Creamy Classic Macaroni Salad
The Best Macaroni Salad Recipe
Creamy Classic Macaroni Salad is a delightful dish featuring tender macaroni noodles tossed in a creamy dressing with crunchy vegetables and flavorful seasonings.
This refreshing salad includes ingredients like mayonnaise, vinegar, diced onions, celery, and red peppers. It’s perfect for picnics, barbecues, or as a side dish for any meal.
Add tiny shrimp for a delightful treat!
There is a full, printable recipe card at the end of this post. You can print this card or you can hit the print button for the recipe to come up on one screen.
From there you can screenshot this to save it to your phone. I also have added a Pinterest button that you can use to save this recipe to your Pinterest page.
If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, you can find me there as The Tipsy Housewife. Below I have included some information regarding the ingredients as well as methods to help those who may need more clarification.
My Special Ingredient
I like to use a seasoned rice wine vinegar to basically slightly pickle the vegetables for this salad. I use 1/2 cup of this vinegar in the recipe.
If you like more of a vinegar based dressing instead of a creamy one, you can use another 1/4 cup of this vinegar when marinating the vegetables.
Remember that this seasoned rice wine vinegar has sodium, so you should not add too much salt to the rest of the recipe. You can find this rice wine vinegar in any salad dressing aisle.
I’ve used many different brands. I have even found this product at the dollar store.
Sugar For Great Flavor
Since I do use vinegar in this recipe, I add a tablespoon of white sugar to the veggies when they are marinating. You are more than welcome to use less sugar if you prefer.
I personally think this adds a nice sweetness to the macaroni salad that also helps temper the vinegar. You can easily substitute any sugar replacements that you may use for your particular diet choices.
I think this step is important to elevating the simple veggies in this salad. The sugar also cuts the strength of the onions so that this salad does not have an overpowering onion smell or taste.
The Pasta
You can certainly use any brand of pasta that you have access to, although I always use the above brand for this salad. As I say in the recipe card, you have to just undercook the macaroni a bit because it sits in the vinegar and gets softer.
In my brain, and with no scientific proof, this brand of pasta works best for this reason. I have found that it does not get too soft and gummy when sitting in the vinegar based dressing.
That being said, you MUST rinse the pasta in cold water for this pasta salad and really any pasta salad. I caught a lot of heat from keyboard cowboys over rinsing the pasta in my Famous Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Pasta Salad.
The truth is you don’t rinse hot pasta you are serving with a hot sauce, but you DO rinse pasta you are serving cold in a salad. This is so the starch from the pasta does not gum up the salad dressing.
If you are PASSIONATE about not rinsing your pasta, feel free not to. After all then you can have fun blowing bubbles with your gummy salad, LOL.
The Mayonnaise
I am not going to debate anyone on their mayo preference. I know that mayo is very regional and very specific.
I prefer all mayonnaise if I am being honest, but Hellmann’s is usually my number one choice. Recently a jar of this brand is $10.00 where I live so I started using the brand from my local Family Dollar and I have to tell you, it is great.
Use whatever mayo you want, though I would recommend using mayo and not miracle whip so that the seasoning is correct.
Adding The Mayo
As you see pictured above, this is the dressing when you add the cup of mayo and before you add the pasta. It is a creamy salad dressing texture that will soak into your pasta in a good way.
This is exactly why you SLIGHTLY undercook your pasta. You can eyeball the rest of the mayo you will add so that it meets your personal texture hopes and dreams.
You cannot add too much or too little. Do not fret.
This macaroni salad will be the hit of any summer gathering!
Creamy Classic Macaroni Salad
Creamy classic macaroni salad is a delightful dish featuring tender macaroni noodles tossed in a creamy dressing with crunchy vegetables and flavorful seasonings. This refreshing salad includes ingredients like mayonnaise, vinegar, diced onions, celery, red peppers. It's perfect for picnics, barbecues, or as a side dish for any meal. Add tiny shrimp for a delightful treat!
Ingredients
- 1 16 ounce box of macaroni
- 3 medium sized carrots, diced into very small pieces
- 2 celery ribs, look for one with leaves, mince the leaves and very finely dice the celery
- 1/2 of a large yellow onion, very finely diced
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of seasoned rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon of celery salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of celery seed
- a few shakes of black pepper
- 1 teaspoon of dried dill
- 2 fire roasted red peppers (from a jar) diced really small
- 1 tablespoon of white sugar
- 1 to 2 cups of Mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon of buttermilk powder (optional)
- *please read the rest of the post for important information on the measurements of all the ingredients
- **there is a make ahead step for this recipe, so read through before making
Instructions
- Boil your box of noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water and then set aside. I cook the noodles to JUST al dente because they will sit in the dressing and soften more.
- Finely and I mean VERY finely dice your carrot, onion and celery, add to a bowl. Mince the celery leaves and use them as well.
- Season the veggies with the celery seed, celery salt, black pepper, dill and sugar. You can use LESS sugar if you want a less sweet dressing but I find this amount to be perfect.
- Mix the veggies up with the seasonings and then add your vinegar. I give this a good mix and let this sit for a couple hours on the counter. You can even cover this and let this sit in the fridge overnight.
- After the veggies have marinated, finely dice your red peppers and add them and their juice to the marinated veggies.
- You can now perform the next step to your liking, but this is how I do this. I add about a cup of mayo to the veggies and give this all a good whisk to incorporate the mayo into the vinegar. You can also add your buttermilk powder if using it. This is usually the texture of a creamy salad dressing at this point. Next, I add the noodles a little at a time and really toss them to coat them all. Let this hangout in the fridge for about an hour.
- After an hour, I eyeball how much more mayonnaise to add to my macaroni salad, based off what has absorbed into the noodles, This seems to differ slightly every time I make this. Typically I need to add at least another cup of mayo and give this all a good mix and refrigerate at least an hour before serving, This can be made and sit overnight. IF you like your macaroni salad creamier you can add more mayo. If you like it less creamy, you do not even need to add the second cup.
- Give a good stir before serving!
Other Things To Add
You can add baby shrimp to this salad and you can also add green peas, chicken, or hardboiled eggs.
Personally I like the simplicity of this salad with just the ingredients I have listed. But you can definitely fancy it up with other add ons as well.
There have also been times I have used the teeny tiny baby shell pasta when making this salad.
If you want another great use for spare pasta, check out my recipe for Meatball Soup!