To Dread Summer Pasta Salads?

[EggInANest]

IMO pasta 'salad' is revolting.

Pasta was surely not made to be eaten cold? It is stodgy, claggy, and invariably mixed up with mayo and sweetcorn to make it even more claggy and gunky and horrid.

I keep seeing it recommended for buffets and BBQs. Alongside Coleslaw and Potato salad, both of which are also creamy beige, mayo drenched and one very carby. Fine if you like these salads (I do like good coleslaw and good potato salad) but not all three together, surely? We need contrast and variety!

Does summer have to come with a side of pasta salad?

I like them, they'd be one of my top choices at a bbq buffet. Much better than a sad leaf based salad.

I love a nice chopped salad.

YABU, I love a good pasta salad. Never with mayonnaise, as I hate the stuff.

it's not technically speaking a pasta but it is made from semolina, so it's a cousin of pasta.

I just looked up ambrosia salad as I'd never heard of it. The pictures made me feel sick, it looks awful.

Wow that looks like a bowl of sick!

But at least it doesn't have actual ambrosia in it, as I feared.

I have fallen down an internet rabbit hole with some of these salads, jello/Cold whip, Miracle whip. It is an education!

Cold pasta 🤢 Don't know how anyone can bear to eat it.

It might as well - it is fruit and miracle whip/spray cream. A carton of Ambrosia custard instead would probably be less sickly/closer to a trifle.

Tuna pasta Mayo and sweetcorn is lush 😍

I just avoid it at all costs OP. If I'm at an event and there is nothing else I just take a tiny bit, move it around my plate and then leave it. Just like I did with my peas as a child. 😂

I have just discovered 7-up Jello Mayonnaise salad.

How is that nation allowed nuclear weapons?

And spaghetti hoops jello mould.

I think this is the best strategy.

And being beige it isn’t as conspicuous as peas.

Unless it is some American technicolour lime jello or orange spag hoops version.

After Googling those American salads you begin to understand Rachael's trifle.

I was going to agree @EggInANest about bad pasta salads, but the alternative is scary.

YABU. I haven't eaten pasta salad for about 15 years - there's no need to dread it. Just don't make it or buy it if you don't like it.
It's highly likely you'll ever be at an event where it's the only menu option surely

I can't stand pasta in any shape or form. I also hate mayo, coleslaw and potato salad shit.
I always refuse it if I'm offered it.

Any TikTokers on the thread, can I direct you to B Dylan Hollis, he's an American that makes old timey recipes from decades old cook books. Lots of jello 'salads' amongst other things.

It's captivating and also gross (and funny).

7-Up jello salad sounds like it probably is a nuclear weapon?

I've been farting around in the kitchen whilst reading this thread. Made a coleslaw, thought I'd Google a American recipe for it. Half a cup of sugar? What the heck.

Cold pasta <not envy

So it seems when you say (or read) salad and pasta enough times, the words lose all meaning 😂

Make your potato salad with vinaigrette not mayo.

so much tastier

I do like an orzo pasta salad with feta, slow roasted tomatoes and olives! Not to serve at a summer bbq though, just made for me for my lunch!
Cold pasta salad would not tempt me at a gathering, it’s generally a very cheap filler made with really poor quality pasta, overcooked until soggy and exceedingly gloopy.
We use yoghurt to make coleslaws as it’s much lighter, or a mix of yoghurt and mayo to make it a bit more creamy.
None of us like potato salad!!

Oh, and I detest pesto, it’s absolutely fucking minging and I would be repulsed by anything with it in 🤢