This creamy vegan macaroni salad is full of fresh vegetables, is tossed in a creamy homemade salad dressing, and uses only six simple ingredients.
This recipe is perfect when you're looking for a classic macaroni salad recipe.
Enjoy it as an easy side dish, make-ahead pasta salad, on a picnic, or at your next cookout or summer BBQ.
Try my Spicy Cashew Pasta Salad or my Vegan Pasta Salad next!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Vegan: We took this family recipe and swapped ingredients out to make it fully vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based. Which means it's also a dairy-free pasta salad!
- Easy to Make: This recipe uses simple ingredients and has basic step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow.
- Full of Flavor: Between the fresh ingredients and homemade salad dressing, this recipe is bursting with fresh flavor!
Ingredient Notes:
Pasta: Choose a hearty pasta that will hold up well when tossed with the other ingredients and dressing. I like using shells, penne, or a spiral pasta.
Avoid longer pasta shapes such as spaghetti and avoid thin/fragile pastas.
Vegetables: We use a combination of vegetables in this veggie pasta salad including: red bell peppers, Vidalia onions, and celery.
Dressing: This pasta salad uses a homemade dressing. See the recipe card below for the salad dressing ingredients and instructions.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and their quantities.
Substitutions & Additions
Vidalia onions: Though the original recipe calls specifically for Vidalia onions, you can use any sweet onion that is available at your grocery store.
Make it spicy: If you want to turn up to heat and add a kick of spiciness to this pasta salad you have two options. You can either add crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper to the dressing, or add chopped jalapeno or serrano peppers to the pasta salad.
Add extra vegetables: This pasta salad is a great way to add vegetables into your diet. If you're looking to add more you can either double the amount originally called for in the recipe or add additional vegetables of your choosing.
If you add anything additional to the recipe I recommend making and adding extra dressing as well.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Start by washing and prepping the ingredients. Cook the pasta according to package instructions, mix the salad dressing together, and chop the fresh vegetables.
Step 2: Once the pasta has finished cooking you'll strain it and run it under cool water to bring the temperature down. Drain out any excess water from the pasta.
Step 3: Combine everything in a large mixing bowl and toss in the dressing until everything is well coated.
Step 4: Either serve right away or cover the pasta salad and store it in the refrigerator for later.
Expert Tips
- Make this recipe in advance: Like many pasta salad recipes this macaroni salad is best when made the day before. Allowing the ingredients to meld and the dressing to soak into the pasta and veggies, you'll get a more dynamic flavor on the second day.
- Make extra dressing: If you're like me you'll want to make sure that you have plenty of dressing when you serve your pasta or pasta salad. I like to keep an extra jar or container of dressing separate and toss it in at the time of serving if needed.
Serving Recommendations
You can enjoy this creamy vegan macaroni salad recipe at any time but these are some of my favorite recommendations:
- Picnics
- Beach day or poolside lunches
- Make-ahead lunches
- Potlucks
- School or work lunches
- Cookouts or barbeques
- Side dish
Frequently Asked Questions
Sometimes the pasta can absorb too much of the dressing when it is stored in the refrigerator. To fix this I like to make extra dressing and keep it in another container. Mix it in with the macaroni salad at the time of serving if needed.
Many macaroni salad recipes use pasta and some form or mayo in the recipe, both of which can be calorie-dense. You can opt for lower calorie mayo or pasta if you're looking to reduce the calories in this dish.
More Pasta Recipes You'll Love
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Vegan Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound pasta
- ½ cup Vidalia onion finely chopped
- 1 red bell pepper finely diced
- 2 celery ribs finely diced
- ½ cup bread and butter pickles finely chopped
Homemade Dressing
- ¾ cup vegan mayo
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoon dry mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Once fully cooked strain and run under cool water until the temperature has cooled significantly.
- Mix together all ingredients for the homemade dressing.
- Wash and prep all ingredients according to the ingredient list.
- Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and toss in the dressing until well coated.
- Store in the refrigerator in a covered container for at least 12 hours for best flavor results. You can enjoy the pasta salad right away.
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