Spiralizer - Beets with walnut pesto

With two kids creative cooking has been put on the back burner.  But also with two very young children, we have had a lot more time awake at night.  The other night during a several hour awake period, I got to thinking about vegetable noodles.  You know, noodles made exclusively out of vegetables.  In an effort to get myself back to sleep, I wrote down all the recipes I would make if I had a machine that made vegetables out of noodles.  

The next day this still seemed like a good idea, so I went ahead and bought a spiralizer! A few days later my 2 year old and I were having a blast cooking with our noodley veggies! Here is our first recipe attempt:

Beet Noodles with Walnut Pesto

This recipe is incredibly delicious and fairly simple, though getting the pesto fine enough was a challenge.  My food processor is no good, so I was using a high powered blender, but I suspect it would have been much easier with a good food processor.  

Ingredients: 

4-6 Beets, washed and peeled (save the greens if they look good*)

1.5 c loosely packed fresh basil

.5 c walnuts

.25-.5 c olive oil

1. Spiralize the beets into noodles. I used a medium/small blade to make spaghetti sized noodles.  Be sure to wash your spiralizer immediately after making the noodles, as the red can stain.  

2. Steam beet noodles until tender but not squishy, about 15 minutes. (I suspect you can also bake or boil your beets, but I steamed them)

3. While the beets are cooking, chop the basil and walnuts in your food processor or blender.  Slowly add the olive oil and continue to process until the desired level of smoothness is achieved.  

4. Mix cooked beet noodles with pesto and serve!

*5. If your beet greens look good, wash and trim them then sauté with a bit of olive oil and garlic and serve on the side.  

Serves about 4.