All American Macaroni Salad Recipe

All American Macaroni salads are famous summer picnic and potluck food. Count on it. Macaroni salad is sitting right next to apple pie on American picnic tables everywhere. A summer potluck staple.

This yummy salad is on every mother’s list of family favorite summer grill sides too. Enjoy!

Dave adores macaroni salad. Just like the ones my Grandma used to make.

All my years as a child, every summer at our family potlucks, Grandma Cash would bring Macaroni salad. Always teeny, tiny elbow macaroni noodles drowned in her yummy mayonnaise dressing with a bit of onion and celery for crunch and flavor.

Once introduced to Grandma’s classic macaroni salad Dave told me to get the recipe. I remember asking her how she made it. She gave me a rather bewildered glance. “You don’t know how to make macaroni salad?”

I knew right then I flunked basic womanhood, in her opinion. Or my Home Economics teacher failed (we used to have those). Or maybe my mom.

Somehow, I had fallen through the cracks of basic American female education.

I looked helplessly back and didn’t reply. She rattled off the recipe in a rather vague way and went off to talk to someone. Of course my pen and paper weren’t handy.

So it went. The mysterious, perfect recipe for her Macaroni salad eluded me.

Our family loves noodles in just about any form. Our Pasta  Bacon Salad, Mediterranean Macaroni Salad, Tortellini Salad With Pepperoni,and Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad are all good. 

All Fantastic! But never quite the same as grandma’s old american favorite. But I’m not Grandma.

I want color and powerful flavor and balsamic dressings. And I’m making this recipe with all that. Think of this as fusion cooking. Me and Grandma fused in this salad bowl. 

I adapted this Macaroni salad to Dave’s Taste too. He loves it. But he wanted twice as much dressing.

I used Bragg’s apple cider vinegar to give the dressing a bit of tang. And doubled the amount of dressing for my sauce loving husband. Salt and pepper are a MUST on this salad to bring out the flavor.

I used our homegrown roasted red peppers from the freezer. You can use any Jarred Roasted Red Peppers in your local grocery stores.

Macaroni Salad Recipe:

NOTE: There are no hard and fast rules to this Mac salad. It’s all to taste. Enjoy running after your family members with a spoon while making the dressing until you’re happy with it. The proportions here are what I did, adjust as you see fit.

Macaroni Salad Ingredients are just what you like. We enjoy the roasted peppers, black olives and green peppers. They add lively flavor and color.

The dressing is my Grandma’s classic macaroni salad dressing. Mayo, vinegar and sugar. Simple and full of sweet tart flavor.

Substitutions and Additions:

• You can use honey(or even Maple syrup) instead of sugar to sweeten if you wish. But it will affect the flavor.
• Quinoa noodles would also work for this salad if you want a gluten-free option and don’t mind a little different noodle texture. 
• Substitute finely chopped celery, dill pickles, or red onion for the green onions if you prefer.
• Thinly sliced boiled eggs are a fun way to garnish the top of the salad with a dash of paprika to bring up the color.
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard, 1/4 Cup sour cream and a dash of garlic powder can be added to the dressing if you really want to power up that sauce.

The dressing:

1. Whisk the vinegar, sugar and mayonnaise together until it’s smooth (Here’s my recipe for  Homemade Heart Healthy Mayo.) Add milk and whisk until it’s pourable.
2. Mix the veggies and sweet relish into the noodles.
3. Add the dressing to the noodle mixture and gently stir until every noodle is covered with dressing. Your salad should be saucy.
4. Chill in the fridge for several hours.
5. Remove from fridge, refresh the salad dressing, if required (you may even need to make more if it all soaked into the noodles) and mix more into the salad.
6. Serve chilled
   

   TIPS:

7. This is a good salad to make the night before and chill so the flavors merge well. The dressing will soak into the pasta some so keep that in mind.
8. Boil the elbow Macaroni in a large pot of salted water to Al Dente. About 10 minutes. Do NOT overcook.
9. Drain and rinse. Now pour into a large bowl. ( if you use the tiny salad noodles use less cooking time, about half)
10. Chop the drained black olives, roasted peppers and green onions fine while the noodles cook.
11. I did NOT assume you wanted a double portion of dressing. But if you, like Dave, want a macaroni salad you slurp off a spoon, rather than balance on a fork; double the dressing. 🙂
12. Extra dressing is great for this salad leftover too. The noodles do absorb some of the sauce on the second day.

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How do you like your Macaroni Salads? Did this one work for you? What would you do differently to please your family?

 

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