Zucchini pasta (or zoodles) with beet marinara sauce is a nutritious, gluten-free vegetarian meal for a light dinner. Add your favorite protein source to make it a complete meal.
And now it’s time for a pasta cleanse.
With the beet marinara sauce.
I’ve always admired those who spend a great deal of time and energy on making authentic Italian sauces.
My friends who make their own pasta sauces are very invested in having their sauces turn out the same way each and every time (a stark contrast to my fly by the seat of my pants, a little of this, a little of that BOOM! Pasta sauce approach).
They use very specific canned (or fresh) tomatoes, with a very specific amount of garlic, measure the sugar to the T, and let’s not even discuss the wine v. no wine or the cinnamon v. no cinnamon scenario, there’s just not enough storage space on this site to even go there.
A great sauce is a great sauce, no matter how you stir it.
There’s just no arguing with perfection. I’m a huge fan of making all my sauces homemade, and when I added BEETS (of all the things) to marinara sauce, I knew I had struck gold. Seriously. Believe you me. G-O-L-D. Gold.
If you, yourself, and you are one of those sauce masters I mentioned above, you may be thinking to yourself, “BEET marinara? Abomination.” Just bare with me here.
Beets add a natural sweetness and rich flavor to marinara sauce, and also give it this gorgeous deep, dark color.
Plus, you get the added antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
They do a whoa job of cutting the acidity of the tomatoes, and you guys, it doesn’t take much more work than the usual to include them.
The recipe makes quite a bit of sauce, which is awesome if you’re feeding a crowd, and also great for freezing and having available year-round.
I used previously cooked beets for this sauce, so your options are to to do as I did, or steam or roast a large beet ahead of time and chop it up for the sauce, or chop up a raw beet and cook the sauce slow and low until the beet is cooked through.
Zucchini noodles.
Have you had your way with them and now you’re ready to move on to the next thing?
Could you go the rest of your life without a veggie noodle pasta? Do you wish all the spiralizers would take a swim down to Davy Jones’ Locker, never to be seen again?
Nay.
Whether the zoodle trend has reached its peak and is plummeting to its trough, I’m just so satisfied by them.
They’re the easiest to spiralize (I use my Paderno Spiralizer and it takes but 30 seconds to whip out an uuuuuge batch of noods), zucchini are always available in the grocery store (especially this time of year), and they’re just so pairable with just about any sauce.
For me, these zucchini noodles with beet marinara makes for a glorious meat-less meal.
It’s squeaky clean, easy to digest, and also great for the post-holiday mini cleanse.
If you’re needing a little additional substance and protein, you can add sautéed shrimp, roast chicken, or even tofu. Serve with fresh grated parmesan and some fresh basil?
More Veggie Noodle Recipes:
- Zucchini Noodles with Roasted Tomatoes and Lemon-Garlic Sauce
- Mediterranean Zucchini Noodle Pasta
- Turnip Pesto Pasta with Artichoke Hearts and Kale
- Green Curry Sweet Potato Noodle Bowls
- Raw Carrot Pasta Salad with Ginger-Lime Peanut Sauce
Don’t mind if we do.
Zucchini Noodles with Beet Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
Beet Marinara Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion finely chopped
- 4 cloves large of garlic minced
- 1 28- ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1-1/2 cups cooked beets finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
- 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
Zucchini Noodles:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 large zucchini squash
- A pinch of salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
Prepare the Beet Marinara Sauce:
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté another two minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients except for the basil and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the chopped basil and remove sauce from heat.
Prepare the Zucchini Noodles:
- Rinse the zucchini squash in cold water and chop off the tips and tails. Using a spiralizer (either hand-held or free-standing), spiralize the zucchini squash into noodles.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan.
- Add the zucchini noodles and sauté, stirring occasionally, until noodles are hot and reach desired “done-ness,” which usually takes about 3-5 minutes.
- Serve zucchini noodles with beet marinara sauce, freshly chopped basil, and grated parmesan cheese.
- Note: If desired, the zucchini noodles can be left raw.
So pretty! I love the color. I would totally try this!
Beet marinara sounds amazeballs! I don’t know about the rest of the folks here, but I could use all the post-holiday-weekend-recovery antioxidants I can get!
Beet marinara is a GENIUS idea! The recipe sounds delicious and I’m glad you left the cinnamon out of it. I’ve never heard of using that in marinara. Wine? All the way but cinnamon sounds kinda weird.
I’m glad you had a relaxing weekend!
It was boring here. The end. I love how pretty this is. I’ll snatch up one of those giant beets we have down the road and make some this summer. Stay tuned. xoxo
Obsessed with the idea of beet marinara, it gives the sauce such a rich color and flavor. Pinning!
I don’t care if the zoodle trend is on the decline, either! They’re so versatile and fresh for summer 🙂
Love the sounds of this recipe. Can you quantify 8.8 oz of cooked beets? I’m thinking .5# or close to a cup of cooked shredded beets? Thank you!
Hi Amy,
I find that 1 large beet or two medium beets is about equivalent to a package of Love Beets. I’d say closer to 2.5 to 3 cups of chopped beets 🙂 Let me know if you try the recipe!
Your weekend sounds like so much fun!! Especially day drinking, haha, that is the best! Now I’m starting to feel kinda lame that all we did was eat pizza and set off a few sparklers, haha! Sorry, no good stories from me 🙁
This meal looks beautiful!! Zoodles are pretty awesome, but I’m really loving the color of this sauce! I bet it tastes amazing too 🙂
How have I never heard of beet marinara until now?! I am that person you are talking about..oops. I started making my own marinara sauce and ever since I’m specific about what tomatoes I can use and blah blah. It’s so good though! Adding this to my rotation, ASAP.
I love making homemade marinara; although, I’m not as hardcore as some of your friends. I’m all for canned tomatoes. I would have never thought to make marinara with beets, but it’s genius! Love this dish.
BEET MARINARA?! You’re crazy [genius]. This may get me to eat beets and like them more than I do 😀
This looks SO YUMMY! Love your blog and your amusing writing style! xx, Ali (aliandheralmondbutter.com)
Wow, what a great way to sneak some beets into the kiddos! This sounds so tasty!
I love zucchini noodles! Great idea with the beet marinara. Yum!
A pasta cleanse!? Sounds a bajllion times better than a juice cleanse. I ate my weight in apple pie this weekend so clearly this post was made for me. What a stunna!
I’m very fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants when it comes to pasta sauces. I’m pretty sure you can’t mess them up no matter what you do! Though, in the case of this beet sauce, you can definitely make them better!
The recipe is for how many persons? It’s seems very good!
Just tried this and absolutely loved it!!!! So tasty and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. Great way to use beets, which are honestly so underrated!! I stirred some goat cheese into the sauce while it was hot, and I topped it with some nuts & goat cheese as well!
Oooh the goat cheese sounds so lovely! Glad you enjoy it, Shannon! xo
Ok so I just used this beet marinara sauce to top a pizza and it was AMAZING!!! Spread the sauce on a cauliflower crust and topped with goat cheese, basil, and oregano. I just LOVE your site and all of the amazing recipe ideas -especially with beets!!