glossy magenta sauce that clings to every ridged rigatoni tube, while crumbled feta adds a salty contrast and toasted walnuts bring crunch. The TM7 mixing function does the heavy lifting: no lumpy sauce, no food processor to wash, just a smooth result in about a minute. This quick weeknight dinner suits busy families, students and anyone wanting a meat-free main course that looks festive on the plate. Serve it warm with extra lemon, or at room temperature as a pasta salad for lunchboxes and buffets.
Preparation tips
- Reserve a few tablespoons of the rigatoni cooking water before draining; stirring a splash into the beetroot sauce loosens it so the pink coating clings to every pasta tube instead of sitting at the bottom of the bowl.
- Crumble the feta just before serving rather than into the hot sauce, so the cubes keep their shape and deliver salty pockets against the sweet beetroot rather than melting away entirely.
- If young children find chilli flakes too sharp, leave them out of the blending step and offer them separately at the table; a spoonful of Greek yogurt stirred through also softens the heat beautifully.
Recipe variations
- Make it fully vegan by replacing the feta with cubed avocado or a salty vegan white cheese alternative; a tablespoon of nutritional flakes added to the beetroot sauce deepens the savoury flavour without any dairy.
- For a festive winter version, roast the beetroot with thyme beforehand, swap the rigatoni for pappardelle and finish with pomegranate seeds and extra toasted walnuts for a jewel-coloured Christmas main course.
Thermomix TM7 Benefits
- Blending cooked beetroot with lemon and walnuts in the Thermomix produces a silky pink sauce in about a minute without a separate food processor.
- A quick burst in the TM7 bowl chops the halved walnuts evenly for the topping, saving you fiddly knife work on a cutting board.
- Weighing the rigatoni directly in the mixing bowl with the integrated scale means one less measuring cup to rinse while the pasta water heats up.
- Heating the blended sauce gently in the Thermomix keeps the beetroot flavour bright and prevents the olive oil from turning bitter on the stove.
- Grating a lemon zest garnish in the TM7 takes seconds and adds fresh citrus aroma that lifts the sweet beetroot and salty feta.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- brown onion
- cooked beetroot
- dried chilli flakes
- freshly squeezed lemon juice
- shelled walnuts
- fine sea salt
- water
- rigatoni pasta
- feta cheese