To Get Creamy Pasta Salad Without Mayo, Just Add This Vegetable

Pasta salad is an indulgent meal, but it's also a way to sneak more plants into your diet. Think about it — it's already a great way to use up canned ingredients, such as chickpeas, butter beans, sweetcorn, roasted peppers, or artichokes, alongside all your favorite fresh vegetables and herbs. There's another swap you can implement to sneak a vegetable into the dressing. In place of mayo, steamed cauliflower can step in. Once blended, steamed cauliflower becomes incredibly smooth and silky, and makes a perfect creamy dressing or sauce base.

With cauliflower swapped in for mayo, keep the rest of your dressing the same. So, throw in some olive oil, Dijon mustard, lemon juice or vinegar, garlic, herbs, and all your other favorite seasonings. Mayo contributes both creaminess and richness since it's made from egg yolks and oil, so adding a little olive oil gives you some of that needed fat. This is one way to make pasta salad 10 times better, especially if you're looking for a lighter, egg-free alternative that doesn't feel like a compromise.

The only way this can really go wrong is if you don't steam and drain your cauliflower properly. It needs to be completely cooked through and tender, otherwise it ends up grainy when you blend it, and any trapped water can dilute your dressing, making it thin instead of creamy. From there, season it properly; while cauliflower brings the right texture, it's a little lacking in the flavor department. Your other salad dressing additions can help build some complexity, but, as always, taste as you go, especially once it chills since cold temperatures naturally dull flavors.

Once you make a batch of cauliflower dressing, there's no need to stop at pasta salad. Blended cauliflower can be used in a myriad of ways — it has long been used, especially by the plant-based community, as the base for vegan cheese sauce. Just blend it with nutritional yeast, miso paste, and lemon juice to give it a richer umami flavor. Once the dressing is tossed through some pasta and vegetables, the cauliflower fades into the background and all anyone tastes is a delicious, creamy dish.