If you like quick and easy cold pasta salads, you’re just going to love the Amish Macaroni Salad.
Perfect as a cold side dish salad for dinner or as a cold salad addition for a party or potluck. No matter, this macaroni salad is a real crowd pleaser.
About Amish Macaroni Salad
Have you ever been to the supermarket, seen a ready-made-product and thought to yourself? I bet we can make this tastier, cheaper, and without ingredients, nobody can pronounce?
Back in March, we had a very hectic week. I was looking for a few ready-made dishes. And I came across an Amish Macaroni salad at the grocery store. I took a photo with my phone and decided to give this a try myself.
I don’t hear a lot of people talking about this, but as a recipe blogger, I find tons of inspiration at the supermarket.
While I am by no means about buying something pre-made (ok, I had Trader Joe’s Harvest chicken salad for lunch … delish!), I prefer to make my versions of what stores serve up. Very often, I’ll quickly snap a picture with my phone right in the supermarket. I use this as a recipe inspiration!
Ingredients for the Amish Marconi Salad
Salad Ingredients
- Trader Joe’s Brown Rice and Quinoa Mini Elbow Pasta (I’ve used gluten-free Barilla elbow pasta before for other dishes and we liked it)
- hard-boiled eggs
- red onion
- celery
- red bell pepper
- green bell pepper
Dressing
- mayonnaise
- sour cream (or plain yogurt)
- sweet relish
- Dijon mustard
- sugar
- salt
How to Make Amish Macaroni Salad
Cooking the Pasta and Eggs
This macaroni salad recipe is quite simple to prepare.
Simply cook the pasta according to the package instructions. I used Trader Joe’s Mini Elbow gluten-free pasta. This is brown rice and quinoa pasta and cooks in just 2-3 minutes. But you can use any elbow pasta.
No matter which pasta you use, make sure to cook it al dente. After the pasta is done boiling, be sure to drain it with cold water to stop the cooking process.
While the pasta is cooking, make two boiled eggs. Depending on how you like your eggs, boil them between 8-10 minutes. Then shock them with cold water. Allow the eggs to cool and chop them.
Preparing the vegetables
- The different colors of bell pepper make this dish very colorful and provide a nice textural balance.
- Cut the red pepper, orange pepper, and green pepper into halves. Remove the stem and the seeds.
- Cut each bell pepper into bite-sized pieces. Dice half of red onion. Or you can substitute celery stalks for the red onion. When I use celery stalks in a salad, I like to chop the celery very fine.
How to make the Amish Macaroni Salad dressing
- Begin by combining 1/2 cup each of mayonnaise and sour cream (you can use plain yogurt instead of sour cream) in a large bowl. Other Macaroni salad recipes recommend Miracle Whip for this recipe, but I find that regular mayonnaise (I use the mayonnaise from Trader Joe’s) works very well.
- Add lemon juice, sugar, sweet relish, and dry mustard. I’ve used dijon mustard for this recipe before and have a slight preference for it, but dry mustard works well, too. Combine well and season with sea salt
Putting it all together
- Add the chopped-up bell peppers, onion, hard-boiled eggs, and cold pasta to the large mixing bowl and combine well. Be sure to coat the salad well.
- You can serve the salad right away or refrigerate it overnight if you are preparing it for a special event. I actually think that the salad tastes even better once the dressing has fully penetrated the salad.
What to serve with the Macaroni Salad
The Amish Macaroni Salad works well a lot of comfort food dishes. From a warming beef stew, to Chicken Schnitzel, and many other comfort foods.
This salad is also perfect for picnics, parties, or potlucks.
More Wholesome Salad Recipes You’ll Love
- Authentic German Cucumber Salad (Just 4 Ingredients)
- Pea Salad Recipe
- Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
- Grape Salad
- Tuna Pasta Salad
- Greek Style Red Potato Salad (5 ingredients)
Amish Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
Dressing
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ⅓ cup sweet relish
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
Prep
- Cook pasta according to the instruction.
- In a separate pot, boil 2 eggs for 9 minutes. Transfer cooked eggs into ice water to stop the cooking process. Chill for two minutes.
Making The Dressing
- Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, sweet relish, lemon, sugar, dry mustard, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk until well combined.
Making The Salad
- Cut red, green, and orange bell peppers into bite-sized pieces. Dice red onion and chop the boiled egg.
- In a large bowl combine bell peppers, onion, and egg. Add cooked pasta and combine well. Pour creamy dressing over the vegetables and cooked pasta.
Video
Nutrition
Jamie Wilson-Houghtalen
This is SOO good! I’ll be bringing this awesome Amish Macaroni Salad with me to every barbecue and cookout this summer. It’s so fast to put together and so yummy! It’s a hit in our house!