This is our favorite creamy macaroni pasta salad recipe with the most delicious creamy dressing and crisp, colorful vegetables.
I’m always asked for the recipe when I bring this creamy pasta salad to get-togethers. The dressing is really simple and very delicious. I keep the sugar level low and only use a slight drizzle of honey in the creamy dressing, but you can always increase it for a sweeter salad.
We love pasta salads around here and have a few. For a vinaigrette-based dressing, try this easy pasta salad (without mayo) or this orzo pasta salad with a lemon vinaigrette.
Key Ingredients
- Elbow Macaroni: To make this macaroni salad, use elbow macaroni or substitute it with any small pasta shape (small shells and spiral shapes work nicely).
- Veggies: I love some fresh crunch in this. So, I add finely chopped onion, bell pepper, celery, and radish.
- Pickles: I use dill pickles in this macaroni salad, but you can use a sweet pickle instead. Here are our recipes for dill pickles and bread and butter pickles.
- Creamy Dressing: I love using a slightly adapted version of this potato salad dressing (it gets rave reviews). This macaroni salad dressing combines sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and a touch of honey (or maple syrup).
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
Tips for Making the Best Macaroni Salad
When it comes to making this cold, creamy macaroni salad recipe, keep these tips in mind:
Tip 1: Rinse cooked macaroni. After cooking the pasta, rinse it before tossing it with the dressing. Rinsing removes extra starch, which makes the dressing sticky.
Tip 2: Deflame the onions. Before you add the onion, allow it to soak in cold water for a few minutes, which tones down the raw flavor. I use the tip whenever I’m adding raw onion to cold dishes like guacamole, pico de gallo, and potato salad.
Tip 3: Make the dressing and salad in the same bowl. Reduce extra dishes, and make your dressing in the bottom of the bowl you plan to toss the salad in. Add the cooked (and rinsed) macaroni and the veggies, then give it a really good toss.
Serving Suggestions
We often serve this macaroni salad during the summer. I love it with turkey burgers, grilled chicken, and grilled salmon. It’s perfect with pulled pork and these hoisin sticky ribs.
This is also excellent when served next to other sides, such as our lemon herb potato salad, watermelon feta salad, easy bean salad, and creamy cucumber salad.
Creamy Macaroni Pasta Salad
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
The key to the best creamy pasta salad is to rinse the cooked pasta under cold water before tossing it with the dressing. Skipping this step means the dressing will be sticky. We also “de-flame” the onion, which tames the raw onion flavor so that it does not take over the salad. A quick bath in cold water does the trick. Use elbow macaroni or substitute other small pasta shapes (like small shells or ditalini).
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
8 ounces dry elbow macaroni or small pasta shape (226g)
¼ medium red onion, finely chopped, about ¼ cup
1 medium bell pepper, seeds removed and chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped, about ⅓ cup
3 radishes, trimmed and finely chopped, about ⅓ cup
1 to 2 medium dill pickles, finely chopped, optional
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise, try our homemade mayonnaise
1 ½ tablespoons yellow mustard, substitute Dijon or whole grain mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons honey, optional for sweet version
Directions
1Cook pasta: Cook macaroni according to the package directions. Drain and rinse well under cold water to remove starch from the outside of the pasta.
2Deflame onions: Meanwhile, add the chopped onions to a small bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 5 minutes and then drain. This tones down the raw flavor of the onion so that it won’t overpower the salad.
3Make the dressing: In the bottom of a large salad bowl, whisk the sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. For a sweeter macaroni salad, add honey or maple syrup to taste. I typically add half a tablespoon, but try one to two tablespoons if you enjoy sweeter macaroni salads.
4Make salad: Add the rinsed macaroni, drained onions, bell pepper, celery, radish, and the pickle to the bowl with the dressing. Mix well. Taste, then adjust with additional salt and pepper.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Make-ahead: This salad improves on the second day, so this is a perfect make-ahead recipe! However, I do not recommend freezing it (the dressing does not freeze and thaw well).
- Mayo substitution: You can substitute the mayonnaise for low-fat mayo and some or all of the sour cream called for in the recipe with yogurt. The yogurt will make the dressing a bit tangy, but it will still taste great.
- Dairy and egg free variation: Use vegan mayonnaise and a dairy-free sour cream.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Excellent recipe, so good! Will definitely make again.
Instead of dill pickles, I added 2 Tbs unsweetened dill relish and added the optional honey. Thank you for this perfectly balanced, delicious recipe!
Yay! Love the personal tweaks 🙂
Made this countless times last summer, and now it’s my pregnancy craving. Store bought doesn’t even compare. And add the honey!! The sweetness is so delish!
The creamy macaroni pasta is delicious I make it every week for us. Thanks
You are so welcome! 🙂
This creamy pasta salad is delicious! Brought it to a cookout and keep getting requests to make it and bring again!! Thank you!
Needed a quick pasta salad and this qualified. Had it in the refer cooling in 20 minutes. I made some changes as I went along. I fixed the pasta using veggie broth, when it was ready strained it and then poured a half a cup of apple cider vinegarover the pasta and let drain through the sieve. I used half a sweet onion, my radished didn’t look that hot so skipped them and used sliced Kalamata olives in there place. Used Costco’s bacon bits instead of frying my own. I added about a TBS of dill pickle brine to the dressing. The last line of the contents was belowed so didn’t use the honey. Will see how it tastes when I eat it alongside a french chicken salad sandwich on Rustic Italian bread
I am so pleased with how this turned out. Tried a spoonful. Loved the video. It is in easy, but thoughtful recipe. Looks lovely. Never knew the trick for the red onion! Takes talent to be able to share info. like that .. looking forward to sharing it with family at our Thanksgiving gathering tomorrow. Thank you!
Aww, thank you so much! We are thrilled you enjoy the recipe and found our explanation helpful!
I love your recipe I will try to cook for Christmas and New Year’s party
Wonderful! So happy you enjoy it so much!
The recipe was easy to mix, taste awesome, good idea with onions
Your creamy macaroni is absolutely the BEST I have ever tasted. I’m taking it to all the potluck dinners this summer! So delicious, easy, and pretty in the bowl. Perfect!
Love it! 🙂
these sound so yum please send some more recipes to me thank you so much!!!
I have been looking for a good macaroni salad recipe and now my search is over!! After trying about 20 different recipes, this one is by far the BEST! I followed the recipe as written, with no changes and it is perfect.
i cant wait to cook the best mac and cheese for my family!!!!!!!!!
Quick and easy salads is a must have.so thumbs up for this marvelous easy 2 prepare salad
This was delicious!! I tripled the recipe for the potluck at Church and substituted greek yogurt for the sour cream. It was a hit.
I’ve just made this and we LOVE it! Adding cucumbers sounds like a terrific idea!
Hi JP, thank you so much for coming back and letting us know! We really appreciate it.
This was fantastic!! I added a tblspoon of sugar instead of the honey. I added cucumbers and shredded a carrot and subbed rotini for elbows. Everyone loved it- thought it was so crunchy and fresh-will be a go to pasta salad recipe.
I am so glad you tried our recipe, Melissa. Thanks for coming back.
Love this recipe. I forgot the radishes and used smoked Gouda cheese, sliced into tiny squares. I’m going to try a bit of honey in my next batch. One of your best tips is rinsing the pasta with cold water and not adding the sauce until the pasta has cooled.
First time making this recipe and it’s a keeper! I didn’t use any honey because I don’t like a sweet dressing. I really enjoyed the crunch of the veggies contrasted with the soft chew of the macaroni and pickles. I used homemade yellow mustard from the farmers’ market. Next time I’ll try Dijon. I like a little spice.
I made this as is. It is absolutely lovely. My husband has asked me to make this again and again. 😁 Thank you. for sharing it
Can I substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream?
Hi Lisa, The flavor will be slightly different, but yes, plain yogurt should work in this recipe.
This was absolutely delicious. Made it according to recipe and it was a big hit at my family BBQ. Thank you again Adam and Joanna for another great recipe.
Best dressing ever! Didn’t have Italian dressing so went to iNet. Was hesitant but now my go to. Used apple cider vinegar. Even made some up to use as veg dip. Disappeared
I made this dish as a side for dinner yesterday, and I’m SO glad I did! It not only tasted amazzzzzing, but also was SUPer easy to make! Ty for this great recipe❤️❤️ (Also, I omitted the onion (didn’t have one on hand, lol) and added cucumbers, black olives and of course the bell pepper and pickle.) Pure delish! Thx
Hello!! This looks good but question…Can I use mac an cheese noodles? (like the boxed kind and just skip the cheese part, lol) Ty!
Yep!
Fabulous and quite tasty. Love the color and crunch. This was fast and easy prepare. This is definitely my go to pasta salad recipe!
This is by far the best recipe I’ve ever made! I left out the pickles but added black olives, cucumbers tomato. Delish! Thank you
I made this tonight for our BBQ tomorrow. I also made extra sauce to add before serving so it isn’t too dry. Had to have bowl right after I made it because it was so delicious! Added honey to sweeten it up and also onion powder because I don’t like onions in salad after it sits overnight. Lots of diced pickles, sweet and sour. Cheddar cheese cubed small as well. Great recipe! Thank you!
I forgot to say that I used Beer and Brat horseradish mustard instead of Dijon mustard. Paired nicely with smoked bbq ribs.
Very yummy pasta salad. I added 2 tsp of pickle juice and it tasted like a burger! Different fabulous good.
This recipe was wonderful. Exactly what I was looking for in taste. Thanks for sharing this will be my forever go to pasta salad!!
The BEST macaroni salad I’ve EVER had! Perfectly tangy, creamy, and sweet. I will never buy store bought again!
I work for our neighborhood foodshelf, and we have a recipe of the month program where we offer our shoppers all of the ingredients necessary to fix a chosen dish. Our dish for March 2019 was this one! We serve samples to the board of directors so they know what’s going out the door. Did they like it? Well, I had to make it again today for tomorrow’s volunteer appreciation picnic. . . by specific request from the board!