Can I Use Beetroot Cooking Water For The Ruby Noodles?

Our answer

Nigella's Ruby Noodles (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT) are part-cooked strands of spaghetti that finish cooking in beetroot juice and are spiked with ginger, garlic and chilli. Nigella serves the noodles cold or you can dial back on the spicing and serve them hot, with crumbled feta cheese.

The beetroot juice reduces down to create a slightly sweet and slightly earthy sauce, thick enough to coat the noodles. Whilst we have not tried using beetroot-cooking water ourselves, we feel that it is unlikely to be a good substitute as it is thinner and less flavourful than beetroot juce and lacks the same depth of colour. So we would prefer to stick to beetroot juice for this particular dish and maybe use the cooking water in a soup or stew instead.