Japanese Pasta Salad – simple pasta salad with a lot of flavor

It’s been called many things: Japanese Pasta Salad, Japanese Spaghetti Salad, Japanese Macaroni Salad…  They are all simple salads that use the different types of pastas.  But they all have one thing in common.  Yep, you guessed it:  Japanese Mayonnaise.  Kewpie Mayonnaise being the most predominate brand.

What’s different about Japanese mayonnaise?

Japanese mayonnaise tends to be slightly thicker because it only uses the egg yolks instead of the whole eggs. Yet it’s milder because of the type of vinegar – mainly rice vinegar – used instead of distilled vinegar.  And…it is more flavorful because it contains a hint of other spices such as mustard or dashi, plus monosodium glutamate, or MSG. 

In a pinch, you can always substitute the American mayonnaise for the Japanese mayonnaise in recipes.  The only exception being when it’s called for as a topping, such as in the okonomiyaki recipe.  In those cases, you may lose the bit of authentic flavor if you don’t use the Japanese mayo.

Japanese pasta salad, Americanized!

The majority of these pasta recipes are very simple: Just the pasta, a few additional ingredients – mainly cucumbers, onions, ham – and Japanese mayo.  It’s very similar to the Japanese potato salad in terms of the ingredients, and typically served much in the same way as the Japanese potato salads – mainly as a delicate, nominal side dish on a dinner plate or in a bento box.

But just as I added a little more flavor to the Japanese potato salad to make it even more suitable for loading it up on your plate in an American style, I packed this Japanese Pasta Salad with more flavor!  But still using the traditional Japanese ingredients. Now you can take a big bowl of it with you to potlucks and cookouts and you can expect to return only with an empty bowl!

Pasta Options

Pasta salads in Japan tend to be either spaghetti or macaroni only because those two are the primary types of dry Italian-style pastas readily available in Japan.  With so many more options in the U.S., I personally like bow-tie pastas mainly for the showy, presentation effect of it.  But you can use any variety.  If you do use spaghetti for this recipe, break the pasta at least in half before boiling them.  And with one, 1 pound box of spaghetti, you may need to make and add more mayonnaise dressing to get to the consistency you want since it was a little dry for my taste.

Japanese Pasta Salad Recipe

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