Classic Creamy Macaroni Salad

I'm not a huge fan of creamy pasta salads, but one search for Fourth of July menus shows they are clearly a classic American dish. I believe there are some parts of the country where you can NOT show up without one of these, so it seemed a must in a holiday cookbook. But I spent so long avoiding them at church potlucks and school picnics, that I'm not sure exactly what they are suppose to taste like. I would LOVE some advice, esp. if you are willing to try the recipe below and tell me your opinion.

It's not that difficult a dish to clean up: white pasta, huge amounts of mayo-sugar based dressing, little to no veggies-it screams makeover and any one of these tips would double its clean value. 

Classic Creamy Macaroni Salad

4 c. cooked pasta

1.5c celery, sliced

2c. shredded carrot, chopped

3-4 radishes, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1/4c pimientos or diced roasted red pepper

1 small sweet or yellow onion, diced

3 scallions (green and white parts), diced

Dressing

1/4c. white wine vinegar

1/4c. mayonnaise

6 oz pureed silken tofu (must be silken)

2T relish

3T dijon mustard

1T honey

1t salt and pepper

2t no salt seasoning like Mrs. Dash

First, a simple swap to whole grain macaroni would add tons of fiber, but I won't lie-this step is not as easy as it seems. First whole wheat shaped noodles (macaroni, rotelle-anything other than spaghetti) just does not taste as good to me. Try going way outside the (blue) box with a quinoa, kamut, or brown rice pasta. And if you don't like one brand, try another because they all have very different tastes. Ronzoni, Barilla, Eden Organic all have many different options. They key to all of them though is not overcook them. Take them off the heat just before you think they are done. As the pasta sits, in the colander draining it will continue to cook. But especially for cold pasta salads, you want to rinse the pasta with cold water both to stop it from cooking and to rinse away the starches that will make it stick together.

Another step towards cleanification would be to increase the amount of veggies to at least equal the amount of pasta. So if you put in 4 cups of pasta make sure you mix it with a total of at least 4 cups of veggies. I also looked at the basic similarities of many recipes and decided this salad could benefit from the addition of veggies like peas, radishes or asparagus, canned chilies, & maybe some sliced olives.

And lastly there is the issue of dressing. Most pasta salad recipes use a ratio of 4-1 mayo to vinegar (I even saw one that was 8-1) and add at least 1/2c. sugar. Mayonnaise in of itself isn't unclean. But if it came from a store, there is litany of additives that appear after the first 5 "whole" ingredients, even if its made with olive oil. But beyond that it is really just a fat, no fiber, no protein, just vitamin & nutrient free fat. And then we go and put it in EVERYTHING!! Dressings, dips, potato salad, macaroni salad, some even put it in cake!

But there are many work arounds for that. I personally like mixing mayo with greek yogurt, silken tofu, cashew butter or pureed cannellini beans. If you are a die hard mayo fan start with a ratio of 3-1 (3/4c. mayo & 1/4c. yogurt to equal 1 c. of mayo in your recipe) and gradually work your way up to 1-3.