Here is my take on the classic macaroni pasta salad with vegan mayonnaise and vegetables. This cold and egg-free pasta salad is a crowd-pleaser, and you can easily customize this to a vegan salad!

Be it in grocery stores deli section or the kitchen section or even in pizza places; you would have come across this cold pasta salad. And yeah, most of the summer parties and potlucks will have this pasta salad as well. I tasted this pasta salad in one of the pool parties and instantly fell in love with it.

Our friend made it just with veggies, but in grocery stores and other places, you can different varieties of this cold macaroni salad—some with tuna, some with bacon, and some with eggs. You can find a zillion varieties on the internet as well. I loosely adapted the recipe from all recipes website. Here is my vegetarian and egg-free take on this pasta salad.

The recipe is straightforward. All you have do is – cook the pasta and add the veggies and dressing. Then mix, chill and enjoy! That’s it. I love to pack this for lunch box too. You don’t need to worry about reheating, and this pasta tastes better when it is cold. Perfect right?

Now let’s talk about the ingredients and how we can make it vegan.

Ingredients required and substitutes for the veggie version of the macaroni pasta salad-

Pasta

You can prepare this salad with any small shaped pasta, but for this recipe, I went with the regular durum wheat elbow-shaped macaroni pasta. You can try the tricolor pasta too. Opt for gluten-free pasta depending upon your diet preference. And you need water, salt and oil to cook the pasta.

You can cook the pasta in your preferred way either in Instant Pot or stove-top. Check my carrot sauce pasta recipe for cooking pasta in Instant Pot. I used 1/2 cup of pasta, and it yielded roughly 2 cups of cooked pasta.

Once the pasta is ready, it’s all about mixing.

Vegetables for pasta salad

I always use a mix of colored bell peppers, green onion, and celery along with celery greens. My son is not a fan of raw onions, so I add green onions. Also, he loves the crunchiness of celery in this salad. So I make sure to sneak in celery along with the greens. Now, there is no set measure for vegetables. You can adjust the measurements according to your preference. Also, instead of green onion, you can add red onion and other veggies like carrots, sweet peas, sweet corn, snap peas, sweet pickles as well.

If you follow a low-carb diet, opt for gluten-free quinoa or chickpea pasta and add more veggies to make it healthy. You can even skip the pasta and add any beans or boiled potatoes. The options are endless.

Sauces and condiments for the salad

The three main condiments/sauce required for the dressing are mayo, mustard, and vinegar or pickle juice. And you need some salt, pepper and a little bit of sugar. I went with vegan mayo but ended up using honey mustard(we love it). So I cannot call this recipe completely vegan. I did not add any vinegar or pickle juice because the honey mustard that I used had vinegar included in it.

I went with 1/4 cup of mayo and 1.5 to 2 tbsp of honey mustard. It might sound a lot, but those two are the main ingredients that make this pasta salad creamy and rich. I don’t add any extra cheese, so I always go with 1/4 cup of mayo. And adjust the sugar, salt, and ground pepper according to your preference. If you are using honey mustard, you can skip sugar as well, but I add a little.

How to make this macaroni pasta salad vegan?

You can skip honey mustard and instead use spicy mustard or any vegan mustard available. Check the label for ingredients, and depending upon that, you can add vinegar as required. Also, increase the amount of sugar or add maple syrup to add that tinge of sweetness. By using gluten-free pasta, you can make this salad both vegan and gluten-free.

Now without any further ado, here is the detailed recipe.

Instructions:

Bring 3 cups of water to boil. Add 3/4 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of oil while the water is boiling. Cook the pasta aldente according to the directions in the package. I cooked the pasta for 7 minutes.
Drain the water and set the pasta aside—no need to reserve the pasta water. Make sure to drain the water thoroughly.
While the pasta is getting ready, chop all the veggies.
In a mixing bowl, add the cooked pasta, mayo, mustard, sugar, salt (1/4 tsp), pepper, chopped green onion, celery, and bell peppers.

Gently combine and serve it chill. I usually refrigerate for atleast 2 to 3 hours.

Recipe Notes-

As mentioned before, you can use any pasta (gluten-free) kind or any other small variety pasta for this salad.
You can keep it vegan but adding spicy mustard and, in that case, increase the sugar amount by a tsp or add 1 tsp of maple syrup.
I kept the macaroni salad egg-free. But you can add eggs and also regular mayo instead of vegan mayo.
There is no set measurement for mayo and honey mustard. Adjust them and also sugar, salt, and pepper according to your preference.
As my honey mustard contains vinegar, I did not add extra. If you are using spicy mustard, add 1 tbsp of white vinegar.
You can add regular onions instead of green onions or a combination of both.
I like to add colored bell peppers, but you can add just one color. I would recommend red bell peppers for the color pop.
You can use other veggies like carrots, sweet peas, corn, and even sweet pickles.

Other salad recipes from my archives-

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Update Notes: This recipe was originally posted in 2015 but now updated with new photos.

Simple Macaroni Salad | Pasta Salad with Veggies