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
- 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.
- How long can you keep macaroni salad? Up to 5 days in the fridge.
- 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.
- Calories in macaroni salad – 319 kj as a side dish
- 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:
Equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream OR yogurt
Cider vinegar – essential touch of tang!
Dijon Mustard – flavour and thickening
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:
bacon
egg
pickles
roasted red peppers
chicken (try my Chicken Pasta Salad recipe)
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
Pearl Couscous Salad <– personal fave!
Wild Rice Salad <– reader fave!
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!!!!).
Just made this today to go with burgers and it is awesome! I may have to lower the vinegar just a touch for my hubby though, Include this in your cookbook and please add Dozer to your cookbook too! Thanks, Nagi!
I just love this recipe,and so easy to make.
Never buying it again. This is awesome.
So easy to make and tastes a treat! Thx Nagi.
Ooh, I only used double the creamy mayo in the fridge and left out the yoghurt! Next level 🤣🤣
What type of salt do you use in your recipes? I used standard table salt and this tasted really salty, we couldn’t eat more than a couple bites each.
Hi Nicole, I use cooking salt – so the grain is more coarse. If using table salt, you’ll need to cut the amount that I state in half otherwise it’s going to be too salty. N x
Over the last 45 years of cooking, I have NEVER made a macaroni salad that I liked until I found this recipe!
It’s all the things a macaroni salad should be; creamy, tangy, crunchy, and a tiny bit sweet. I feel as if I’ve discovered something magical…this salad makes me so happy.
Thanks Nagi!
Made this last night. Quick, easy and delicious. Makes enough for lefts over too in our family. Thanks Nagi
When you put the salad in fridge it doesn’t remain very moist.
If your macaroni salad seems too dry after refrigeration, try adding some water to it, bit by bit, until it is the consistency you like. Don’t add more mayo because it will make your salad gloopy and change the taste.
I tried it and it worked!!!
It didn’t change the taste either!!
Thank you so much.
Thank you, I will try this!!!
Made this for my family and they went wild over it!!!! Not a piece of elbow macaroni left.
That’s the best compliment isn’t it Susan!! N x
We loved this recipe, I made it as a quick accompaniment to some BBQ ribs and it was perfect (I did add extra scallion and a little dash more of cider vinegar, as our family loves things on the sour side). I cut the recipe in half since there are just two of us and we devoured it, I wish I’d made the full recipe!
I also made Nagi’s corn salad with avocado, they were perfect sides with a BBQ dinner.
Pasta salad of any sort is something I can’t resist. I have made many many recipes but I typically like to work with what I have on hand (for the most part). I didn’t have sour cream or yogurt handy so I popped half a cup of low fat cottage cheese and the remaining dressing ingredients in my food processor and the result was amazing. I added peas to the last few minutes of the pasta cooking time, all of the vegetables as listed + dill pickles and fresh parsley from my garden.
Super delicious.
Thanks Nagi!! x
Can the elbow macaroni be replaced with bowtie, penne or small shell pasta?
Will make this w bbq this Sunday.
In Hawaii they add potato. What do you think Nagi?
You could definitely add potato if you like – you may need to increase the dressing though. N x
Love this salad so much! It’s Mother’s Day today and my husband asked what I wanted for dinner and I said this with roast chicken. It’s cooking now a d I can’t wait! Cheers Nagi xx
I have made this two times in the last 3 days… Fabulous! And a real crowd pleaser!
Thankyou Nagi x
The best tasting, easiest recipe! Whipped this up in 20 mins and couldn’t believe the results. Used greek yogurt since I was out of sour cream- yum! Thank you so much!!
After reading all the comments, I just had to try. And this recipe did not disappoint.
I used GF pasta and used apple cider vinegar instead. Thanks for this recipe, most definitely will be making it again.
That’s great to hear Christina!! N x
When you say “cider vinegar” do you mean apple cider vinegar?
Made this today to go with some barbecued lamb ribs. Love the sharpness balanced with the creaminess. Much more depth than the supermarket one and dead easy to make.
Amazing, made salad for family bbq dinner huge hit!!
I used spiralli pasta that was the only ‘twist’ i made on this salad (sorry lol), it was SO good.
Nagi this pasta salad was divine! I cannot get enough of it. I will never buy premade pasta salad again. Thankyou for this!