Roasted Beet & Garlic cream sauce

Before I post the pictures, ignore the color. This dish is made with red beets and thus the sauce is going to be beet colored. So it is the color of magenta play-dough. It was good and low fat.

Gather together:

• 1-2 pounds of beets
• 1 garlic bulb
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• low fat cream cheese (cubed)
• 1/2 cup of fat free milk (see I told you it was low fat)
• favorite whole wheat pasta

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut off the top of the garlic, add olive oil, salt and pepper and wrap in foil. Cut off the tops and bottoms of beets. Spray with olive oil and salt and pepper. Wrap in foil, but put them in a pan. It's less messy this way. Let those roast in the oven for about 45 minutes or until soft.

Remove from oven. Place in to freezer for about 5 minutes--just so they are cool enough to handle. They they are cool, squeeze garlic from the bulb and peel the beats. Add Beets and garlic to a blender with the milk. Get that going until you have a smooth texture. Add more milk if needed. Next transfer to a sauce pan and add the cream cheese. Mix this until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with rosemary. Serve over your favorite pasta. Ignore the color.
This was really flavorful and pretty in a spring/play dough kind of way. This might be a way to get the kids to eat beets.

Roasting Garlic

If you haven't roasted garlic before, you are missing out. This is one of the easiest things you could possibly do with your oven besides throwing a frozen pizza in it. Plus, you can use roasted garlic in so many things. I put some on bread with a bit of butter and made the awesomest garlic bread ever. And tomorrow, I plan to add it to the homemade hummus I am making.

Preheat the oven for 350. cut the top off the bulbs of garlic. Add olive oil and let that soak in. Sprinkle with sea salt and ground black pepper.

Fold foil around the bulbs to make an envelope. Bake the packet for about an hour. If you aren't getting the caramelization you want, unfold the packet, and put them back in for 15 minutes. They will look golden when they are finished and they will be sweet and tender.

These are awesome. Spread them on crostini. Add them to soups, salsas, pasta dishes...The possibilities are endless. I make this roasted pumpkin & Garlic soup...OMG! It is so awesome!


And they are vegan, which means nothing to me, but some people like that sort of thing. In case I haven't mentioned this before, I am not a vegan and I am not a vegetarian. Erin, however, is a vegetarian. So most of the things she makes doesn't include meat. This is too bad, because I love bacon. Usually when Erin & Anthony come over, we choose to make meatless entrees. It's just cheaper to do that. But then there is bacon....Mmmm....bacon.