Macaroni Salad makes a terrific summertime lunch and is made for taking to gatherings. Simple to prepare and as diverse as you want it to be, this is a great classic pasta salad.
With a pasta salad dressing made with a combination of mayonnaise and yoghurt, it’s still beautifully creamy with all the flavour and less guilt! For a healthier option, try this Macaroni pasta salad with a mayo-free Creamy Lemon Dressing or Ranch Dressing!
Macaroni Salad in a bite
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What is Macaroni Salad made of? Cooked macaroni, shredded carrot, green onions, red peppers/capsicum and celery tossed in a dressing made with mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, sugar and garlic powder.
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How long can you keep macaroni salad? Up to 5 days in the fridge.
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Do you serve macaroni salad hot or cold? It’s best served at room temperature or ever so slightly chilled. But not cold, straight out of the fridge.
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Calories in macaroni salad – 319 kj as a side dish
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Can you freeze macaroni salad? Yes, because it’s mostly pasta. Thaw naturally (do not microwave thaw) and toss well before serving.
Macaroni Pasta Salad
It’s difficult to imagine a summer with Macaroni Salad. Like Coleslaw, it’s a summertime staple. The pasta salad you keep in your fridge for a quick side for meals and to put in your lunchbox.
While it’s tempting to take the easy route and pick up a tub from the deli, too often they are overly mayo-heavy, too sweet, too sour, or dripping with watery dressing.
So skip store bought and make your own – it’s so simple and tastes so much better!
Lighter, flavour packed Dressing for Pasta Salad
I like to have a lot of dressing because it makes pasta salads moist and juicy. But using just mayo is too oily. So I always lighten up mayo dressings with either sour cream or yoghurt, then add a nice amount of seasoning so no one would even notice that it’s got less fat in it!
Here’s what goes in my creamy pasta salad dressing:
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Equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream OR yogurt
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Cider vinegar – essential touch of tang!
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Dijon Mustard – flavour and thickening
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Seasonings – Sugar, garlic powder, salt and pepper
Regular readers know how much I love my sauces and that extends to salad dressings. No pasta salad recipe of mine will ever be lacking in Dressing!
And that’s why this Macaroni Salad stays nice and moist – because there’s plenty of dressing!
Wondering if Macaroni Salad is good or bad for you?
While you get some nutrition from the vegetables the reality is that Macaroni salad is heavy on carbs from the pasta and fat in the dressing. For a healthier option, try this with a mayo-free Creamy Lemon Dressing or Ranch Dressing!
Macaroni Salad Add-in options
I’ve kept this recipe classic. So as much as I was tempted, I resisted all my favourite add-in possibilities including:
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bacon
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egg
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pickles
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roasted red peppers
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chicken (try my Chicken Pasta Salad recipe)
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olives
Make a great summer meal for your family and friends by serving this pasta salad on the side of BBQ Pulled Pork, BBQ Beef Brisket, some BBQ Pork Ribs or Sticky Country-style Chicken! – Nagi x
MORE SUMMER SALADS to take to gatherings
- Italian Pasta Salad
- Coleslaw
- Potato Salad and Lemon Potato Salad
- Pearl Couscous Salad <– personal fave!
- Wild Rice Salad <– reader fave!
- 12 Minute Sun Dried Tomato Couscous Salad
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Browse all Pasta Salads and Rice Salad
Macaroni Pasta Salad
Watch how to make it
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Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
- 250 g / 1/2 lb macaroni elbow pasta
- 1 1/2 tbsp salt (to cook pasta)
- 1 cup celery , finely sliced (1 stalk)
- 3/4 cup red capsicum / bell peppers , finely diced (1 small)
- 3/4 cup green onions , finely sliced (1 large stem)
- 1 medium carrot , grated (using standard box grater)
Dressing:
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise (Hellmann's, Best Foods, S&W or other whole egg mayonnaise)
- 1/2 cup yoghurt or sour cream , full or low fat
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp sugar
- 3/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Bring large pot of water to the boil - 4 to 5 litres / quarts. Add salt then add pasta. Cook per packet directions.
- Drain pasta then cool.
- Meanwhile, mix Dressing ingredients in a bowl.
- Place pasta in a bowl. Add remaining Macaroni Salad ingredients. Pour over Dressing.
- Toss. Adjust salt / sugar / sour (vinegar) / mayo to taste.
- Set aside for at least 20 minutes. Then serve at room temperature (not cold). It's great the next day too!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When I leave Dozer indoors when I’m out all day and it’s been raining (damn that dog door!!!!).
I have my own recipe that I really love but wanted to try this one coz all Nagis recipes are the bomb. Tasted the sauce and thought nah i like mine better…but then put it all together and it was just amazing! Won’t even bother with my original one anymore. Husband, who also isn’t a big fan of pasta salad raved about it! Perfect side for a hot night.
So, I made this without the sour cream, due to allergies and just used 1 cup of mayo. I also reduced the salt and mustard to lessen the sodium. It is wonderful! I added green peppers to it and it gives it the extra flavor that I love. Thank you so much for this recipe. I have been on the hunt for one for a long time!
Can I leave out the sour cream? We have dairy allergies. Thanks
We really dislike celery can I substitute it for something else?
Hi Lee-Anne. I’m not a big fan of celery either! I just chopped them up into small pieces and I didn’t get the ick. I’d definitely recommend keeping it in the recipe as it provides a nice crunch.
Do you rinse the pasta or just let it sit to cook off?
I just let it drain off and it was perfectly fine 😀
I was very pleased with this recipe. However, I did make some changes: I did not add the dijon mustard and I cut way back on the onion. I don’t like onion to over-power a recipe. I did add some diced cucumbers, I thought it looked a little dry and did not want to add more mayonnaise, I had some lite balsamic vinaigrette in the refrigerator so I added a couple of squirts. Turned out great!
Picked this as a different side for Easter dinner. Delicious!!
You’re 2 for 2.
Your BBQ Brisket knocked it out if the park and this macaroni salad recipe was a great complimentary dish.
We used to buy Mac salad from the grocery store, but never again. Making this from scratch is quick, easy and bursting with flavor.
Next up, I’m going to try your recipe for baby back ribs and corn muffins the week after Easter.
Thanks again for these incredible recipes.
Excellent macaroni salad! I made this using Gluten Free elbow macaroni. In case anyone is interested, I used Barilla elbows and they held up well for several days. I did not undercook the pasta as I didn’t want it to soak in all the dressing – worked great. Next time I’ll cut back on the vinegar as we like a sweeter salad (added sugar this time to offset that). My new go to for macaroni salad – Thank you Nagi!
This was absolutely incredible! I made a huge batch and my partner finished it off within 2 days.
Will defo be a staple in my household.
I didnt have all the ingredients so used up what I did.
cider vinegar substituted for red wine vinegar
Green onions substituted for red onion
The above which was a taste sensation in itself! Cant wait to make it again but this time to the exact recipe.
Thanks Nagi x
All the family loved it. Made it with sour cream. Will be a regular salad within our household now.
I made this as a side dish for Christmas lunch last year, and it was a hit! Making it again this year because it’s so tasty but so easy
Delicious!
So much more tasty than a shop bought pasta salad.
Thank you for the dressing recipe.
I absolutely love this recipe and so does the family. I double the cider vinegar for more zing.
Just wondering – what type of yoghurt should be used? Greek yoghurt?
Thanks
I use https://jalna.com.au/our-products/yoghurt/biodynamic-organic-yoghurt/biodynamic-organic-natural-yoghurt/ everywhere yoghurt is required. I’ve subbed this for sour cream in coleslaw dressing and it works well. I’ll be using it here, too.
The flavour is subtler than that of Greek yoghurt.
Do you think it would work with all greek yoghurt, no Mayo. I use Halna greek yoghurt, I’ve made a ranch dressing with only yoghurt, no sour cream ir Maya, and it’s delicious
This was OUTSTANDING! What a great recipe. Hubby and kids loved it. Thanks Nagi!
Made this for a big BBQ for my daughter’s 21st. Had the following conversation a dozen times: “Try the mac salad.” – “Thanks, but I am not a fan of pasta salads.” -“Just try a little and see.” – “No, really, it’s just not my thing.” – “TRY IT!!” (I can be quite scary) – ..- carefully eats a little … – “Wait, this is great! How, what, where, …? Can I have the recipe?”
Also made the chorizo bites, and had to send the link to your website to literally every single guest :))
I only added 1 tbsp to the water when cooking the pasta, as I thought it was enough. In the end I needed to cook more pasta (without salt) and make up another batch of the dressing without salt as it was too salty. End product was lovely and enjoyable! We had it with the oven baked pork ribs with home-made bbq sauce and bbq corn! I’m even trying out the freezing option!
This recipe as written is fantastic- I added a chopped crisp apple and some old white cheddar cubes which knocked this dish out of the park. Will be adding this to my summer rotation for certain!
Hi Nagi, big fan here.
I read in a previous comment that you use cooking salt in all your recipes, but can you specify the actual salt? Is it kosher or diamond crystal? TIA.
I use cooking salt (the Australian name for it). The equivalent in North America is kosher salt Diana! N x