So delicious, this vegan pasta salad features macaroni noodles tossed in a creamy avocado dressing with crunchy veggies. It’s the perfect meal or side dish for a warm summer day, or anytime you feel like a cool, refreshing pasta salad. Plus, it’s ready in under 30 minutes!

What spells summer more than a big bowl of macaroni salad?

A natural part of getting older, I think, is to gravitate more toward nostalgic recipes with time.

My mom used to make an easy macaroni salad every summer when I was growing up. Think it was totally traditional: think elbows, gobs of mayo, some vinegar, some sweetness, and specks of veggies throughout.

Now that I eat a plant-based diet, vegan pasta salad has become an easy, summery lunchtime staple. Some of my all-time favorites are pesto pasta salad, vegan BLT pasta salad, and curried tahini pasta salad.

This recipe, a macaroni salad, is a great blend of old and new. It has the creaminess and tangy flavor of the classic, but in place of vegan mayo, it has a creamy avocado-based dressing.

Just as with the classic version, there are colorful, crunchy pieces of fresh vegetables folded into a bed of bendy, elbow-shaped pasta.

How to make macaroni salad

Classic pasta salad is made with cooked pasta (often macaroni), vegetables, and a mayonnaise-based dressing. It’s a simple dish to prepare: cook pasta, add mix-ins, add mayo, stir.

Making this creamy vegan pasta salad is nearly as easy as making the conventional version.

You cook and drain the pasta, blend your avocado-based dressing ingredients together, add veggies, and mix. You can use a food processor or a blender to make the sauce.

Why avocado is a perfect base for vegan macaroni salad

The avocado-based creaminess in the pasta salad isn’t over-the-top. It’s there, but it’s subtle. Plus, avocado is rich in health-supporting nutrients. These include fiber, folate, Vitamin E, potassium, and healthful fats.

I tried a few different versions of the dressing as I was playing around with the recipe. One only included avocado, another avocado and olive oil. Another—the I liked the most—was avocado blended with unsweetened vegan yogurt.

I love the tanginess that the yogurt adds to the sauce! And the consistency of the sauce is perfect for macaroni salad. As an added bonus for those who eat oils sparingly, the sauce is naturally oil free.

Creamy vegan macaroni salad ingredients

The ingredients for the macaroni salad are pretty flexible. You don’t have to use the same vegetables that I used, and there are lots of ways that you could tweak the sauce. One thing that I love about vegan pasta recipes is that they’re easy to personalize.

Likewise, this is a really easy recipe. I wanted to keep the ingredients and the process simple. Here’s what it’s made with:

Avocado

I used about half of a large, Hass avocado. If you have a smaller avocado, you can just use a little more than half. I give a cup measurement in the recipe!

Vegan yogurt

Any plain, unsweetened, non-dairy yogurt is fine here: almond, cashew, coconut, or soy. My go-to vegan yogurt lately is the Forager brand cashew yogurt, but I’ve used a lot of other yogurts in meals and cooking. Just be sure that the yogurt is unsweetened, as it’ll make the sauce too sweet otherwise.

White vinegar

I often use lemon juice in dressings and sauces like this, but sometimes the lemon can compete with other flavors. I’ve been using white vinegar a lot in dressings lately, originally because it was always on hand at the start of quarantine, whereas lemons tended to run out. But I’m enjoying the fact that it can add acid to a dressing without being overly assertive.

Macaroni pasta

You can use any type of macaroni/elbows that suits your tastes and needs: regular, whole grain, legume-based, gluten-free, etc.

Vegetable mix-ins

I almost always come back to a combination of bell pepper, carrots, celery, and red onion when I make macaroni salad. The proportions fit my tastes: lots of bell pepper, very little onion, but enough to impart some flavor. I think chopped scallions, broccoli florets, peas, and grape tomatoes would all be lovely. And I didn’t add herbs to the recipe, but you certainly could.

Do I need to use macaroni for the salad?

You absolutely don’t! I’ve made the salad with shells, radiatori, cavatappi, and other shapes. I’d recommend a small or medium pasta shape, but otherwise, it’s up to you.

Preparation and storage

Once the macaroni salad is ready, you can store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. This makes it easy to prepare in advance of a gathering, if that suits your schedule.

Can I freeze pasta salad?

You can! Pasta salad, like many pasta dishes, can be frozen. The leftovers of this recipe can stay in the freezer for up to four weeks.

Serving options

The avocado macaroni salad would fit well into any summer grilling or cookout. If you want to serve it as a side, it would be a great accompaniment to BBQ soy curl sandwiches, sweet potato black bean burgers, or sweet potato red pepper quesadillas.

You can also turn the vegan macaroni salad into a main course by adding some cubed tofu, tempeh, or vegan bacon. Maybe with a slaw or some steamed broccoli on the side.

Happy summer!

xo