Who doesn’t love summer macaroni salad? My boyfriend’s mother makes the most amazing macaroni salad. It’s so good that I would eat it for lunch and dinner. My only complaint was that it was made with white pasta and mayonnaise. I took her original recipe and developed my own summer vegan macaroni salad recipe to make this loveable dish just a bit healthier. By replacing white pasta with whole pasta, mayonnaise for vegenaise, and increasing the amount of celery in this dish, you’ll find that this macaroni salad has become healthier and just as delicious, if not more delicious!

Makes 10 servings

Each serving one cup

Summer Macaroni Salad Recipe

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 pound of whole wheat macaroni pasta (NOTE: To make sure this recipe is vegan, you need to get EGGLESS pasta. Most whole grain pastas are made with the flour and water (instead of eggs) but make sure you double check the ingredient list!)

Half a jar of soy free vegenaise

3 pieces of celery

1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion

2 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons of all purpose seasoning

2 teaspoons of pickle juice

Start by setting up a pot on your stove over high heat with water in it for your pasta. When that boils toss in your pasta. When your pasta is ready, drain and set aside to cool.

NOTE: You should make the pasta ahead of time because it needs to cool before you can mix in all the other ingredients. I usually make the pasta either the night before or the morning of so that the macaroni salad will be ready to eat by lunch or dinner time.

Now let’s assume your pasta is cool. Put your pasta in a large bowl. Then take about half of the jar of soy free vegenaise and add that into your pasta. Using a spatula, gently mix up the pasta with the vegenaise. The pasta will absorb some of this up quite quickly. (The first time I experimented making this I used a whole jar of vegenaise – DISASTER. The pasta became very oily and gross. Half of the jar turns out to be the perfect amount. If after making this and letting it sit in the fridge, you still think it needs some more vegenaise, add sparingly!)

Now set that aside and do some of the prep work. Cut a small piece of a yellow onion and chop it finely. You only need enough to fill a 1/4 cup.

Even if you love onion, like I do, too much onion can really ruin this dish. The onion is so strong tasting that it can override the other flavors. I found 1/4 cup is the most you can use without losing any of the other flavors.

Take two garlic cloves and chop them finely, like you did with the onion.

Then wash three celery stalks and also chop them finely. Toss the onion, garlic and the celery into the bowl of pasta and vegenaise.

Add two tablespoons of all purpose seasoning. I used organic all purpose seasoning from Whole Foods. It was a mix of organic onion, black pepper, garlic, parsley, celery seed, tomato powder, basil, thyme, oregano, sage and coriander. You can choose to substitute this with your favorite herbs instead. Also add in two teaspoons of pickle juice. This sounds like a weird thing to add but it actually sweetens and helps to enhance the other flavors.

Mix this all up and you’re all set! This vegan macaroni salad tastes best when it’s had a little time to set and all the flavors have mixed. Because of that, I usually put it in the fridge for a couple hours before devouring. I’ve found making this in the morning is a great option because then you can make sure it’s ready for your lunch or dinner!

Nutrition Facts

One cup of this macaroni salad will provide you with 217 calories and 15 grams of carbohydrates. It will also give you 88 milligrams of potassium and 3 grams of protein.

In terms of vitamins, you will get almost 2% of your daily vitamin C and 3% of your daily vitamin B-6.

One cup of this macaroni salad will give you lots of minerals though, compared to the vitamins. Some minerals you will receive include: 5% of your daily copper, 21% of your daily selenium, and almost 40% of your daily manganese.

The complete nutrition facts can be seen in the images above and have been calculated using Sparks Recipe Calculator.