Gluten-Free Macaroni Salad with Mixed Vegetables

You don't have to give up pasta to keep your
gluten-free diet affordable. Use vegetables to make
your pasta dollars go further!

If you need a way to get more vegetables past the kids, this macaroni salad contains an abundance of frozen mixed vegetables, green onions, and sliced black olives.

Adding vegetables to your pasta and potato salads cuts down on carbohydrates, but when gluten free, it also dramatically cuts costs and beefs up the nutritional value of your meal.

Gluten-free pasta isn't cheap, especially the type of pasta you might want to use for a cold salad.

It costs more than traditional pasta, much more, so adding vegetables and other economical goodies helps to stretch the salad by cutting down on the amount of pasta and other expensive ingredients that you need.

When my kids were young, I always used the cheapest salad pasta I could find, which almost always was in the Hispanic section of the grocery store.

Hispanic pasta comes in very small bags, since it's packaged to go into soups and stews. I used to pick up 4-ounce packages for as little as 25 or 30 cents.

Moving to gluten-free pasta was a mind-blowing paradigm shift because most brands cost between 3 and 5 dollars for a 10 to 12-ounce bag or box. Economically priced gluten-free pasta didn't become a thing until Barilla stepped into the gluten-free market.

Barilla Gluten-Free Pasta: Our Experience

When Barilla gluten-free pasta first hit the market, we were very excited because we could get it at CostCo in a large tube shape for as little as a dollar a box.

Since it's made with corn flour and white-rice flour, and no whole grains or added fiber, it was the perfect choice for me.

However, after having it several times, hubby and I both began to experience Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH) outbreaks -- severe skin rashes that are another form of celiac disease -- so we had to stop buying it.

Later on, I noticed that it was certified to contain less than 10 ppm of gluten. Since I have trouble with most gluten-free products that contain up to 20 ppm and need to stick with products that are certified to be less than 5 or 10, I picked up the box to read all of the information the manufacturer was willing to share.

The claims on the box were:

• certified gluten free (10 ppm or less)
• produced on a dedicated gluten free line
• no GMO ingredients (so the corn is GMO free)
• real pasta taste and texture

The fact that this pasta was run on a dedicated gluten-free line and only made with rice and corn meant that while the certification was for 10 ppm, or less, the product was likely to contain much less gluten residue than that.

And especially, less residue than it contained before.

This product is not made in a dedicated gluten-free facility, so it won't be appropriate for all celiacs, but it sounded like Barilla was trying to do it RIGHT. They had tightened up their allergy policy and made the product as safe as they could for those who are very sensitive to gluten.

Since I can handle up to 10 ppm of gluten on an occasional basis, we gave the product another try.

Barilla Gluten-Free Elbow Macaroni is:
GMO-free and processed on a dedicated gluten-free line

This time, we did not react, even when we ate it more frequently.

In our experience, it lived up to its claims, but keep in mind that the degree of sensitivity we have to gluten might not be the same as what you experience. Yes, I am a super-sensitive celiac, but there are super sensitives that are far more sensitive than I am.

In addition, Barilla pasta is quite a bit cheaper than traditional gluten-free brands and doesn't fall apart like other major supermarket brands do. It tastes pretty close to traditional pasta. As close as you can get without any wheat flavoring.

I highly recommend using Barilla gluten-free elbows (or any other shape you like) for this macaroni salad recipe because they won't get hard when you chill the salad in the refrigerator overnight, like all other gluten-free pastas do.

It will get hard after a few days, so I just make enough of the salad at one time to feed us for a day or two.

Gluten-Free Macaroni Salad with Mixed Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten-free macaroni-shaped pasta
• 8 oz frozen mixed vegetables
• 1/2 chopped onion
• seasoning salt
• seasoning pepper
• garlic powder
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 1/2 can of black olives, sliced
• 1 to 2 cups mayonnaise

Cooking Method:

Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Add pasta, vegetables, and chopped onion. Bring the water back to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer the pasta and vegetables together until the pasta is as done as you like it, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Drain the pasta and vegetables very well.

I usually allow it to sit for a while in the drainer, after draining, so the pasta and vegetables dry out.

Dump the pasta and vegetables into a large bowl. Add sugar and spices to taste; gently toss. Fold in green onion, eggs, and olives, then toss again. Stir in as much mayonnaise as you like. I usually start with a cup, and then add more if necessary. Cover and chill completely before serving.

Additional Tips

The above recipe can be adapted by using whatever vegetables and salad fixings you already have in the house.

I've used frozen peas and carrots, broccoli (don't over cook), mushrooms, corn, or whatever I have. I've even used frozen stir-fry vegetables that I slightly steamed.

You could also leave out the olives and toss in some cheese chunks, bacon, ham, chicken, or baby shrimp to make this a nice lunch or dinner main-dish salad, perfect for a hot summer evening meal.

We get our olives in a 6-pack at CostCo, so we almost always have olives in the house, but if you're paying supermarket prices, you can just leave them out and replace them with something more affordable if you prefer.

Some colorful red sweet peppers would make this salad even more colorful.