As easy as chopping and mixing various ingredients. A nice contrast to other salads being served at the same meal.
Dressing:
Add cooked macaroni to a large mixing bowl along with all the other salad ingredients. Mix well.
Make dressing and pour over salad ingredients and stir until everything is blended together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Best if made the day before and refrigerated overnight to allow the flavors to "marry".
Source: I wanted something very different so that there would be a noticeable contrast to my All American Potato Salad when served at the same time. It is certainly that.
By Julia from Boca Raton, FL
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I would like some macaroni salad recipes.
By linda viera from Fremont, NH
I start out with however much and type of pasta that I want to use, then add some diced hard boiled eggs, tuna, chopped onion and celery, then add whatever seasonings, that I want to use, a little sugar, and add some sweet relish, and mayo. Then I add whatever I have on hand in the line of diced cucumber, radishes, tomato, etc. This is one of the dishes that my Mother taught me to prepare by using some of this and some of that.
I use this recipe as a guideline: allrecipes.com/
It makes a HUGE amount (the stated 6 servings must be for giants!), so I usually halve the macaroni part, but keep the dressing part the same, because I don't like dry pasta salad. I skip the bell pepper and celery, because we don't like it in our salad, and I just use sweet pickle relish instead of the chopped sweet pickles & juice.
You can probably tell, it's a forgiving recipe. Experiment a bit and make changes. Best of luck -- I hope you find a recipe you love!
I love this Macaroni Salad with Tuna and Sweet Pickles. So delicious. feastonthecheap.net/
For a bigger meal-size salad, this one is great:
feastonthecheap.net/
My mother in law gave me this recipe. Any amount of macaroni that you like. Cut up cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, onion, green pepper diced. For the dressing, use mayonaise, vinegar and sugar.
I get requests for this all the time.
1 box elbows. cooked according to directions, rinsed in cold water to cool.
I large green pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
mayonnaise, as much as you'd like, I always add more because the elbows will soak up a lot of the mayo and the salad will be dry.
Stir all ingredients together, cover and refrigerate for several hours.
I use cooked macaroni just until tender, bell pepper, cukes, tom, cheese (med), white onions,boiled eggs, I chopped all this first and let drain then add to macaroni with mayo.
This is a recipe I got from my grandmother. I use 1 lb. of elbow macaroni pasta. Cook according to the directions. Drain it and let it cool for a little bit. After cooling I do the following to taste. I use Miracle Whip Dressing and Sweet Salad Cubes, Salt & Pepper, sometimes I add a little Paprika.
Make your pasta big shells go good in this one
Rinse, let cool.
Mix in one can tuna, one can rinsed kidney beans.
Chopped small onions mix in miracle whip.
Black olives are good if you have some on hand.
Either way this is a great dinner salad.
I am searching for recipe to put on Dreamfield pasta to make a macaroni salad. I used to like my mom's, followed her recipe and found it bland. I want to make it with a bit more zing and nothing I've added seems to perk it up. Thanks so much in advance.
By Joan from Norwell, MA
My mom always added some horseradish when she wanted to put a little zip in the mac salad or cole slaw.
Macaroni Shrimp Salad
4 cups cooked macaroni
1 bunch green onions chopped
1 red bell pepper diced
3 stalks celery diced
1 small jar marinated artichokes with juice, chopped bite size
Mix all together and chill. This is good served on a bed of lettuce with hard boiled egg slices, cucumber slices, tomato slices, etc. and serve with a slice of garlic bread. A good dinner for summer.
This is a recipe that I invented. I had a shrimp salad in a restaurant that was very bland. I told my husband that I could make a better one and this is the result.
Does anyone make a macaroni salad with shrimp in it? Could the recipe be shared with me?
By LaurieS
Here's a really yummy old fashioned macaroni salad recipe. Just add the amount of cooked baby cocktail shrimp you would like. Personally I would use about 3/4 cup cocktail size shrimp for this amount of pasta or 1/2 cup chopped larger shrimp.
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 lb. elbow macaroni
2 large ribs celery, including leaves, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup mayonnaise, or more to taste
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 (4 oz) jar pimentos, drained and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook pasta al dente according to package directions, drain, and rinse with cold water and drain again.
Combine the eggs, celery, red onion and lemon juice in a large serving bowl, add macaroni and stir to combine.
Whisk the mayonnaise, mustard and pimentos in a small bowl, season with salt and pepper, add to the macaroni mixture and toss to coat, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours to let the flavors meld.
I'm looking for a macaroni salad recipe my grandma made. She's gone now and it isn't in the family cookbook. It had twist noodles, chunks of ham and I think Velveeta cheese. I have no clue about the sauce. Does anyone have something close to this?
This might not be like Grandma's but close:
~~~Good Luck~~~
Give it a Try...
INGREDIENTS:
1 (16 ounce) package macaroni
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped green onions 1 stalk celery, chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup mayonnaise
1 packet dry vegetable soup mix
DIRECTIONS:
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain, and rinse with cold water until no longer hot. Transfer noodles to a large bowl.
2. Stir in red bell peppers, green bell peppers, green onions, celery and olive oil. Mix in mayonnaise and soup mix. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.
Not knowing what the salad tasted like, chances are your grandma probably used just mayonnaise for the dressing on her macaroni salad. She may have added sweet relish or a little sugar or lemon juice with salt and pepper. I would try mixing up some of that and put over twisty noodles with ham and cheese chunks. My mother also adds onion, boiled egg, radish, celery and tomatoes, strange yes, but oh so good! If not like your grandma's, it still will be good! By the way, I don't live to far from you....just outside of Grandville in Wyoming.
The spiral noodles are called fusilli, sometimes called scroodles. Maybe if you do a search, you might be able to find the recipe on the web.
I have bought a vinegar salad with noodles at Walmart. I understand it is Amish. Does anyone have the recipe?
By J>W> from Norlina
Is this the one? www.recipezaar.com/
