Vegan Amish Macaroni Salad
Amish Macaroni Salad has been a popular side dish in the greater Philadelphia area for many years. It’s a simple dish, made with macaroni, mayonnaise, and a few chopped vegetables. The classic version calls for celery, onion, carrot, hard-boiled eggs, and noodles with a sweet mayonnaise-based dressing.
The mayonnaise is often flavored with mustard, sugar, and vinegar. This salad is a great side dish for any meal, but it’s especially popular during the summer months for things like picnics and gatherings. In my family, we also like to make it for the holidays.
Let’s Talk Ingredients
The dressing for this vegan Amish macaroni salad is made from aquafaba, which is essentially a natural vegan egg white replacement that is commonly used in vegan cooking. It’s actually just the liquid from a can of chickpeas. Most people pour it down the drain — but it’s vegan gold. It makes vegan mayo, vegan whipped cream, and more. Since we blend it with oil and vinegar for this recipe, it adds a thick and creamy mayonnaise texture to the dressing. Vinegar also adds a tangy flavor and helps to balance out the sweetness of the sugar. The lemon juice adds a little sour undertone, and sugar adds sweetness and helps to balance out the other flavors. The mustard adds color and a little zing to the macaroni salad, and pairs well with the vegan mayo and the sweetness of the sugar. Lastly, the salt enhances and brings out all the flavor.
Noodles provide the base for the salad, and finely chopped vegetables like celery, onion, and carrot add a nice crunch. They also provide a variety of colors and textures. When it all comes together, it’s a delicious side dish for any occasion and the perfect thing to bring to a backyard BBQ, potluck, or picnic.
How Do You Keep Macaroni Salad From Soaking Up The Dressing?
Despite what others may say, there’s really no way to prevent noodles from soaking up the dressing in macaroni salad other than keeping the dressing and noodles separate until the time that you want to eat it. This happens because pasta is absorbent, and the flour in the pasta absorbs liquid over time. The ingredients in the macaroni salad that the pasta absorbs the most is the vinegar and lemon juice. So, if you notice that the salad loses a bit of its spark in the fridge over the course of a few days, just add an extra half tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and stir it up and it’ll be as good as freshly made.
This recipe is designed with this in mind, so there’s a bit of extra vinegar in the dressing that gets soaked into the pasta overnight, so the flavor and consistency of the sauce should be spot on the next day. If you’re making this recipe to eat the same day, consider using a tablespoon or two less vinegar.
How Do You Make The Perfect Macaroni Salad?
Since the macaroni noodles continue to soften as they soak up more dressing in the fridge, it’s important to not overcook them and to make sure that the macaroni salad is not too dry or too wet. You want just the right amount of dressing so that it thickens nicely as the noodles soak it up.
Fun Things To Serve With Amish Macaroni Salad
- Sandwiches
- Vegan Hot Dogs
- Potato Salad
- Coleslaw
- Baked Beans
- Pickles
- Corn on the Cob
- Veggie Burgers
- Fresh Fruit
- Rolls
At A Minimum, You’ll Need:
- A food processor or blender to whip the aquafaba and other ingredients for the dressing.
- A stainless steel mixing bowl or another large bowl to mix everything together.
How To Make Amish Macaroni Salad
Gather all the ingredients. You’ll need finely chopped onions and celery, a shredded carrot, and cooked macaroni noodles; as well as all the ingredients for the dressing which includes the liquid from a can of chickpeas, vinegar, oil, lemon juice, sugar, yellow mustard, and salt.
Using a blender on high speed, blend together the liquid from the chickpeas, the vinegar, the salt, and the oil. Once thickened to a thin mayo, add the rest of the dressing ingredients and blend again for another ten to fifteen seconds, until the sugar and salt have dissolved into the dressing.
To a bowl, add the cooked noodles, shredded and chopped vegetables, and the dressing you just made. Give it a nice stir to combine. Cover the bowl and chill it overnight in the fridge or for at least eight hours until the dressing has thickened nicely.
Serve with your favorite sandwiches and enjoy this creamy pasta salad!
How To Make Amish Macaroni Salad – Video
What’s cooking?
RECIPE
Vegan Amish Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 8 oz of macaroni pasta
- 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
- 1/4 cup grated carrot
- 2-4 tbsp finely chopped onion
Dressing
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup aquafaba
- 3 tbsp vinegar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp mustard
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Shred the carrot, and finely chop the celery and onion. Add the noodles and chopped vegetables to a large bowl.
In a blender, add vegetable oil, aquafaba, vinegar, and salt. Blend on high until thick and creamy, then add the rest of the dressing ingredients. Blend for an additional 10 to 15 seconds until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Pour over the noodles and chopped vegetables, then stir to combine.
Cover and chill overnight, then serve and enjoy.
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