Cooking pasta for a cold salad is radically different from cooking pasta for a hot dish. Going against the grain, you cook it not to al dente, but to tenderness. Overcooking it will leave you with a soggy mess instead of a salad, and undercooking it will produce hard-as-nails pasta once cool. Cooking the pasta just right will render this a perfect American staple.
And being vegan doesn’t mean you have to miss out on delicious, creamy macaroni salads. This recipe uses vegan mayonnaise to keep it dairy-free. Use gluten-free pasta to make it gluten-free.
Recipe and photo from Everyday Vegan Eats* by Zsu Dever © 2014, reprinted by permission of Vegan Heritage Press.
Creamy Vegan Macaroni Salad
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 8 oz elbow macaroni (use whole grain or gluten-free if you’d like)
- 3/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 celery stalk, minced
- 1/4 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 2 tbsp minced red onion
- 2 tbsp minced parsley
- 2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
- salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain well and transfer to a large baking dish to cool. Stir gently every few minutes to cool it faster. Once it is cool, transfer the pasta to a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, lemon juice, and mustard and mix well. Add 1/2 cup to the pasta and set aside the remaining dressing.
- Stir in the celery, bell pepper, onion, parsley, and relish. Season with salt and black pepper.
- Chill the pasta salad in the refrigerator for an hour to meld the flavors. Stir the remaining dressing into the pasta salad before serving. Taste and adjust seasoning.
VARIATION: Tex-Mex Macaroni Salad. Replace the lemon juice with lime juice. Replace the mustard with 2 teaspoons of chipotle adobo puree. Reduce the celery to 1/2 celery rib. Replace the parsley with cilantro. Stir in 3/4 cup roasted corn kernels.
Nutritional Information: 480 calories; 27g fat; 348.7mg sodium; 119mg potassium; 50g carbs; 6g fiber; 3g sugar; 6.5g sugar
- Here are more pasta salad recipes.
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8 Comments
Jennifer
May 21, 2014 at 4:09 pmWOW! Looks amazing! LOVE Vegan Mac Salad! I’d LOVE to win Zsu’s Book, too! Everything I have seen so far seems right up my alley 🙂
Nava
May 21, 2014 at 4:12 pmJennifer, I’m not doing a giveaway as yet, but stay tuned, I may do so in June.
Jennifer
May 21, 2014 at 4:10 pmOH! And the Variation! Great ideas!
Dana
November 25, 2015 at 6:43 pmThis is delicious. We love it. I just wanted to let you know that the celery is not incorporated into the directions.
Nava
November 25, 2015 at 6:46 pmThanks so much, Dana! And we’ve made the correction.
Anita
September 4, 2016 at 9:02 amMaking this today seems pretty easy
Heather
November 20, 2016 at 1:27 pmI made it for our full day sailing tour and served it during the beach BBQ. I loved it and the clients loved it too! (and no one knows it’s vegan!!) haha! This recipe is going to be a regular, so yummy!
Oh, and down here in Costa Rica I can’t just walk into a market and buy vegan mayo so I make my own; one block of tofu, some fresh lemon juice, some white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, a little salt and a little olive oil…blend. Rico!
Nava
November 20, 2016 at 4:18 pmSounds amazing, Heather! I should look into your Sea Bird Sailing Excursions …