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This simple, healthy homemade rainbow pasta is naturally coloured (no food coloring here!) and a beautiful way to add the rainbow to your plate

It’s official; I love homemade pasta- who knew it was SO simple to make and customise?! Well, now I do, and I can’t recommend it enough. Especially this gorgeous all-natural rainbow pasta recipe – a simple, natural way to dye pasta and add extra nutrition to your next pasta dish. This can then be served warm, as usual, or as part of a beautiful rainbow pasta salad with mixed vegetables.

Plus, if you are in the mood for other fresh pasta, then you can check out my pappardelle floral pasta with pesto or Fresh Spinach Pasta.

The actual base recipe for this rainbow spaghetti is super simple too! With a base homemade pasta dough recipe of 1 cup 00 flour and one egg per colour of pasta (and per portion), it couldn’t be much simpler.

What’s even better is that this homemade rainbow pasta is coloured 100% naturally, using vegetables. However, you may be happy to find out that the vegetables don’t have a significant effect on the flavour. So even if you’re not a massive fan of beetroot or parsley, this shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of the dish. Even the flavours that are held in the pasta are super subtle and will be all but gone when combining with pasta sauce and other toppings.

The Coloured Pasta Recipe

The pasta base for each colour:

1 cup ’00’ grade pasta flour
1 Clarence Court Burford Brown egg

For the all-natural colours:

Red Pasta: 1 boiled beetroot & 1 orange pepper/carrot (optional, it is used to lighten the redness of the beetroot)
Orange Pasta: 1 roasted red pepper -OR- 1 boiled carrot
Yellow Pasta: 1 roasted yellow pepper -OR- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder -OR- 1-2 fresh turmeric roots
Green Pasta: 1 cup spinach leaves -OR- 1 cup parsley
Purple Pasta: 1 cup boiled red cabbage & 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional, used to adjust the saturation of the purple) -OR- 1-2 small baked purple potatoes

A simple dressing idea:

2 garlic cloves, minced (or chopped finely)
olive oil for sautéing
black pepper to taste

The How-To

Start by preparing the different all-natural coloured pasta doughs. You can choose to go with only one colour or as many colours as you’d like. Just keep in mind that you have to add 1 cup of flour and 1 egg for each colour and per portion. You might also need to add a bit more flour to wetter ingredients (like the peppers) so that the dough is not sticky.

For the Red Pasta: For the red pasta, use 1 medium-sized boiled beetroot. You can also add some orange pepper or a boiled carrot to adjust the redness of the beetroot.

beetroot, flour and an egg to make homemade beetroot pasta

beetroot, carrot, flour and egg in blender to make homemade pasta dough

Blitz the egg, flour and veg in a high-speed blender or food processor until you obtain a smooth dough. It may be easier to blend the vegetables before adding them to your dough, so the dough is smooth faster.

Knead the dough with your hands to form a smooth ball. If it sticks to your hands, add a bit of flour. Leave it to rest at room temperature (if wanting to save the dough for later then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge)

For The Orange Pasta: For the orange pasta, use 1 red pepper. You first need to roast it in the oven for 10-15 mins at 200C. Then blend and knead the same way as for the beetroot pasta.

A heat shaped bowl with flour a roasted red pepper and an egg

A blender with flour red pepper and an egg

homemade orange pasta using a red pepper

Note: You might need to add a bit more flour as the pepper has high water content. We don’t want a sticky dough. Just add the flour as you blend.

For The Yellow Pasta: you can use either 1 roasted yellow bell pepper or turmeric (either powder or fresh root). If you choose to go with the pepper, you can also add a pinch of turmeric powder to make it a brighter yellow. Repeat the same process as above, blending, kneading and resting the dough. Add a bit more flour, if needed (as the yellow pepper is quite moist)

ingredients for homemade yellow pasta with pepper and turmeric

homemade yellow pasta with turmeric and yellow pepper

For The Green Pasta: Use either 1 cup of spinach or 1 cup of parsley. I tried both and each of them makes a great green colour. Repeat the same process of blending, kneading and resting.

A heart shaped bowl with flour another hear shaped bowl with spinach leaves and an egg on a flat surface

A blender with spinach leaves and an egg

Green pasta dough ball with parsley being held in hands

For The Purple Pasta: You can use either 1 cup of boiled red cabbage or 1-2 baked purple potatoes. You can also add a pinch of baking powder to the cabbage to adjust the hues of purple.

Note: The purple colour will likely change a bit as the dough rests so let your dough rest for 30 minutes before proceeding with the next step.

and voila, you have your dough!

Time to roll the pasta dough

After the rainbow pasta dough has rested for about 30 minutes, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough till it is flat enough to feed into a pasta machine on level ‘0’. Continue feeding it through ‘0’, folding it in half then feeding it through repeatedly until a regular shape.Make sure to sprinkle lightly with flour to stop it from sticking. Then you can make it thinner with the machine.
-OR- If you use a rolling pin for the whole process, make sure to roll it out and stretch it into thin sheets.

Red pasta dough and two halves of beetroot on a flat gray surface

Rolled red pasta dough with a pasta machine behind it

Orange pasta dough with a red pepper on a flat gray surface

Rolled orange dough and a pasta machine behind it

Yellow pasta dough with a few slices of turmeric

Rolled yellow pasta dough with pasta machine behind it

Green pasta dough with some parsley on a grey flat surface

Rolled green pasta dough with a pasta machine behind it

Purplish pasta dough and a half of red cabbage on a flat grey surface

Rolled purplish pasta dough and a pasta machine behind it

Once you have obtained thin sheets of pasta dough, you can proceed with cutting it. I chose to cut it into long strips, like Tagliatelle or Pappardelle, but you can cut it in different shapes/sizes. Be generous with flouring the pasta, so it doesn’t stick together.To cut it into long strips, you just need to fold the pasta a couple of times and then just cut with a knife. Or, if you are using the pasta machine, choose one of its other settings for cutting.

Homemade red pasta strings with beetroot halves being held in hands

Homemade orange pasta strings with red pepper being held in hands

Homemade yellow pasta strings with turmeric halves being held in hands

Homemade green pasta strings with parsley being held in hands

Homemade purple pasta strings with half red cabbage being held in hands

To prepare the simple dressing, just chop the garlic cloves and sauté them in a bit of olive oil. It’s as simple as that! Alternatively, serve with a sauce of your choice.

To cook the all-natural coloured pasta, put it in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, combine with the dressing and serve immediately. I chose to cook each colour separately so that the colours won’t mix (the red especially might seep through) but you can cook them all together.