Nutritarian Macaroni Salad (2024)

Time to Celebrate Summer Cookout Season With This No-Oil, Packed-With-Veggies, Macaroni Salad Recipe!

When you’re eating nutritarian, family gatherings can be (now, how can I put this diplomatically) challenging.

Well, consider yourself officially covered in the what-in-the-world-am-I-going-to-bring department!

Everyone loves macaroni salad–it’s an absolute picnic, cookout and Fourth of July staple that no one will refuse!

What your friends and family won’t realize is the nutrient bounty packed in this salad…

Nutrifying Macaroni Salad

Yeah, there’s a whole lot of plants in here!

• red onion
• red bell pepper
• carrots
• yellow bell pepper
• celery
• diced jalapeno (if you like it hot)

There are 5 cups of chopped raw veggies packed into this pasta salad recipe! Plus another 1/2 cup of raw sunflower seeds.

That’s a bonafide serving of phytonutrients that you usually won’t find in a SAD (Standard American Diet) macaroni salad recipe. Add to that a delicious oil-free, low-sodium, vegan mayo and we are making serious headway in the nutrification process!

But, what really sets this salad apart is the pasta.

Organic green lentil pasta made from one ingredient: organic green lentil flour. Yeah, that’s pretty much finely ground beans.

I use the Tolerant Organic Green Lentil Elbow Macaroni noodles that I buy at Whole Foods.

Is it pricey? Yes, at $6.99 per box, it most certainly is.

But for a once-in-a-while treat, why not? For other nutritarian pasta options read this article!

Make it Ahead–It Tastes Even Better the Next Day!

I have a prepping habit addiction.

The easier a recipe is to make and the longer it stores in the fridge only increases it’s value in my eyes!

That’s why this recipe is such a gem! You can chop all your veggies up to two nights before you serve this salad! I like to make the salad the night before I’m serving it so all the flavors can meld together.

As long as you make sure to cook your pasta al dente, the leftovers will last for up to 5 days in the fridge and still taste amazing (I had to eat quite a few batches of this recipe and you’ll soon see why)!

Introducing My Very First YouTube Recipe Video Ever:

It was so much fun figuring out how to shoot a recipe video! And, yes, there was a whole lot of figuring going on for me.

Now that I’ve gotten my first two videos done (I’ll be sharing the next one when I get back from vacay!), I’m starting to refine my approach and I have an amazing line up of video content I can’t wait to share with you!

Please take a moment to subscribe to my YouTube channel here! After I get my first 100 subscribers I can get a custom channel name–right now it’s a very unappealing and forgettable “UCOLWRfK4jTqPFM4Cqp4PrZg”, lol.

My Macaroni Salad Evolution

This recipe is proof that nutrifying your favorite meals works!

See, I made a vegan version of recipe a few years ago, you can see it in the archives here. The only problem was it was made with vegan mayo (which is straight-up machine-whipped oil), a combination of white and wheat macaroni noodles, and plenty of salt.

Could I eat the vegan version and still conform to Dr. Fuhrman’s recommendations? Sure, if I were following is 90/10 rule I could have a small portion of the vegan macaroni salad and it would fall under that 100-calories of low-nutrient foods.

But I don’t like little portions.

I’d rather stack my plate up with this nutritarian version and not skip a beat!

See, the whole no-calorie-counting thing is a major turn-on for me–I always say portion control is for the birds!

If you give this Nutritarian Macaroni Salad recipe a try, I’d love to hear what you think! Please leave a recipe rating and comment below!

Editor's Note

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