Recently I have been making more vegan foods rather than just vegetarian.

For those of you who don’t know the difference, it is simply that vegans do not eat anything that comes from an animal, where vegetarians don’t eat anything that is made from dead animals.

So vegans don’t use cheese or eggs, but vegetarians do.

Most traditional pasta salads are made with eggs and mayo, which is made of eggs as well.

I adapted an old recipe for an Amish-style macaroni salad, making it a good amount healthier by changing it to a vegan dish.

You start by cooking the pasta.

Drain it, rinse with cold water and let it cool off.

As the pasta cools, mix the vegan mayo, sugar, vinegar, mustard and spices in a large bowl big enough for all the pasta eventually.

Once this is all mixed well, stir in the chopped veggies.

Last, mix in the pasta and make sure that all the pasta gets a good coating with the dressing.

Before serving, let this sit in the fridge for at least an hour to allow the flavors to mingle better.

If you have the time and foresight, make this the night before you want to serve it so it can rest in the fridge overnight.

Subbing vegan mayo into most recipes for pasta salads will usually work just fine to make it vegan, but some times the salad tastes different with the substitute.

The ones that work best are the ones that don’t rely on the mayo as the only source of flavor for the dressing.

Ingredients

1 box of pasta, shells or elbow

work best (16 oz.)

1 cup vegan mayo (like Nayonaise)

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

2/3 cup white sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 med. onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup grated carrot