Nothing beats a classic macaroni salad! Celery, peppers and green onions are tossed with cooked macaroni and a creamy homemade dressing. This salad is perfect for a backyard barbecue or picnic!
This weekend is always bittersweet. Warm weather, picnics, barbecues and friendly weekend cookouts with adult beverages are soon coming to an end here in Michigan. And I’m a little sad about it.
With that said we plan to spend Labor Day maxin’ and relaxin’, grilling, fishing, napping and squeezing out as much of summer vacation as possible before school starts on Tuesday. What I really don’t like is how Monday will feel like Sunday. Tuesday will feel like a Monday. And I will be in this weird perpetual confusion until the weekend is here again and I can get back to my somewhat normal and stay up until 3am reading.
I wonder how many times we’ll miss the bus this week because I forget to set my alarm. I say once… at least.
Sooooo tomorrow {Monday not Monday-that-feels-like-Sunday} my one and only real goal besides relaxing {and napping} is to maybe clean out a pantry cupboard or two? That and make a stellar meal for dinner that will put us into a food coma until our alarms go off for school. If they even go off that is.
Today I decided to get ahead of the game and do a little dinner prep by making one of the side dishes. Then I realized {uh-helloooo} I haven’t shared my recipe for macaroni salad. Well that’s just silly! How can I not have shared this yet? Pasta, veggies and homemade dressing tossed together for one helluva macaroni salad… it’s a blog staple. A recipe everyone needs to have in their repertoire. Right?
If you can’t tell, I love this salad and it’s CRAZY easy to make. You could make this the morning-of or the evening before, because it’s the kind of salad that only gets better and better as it sits in the fridge. You know, so all those flavors permeates the pasta. This macaroni salad is a no frills, no fuss, 100% homemade salad and just what your Labor Day needs… or any day really.
Crack one large egg into a bowl along with one egg yolk. Discard the extra egg white or keep and use for another purpose.
Add the egg yolks and white to a mini processor or blender.
Pour in the two tablespoons plus two teaspoons white vinegar.
Measure and add in one heaping tablespoon of Dijon mustard…
Season with a teaspoon of kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper…
…and 3/4 teaspoon of sugar.
Secure the processors lid, turn it on and sloooooooooooooowly pour in 3/4 cup of grapeseed oil. (extra light olive oil would work just as well!)
Process until smooth.
Pour the dressing into a bowl, snap on the lid…
And pop it into the fridge to chill until you’re ready to use. This recipe makes about 1-3/4 cup.
Fill a medium pot with water, bring to a boil and cook 1 pound of pasta until al dente. Follow your packages directions for perfect pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, finely dice up half a large orange bell pepper…
Do the same to half a red bell pepper…
Slice two stalks of celery in half and then into three strips and then finely dice those as well.
Finally, slice up 4 green onions.
Throw all of those beautiful veggies right on into a large bowl.
Once the pasta is cooked perfectly; drain and rinse with cold water and then toss it around to get any extra water out of the noodles.
Add the cooled noodles right on into the bowl with the veggies.
Stir…
… add in 3/4 of the dressing. Save the remaining dressing in the fridge for later on.
Toss…
Taste…
And season the Classic Macaroni Salad with more salt and pepper as desired. I now cover this gigantic bowl of carb-goodness for 4 hours or overnight. Then I toss the remaining dressing into the salad right before serving.
That’s it! You will love this delicious classic macaroni salad. I told you it was easy!
I hope you all have nice, relaxing, labor-free Labor Day!
Enjoy! And if you give this Classic Macaroni Salad recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
My cookbook Simply Scratch : 120 Wholesome Homemade Recipes Made Easy is now available! CLICK HERE for details and THANK YOU in advance!
Macaroni salad with a creamy, dreamy homemade dressing.
Classic Macaroni Salad + Homemade Dressing
Ingredients
HOMEMADE DRESSING:
SALAD:
Instructions
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You are AMAZING!!! I’m so making this!
I noticed that you use raw eggs. Are they pasteurized? Thanks. Looks delicious!!!
Hi Connie! No the eggs I use are not but you definitely could use pasteurized eggs no problem
Looks relish! I love a simple traditional macaroni salad – especially during the summer!
This is one of the prettiest homemade mac salads I’ve ever seen. Also way to go making your own mayo-dresssing. It looks delicious.
Sooo pretty! Wow, I seriously love the colors. And sounds looks delicious too!
This looks amazing and I love the dressing you made! The colours are lovely!
Happy Labour Day! This looks like a great dish to celebrate the end of summer with.
We’re in Michigan too ! I would never feel configurable feeding my kids (or my other family members, really, raw eggs). I think I’ll just doctor up some commercial mayo for this salad. I like your use of bell pepper, yummy!
My dad makes almost exactly this salad (with regular ol’ store-bought mayo instead), but he adds a can or two of crushed pineapple and some boiled shrimp for a complete meal! It’s a great beach/lake day meal!
My boyfriend is going to LOVE this. Love the homemade dressing and the addition of mustard has to make this dressing perfect.
I love me some macaroni salad!! The dressing looks fantastic!
Thanks Stephanie! 🙂
I can’t believe summer is almost over. While I’m not a fan of the heat, I do love summer produce. This salad looks amazing. I love that you made your own dressing–so much better than storebought.
Thanks Jennie! I know! I will totally miss the produce too! I love fall, but winter? Not so much. 😉
Yo ho to-tally craving!!
Can I use mustard powder instead of Dijon?