How to make the best macaroni pasta salad with a light creamy dressing and crunchy, colorful vegetables. We love this easy salad! Skip to the Creamy Macaroni Pasta Salad recipe
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How to make the best macaroni salad
There are many ways to prepare pasta salad. We’ve already shared a few with you, including our quick and easy Pasta Salad, this Lemon Orzo Pasta Salad with Cucumber, and for a gluten-free salad, this Mediterranean Zucchini Pasta Salad.
When preparing a cold, creamy pasta salad, keep these tips in mind:
- Don’t overcook the pasta. Use the packaging instructions for your chosen pasta as a guide, but test it a minute or two before it should be ready. When done, drain the pasta and move on to our next tip.
- Rinse the cooked noodles under cold water before tossing with the salad dressing. If you’ve ever made pasta salad that got sticky, the reason could be that you didn’t rinse the pasta before tossing it with the dressing. The cooked noodles are coated with starch. By removing the starch, the lettuce won’t be as sticky or clumpy.
- Choose lots of colorful vegetables and textures to add to the salad. It’s just better like this.
- Use a light and flavorful salad dressing. Since the base of our dressing is creamy, we like to spice it up with some acidity from vinegar and mustard. If you love sweeter salads, you can also add some honey.
How to Make Creamy Pasta Salad Dressing
For creamy macaroni salad, we like to use a slightly adapted version of our potato salad dressing (it gets rave reviews). Instead of just using mayonnaise, which can make the pasta heavy, we have Combine mayonnaise with sour cream.
Because the sour cream is a bit tangy, it brings out the flavor of the dressing just like fresh lemon juice would with other dishes.
In addition to mayonnaise and sour cream, we use these ingredients:
- Yellow Mustard adds some color and nicely rounds off the flavor of the dressing. We usually use Dijon mustard in our recipes, but just like our potato salad, we prefer regular yellow mustard for the best pasta salad.
- Apple Cider Vinegar gives the dressing even more flavor. Just a tablespoon is enough. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, most types of vinegar will do, especially white or red wine vinegar.
- salt and pepper are a must when it comes to preparing the dressing. There is a lot of pasta and vegetables in the bowl. Nobody wants an unseasoned salad, right? We’ll start with 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt and then work our way up to taste.
- Honey is an optional ingredient. We usually steer clear of sweeter pasta salads, but if that’s what you love, add a tablespoon or so of honey to the dressing and you’ll be one happy camper!
More: You can also enjoy our Italian-inspired salad, here is our Italian Three-Herb Pasta Salad
What belongs in a creamy pasta salad?
What you add to your macaroni salad is entirely up to you, but remember to check these boxes:
When choosing the pasta shape, choose something that will hold the dressing in place. Shapes with nooks and crannies like elbow macaroni, small shells, or even spiral shapes work well.
Add some color and texture with a variety of veggies. We always add onions at the end, preferring red onions for the pop of color. Besides the onion, we love celery, peppers and radishes. For more vegetarian suggestions, see below, where we present possible variations of the salad.
For a little extra saltiness, we like to add chopped dill pickle. You can omit this or substitute it with a sweeter option like bread and butter pickles, or choose tangy for something else!
Possible variations
This pasta salad has many variations. Here are three of our favorites:
- For a healthier creamy pasta salad, try swapping out the mayonnaise for low-fat mayo and some or all of the sour cream called for in the recipe with yogurt. The yoghurt makes the dressing a bit sour, but it still tastes good.
- Turn this into an Italian pasta salad by adding a handful of chopped ham or salami and some diced cheese. A sprinkling of dried oregano would also be excellent.
- For more vegetable saladconsider stirring in peas, tomatoes, corn, cauliflower, or broccoli.
Perfect Creamy Macaroni Pasta Salad
- PREPARATION
The key to the best creamy pasta salad is rinsing the cooked pasta under cold water before tossing it with the dressing. If you skip this step, the dressing will be sticky. We also “flame” the onion, which tames the raw onion flavor so the onion doesn’t take over the salad. A quick dip in cold water will do.
Makes about 6 servings
Watch us make the recipe
you will need
For the salad
8 ounces dry elbow macaroni or small pasta shape
1/4 medium red onion, finely chopped, about 1/4 cup
1 medium bell pepper, seeds removed and chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped, about 1/3 cup
3 radishes, trimmed and finely chopped, about 1/3 cup
1 to 2 medium dill pickles, finely chopped, optional
For the dressing
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise, try our homemade mayonnaise
Substitute 1 ½ tablespoons yellow mustard, Dijon, or whole wheat mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons honey, optional for the sweet version
directions
Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse well under cold water to remove starch from the outside of the pasta.
Meanwhile, place the chopped onions in a small bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 5 minutes and then drain. This will tone down the onion’s raw flavor so it doesn’t overwhelm the salad.
In the bottom of a large salad bowl, prepare the dressing. Whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. For a sweeter macaroni salad, add honey to taste. I usually add 1/2 tablespoon, but try 1-2 tablespoons if you like sweeter macaroni salads.
Add the rinsed macaroni, drained onions, bell peppers, celery, radish, and pickle to the bowl of dressing. Mix well. Taste, then season with additional salt and pepper.
Advice from Adam and Joanne
- Store the pasta salad tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Dairy/Egg-Free Options: Use vegan mayonnaise (here’s our homemade recipe) and a dairy-free sour cream.
- Nutritional Information: The nutritional information below is an estimate. We used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, take a picture and tag #inspiredtaste – we love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition per serving: serving size 1/6 of the recipe / calories 252 / total fat 10.4g / Saturated Fatty Acids 2.9g / cholesterol 10.6g / sodium 317.2mg / carbohydrate 32.2g / fiber 2.1g / total sugar 2.4g / protein 6.9g