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!!!!).
This pasta salad is absolutely delicious!! Will definitely be making this again. The shredded carrots give it the perfect crunch. Thank you for another amazing recipe.
I’ve made this and love it! Thanks so much for the recipe! I’m not a salad person so this one is perfect 😁👍
Hi Nagi. I’m planning on making the macaroni salad today but just realised I only have English mustard and whole grain mustard. Can I substitute the Dijon with one of these? Which one do you think will work best? Thank you x
Hi Melanie – both would work and be tasty too! N x
Thanks Nagi. I used wholegrain in the end and also some bacon. It was delicious! Will definitely be making this again x
I have made this a couple of times and it’s lovely. A lot better than the ones you get in a supermarket. X
X
Can I use anything in replace of sour cream/ yogurt as i have neither at home and am making your bbq ribs at the moment so would love to make this pasta salad to go with it
Hi I saw the video and was wondering what brand Mayonnaise you used in it?
Hiya! Hellmans or S&W Whole Egg mayonnaise 🙂 Any brand of “whole egg mayonnaise” will work a treat here – it’s got a better flavour than just normal mayo N x
Way way better than store brought. So easy to make ahead. I found the pasta sucked up the yummy dressing if it was made a day ahead so the second time I left 1/2 the dressing off till I was ready to serve. Everyone commented on how fresh and yum it was, thanks Nagi
The best Macaroni Salad…..EVER!!! Made it for the first time tonight and my goodness it was AMAZING.
Hi Nagi,
Could you please tell me if cider vinegar is the same as apple cider vinegar? I’ve read that it is slightly different but I cannot find any cider vinegar in stores and I am not sure if I can substitute it? Thank you.
It’s the same.
Big Thumbs Up Nagi!!
This was so easy to make & was very nice to eat!
Thankyou for another great recipe! X
Wahoo, thanks for letting me now Cathy!
Nagi, my husband loved it so much! Funny, he couldn’t find the words to describe it at first that he just kept making sounds :). After the meal, he said that’s the best salad he’s had. Thank you Nagi.
Woah what a great compliment Shareen!!
This was really good! I especially liked the dressing. I did cut the sugar in half since my husband is diabetic but I must confess I added crumbled bacon and gouda cheese chunks. My husband is now calling it “gouda salad”! I will definitely make this again.
YESSS! Everything is better with bacon!
What kind of yogurt would you use? greek, regular?
Greek is my fave! N x
Made this today, very easy to adapt to gf. It tastes great, next time i will put half the amount of pepper in as the 1/2 teaspoon was a bit much for me.
That’s so great to hear Krystal – and yes you can just reduce the amount of pepper if you prefer – N x
Hello,
I’m just starting to attempt to cook, love the recipes I’ve tried so far. So this might be a stupid question is the cider vinegar in this is it apple cinder vinegar? I’ve never heard of plain cider vinegar. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this recipe. Its so good. I now make it most weeks. As I am constantly on a diet I swapped the mayo for a light weight version, the sour cream for a low fat Greek yogurt. Kept all the remaining ingredient quantities but halfed the amount of pasta. It still tastes fantastic but a little more guilt free. Thank you again.
That’s awesome Hilary!
Wow! So simple and so tasty. Can’t wait to make this again to try it with some of the ad-ins. Perfect as a side or just to have by itself. (just finished a small bowl) Thanks again for the great recipe.
Hi Nagi, is the 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt right to cook the pasta? Seems a lot. 🙂
Yep! Always salt the water!
Was really good and simple. I used half the sugar and no salt for the dressing as the pasta was seasoned with salt. Added a little more mayo and cider at the end and used spicy mustard instead of Dijon because that is all I had. Came out great. Unsure why she said to sure room temp but I served it cold because I prefer it that way. We loved it.
Hi Amanda, you could definitely serve it cold, I just find that the pasta softens slightly when room temp. I’m so happy you loved it though!
Great basic recipe – I agree, I definitely prefer it room temperature rather than right out of the fridge!
Made this exactly to recipe except used about a 1/4 of a sweet onion grated cause I didn’t have shallots/green onions. Also made another batch of another recipe that used pickle juice and relish instead of vinegar, plus less dressing. 5 of 7 people including me preferred your recipe over the other recipe.
Awesome John, I’m so glad you liked it – N x
I used German mustard, tomato, and Persian cucumber. turned out great!
Sounds fantastic Michelle!
Nagi, thank you for another five star recipe! I used German mustard in place of Dijon because it is all I had. It turned out great! excellent recipe. This will be a weekly staple this summer.
That’s great Michelle!