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This creamy macaroni salad is loaded with roasted red peppers, black olives, pickles, and green onion, so every bite has plenty of flavor. The tangy, pourable Dressing keeps it creamy without getting thick or gluey, and it gets even better after a chill in the fridge. You’re going to love it for cookouts, easy dinners, and make-ahead meals.
Why You’ll Love It
- Better after chilling — the macaroni soaks up the creamy dressing and the flavors meld together.
- Creamy but not gluey — milk keeps the dressing smooth and pourable.
- Plenty of texture — roasted red peppers, olives, pickles, and green onions make every forkful interesting.
- Serves eight with simple ingredients — no specialty grocery run required.
- Goes with almost anything — burgers, grilled Chicken, sandwiches, and easy summer meals.
Ingredient Notes
Elbow macaroni is the right choice here. I know there are people who want to use shells or bow ties for everything, and bless them, but elbow macaroni holds onto this thin, creamy dressing beautifully. Cook it, rinse it, and let it cool down a bit. You do not want hot macaroni melting the mayo into a suspicious puddle. Ask me how I know. Actually, don’t.
Use jarred roasted red peppers and drain them well. I usually give them a little pat with a paper towel because watery peppers will thin the dressing more than you want. The ones packed in water work beautifully. The oil-packed kind can work too, but drain them thoroughly or the salad gets a little slick.
For the olives, plain canned black olives are just fine. This is not the time to pull out expensive fancy olives from a tiny deli container, unless you already have them open and are trying to clean out the refrigerator. I’ve done worse. The pickles can be sweet or spicy, depending on what your family likes. I tend to use sweet pickle slices because that’s what we always had around, but spicy pickles make this awfully good too.
As for mayonnaise, use the kind you genuinely like. I am not getting in the middle of a Duke’s-versus-Hellmann’s situation. Families have split over less. The milk may seem odd at first, but it makes a pourable dressing that coats every piece of pasta instead of sitting in globs. Trust it.
Ingredients
- 4 cups elbow macaroni, cooked and rinsed
- 1 cup diced roasted red peppers, drained well—I blot them a little if they look especially wet
- 1/2 cup black olives, chopped
- 6 sweet or spicy pickle slices, diced; I usually choose sweet, though spicy is mighty good
- 3 green onions, chopped, including some of the tender green tops
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon pickle juice, straight from the jar
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 3 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Black pepper, to taste—I give it several good turns, but that’s me
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine the cooked and rinsed elbow macaroni, diced roasted red peppers, chopped black olives, diced pickles, and green onions. Give everything a gentle toss. Nothing complicated here, but make sure the macaroni isn’t sitting in a pool of rinse water at the bottom of the bowl. Drain it well. I once skipped that part because I was in a hurry to get outside before the corn burned on the grill, and the salad was a little watery. Still edible. Not my finest hour.
In a smaller bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, milk, pickle juice, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, and black pepper until smooth. It will look thinner than a typical mayonnaise dressing, and that’s exactly what you want. The macaroni drinks some of it up as it chills. Taste it if you like—though I’ll warn you, cold dressing tasted on its own can seem sharper than it does once it’s mixed into all that pasta.
Pour the dressing over the macaroni mixture and toss until everything is evenly coated. Get down to the bottom of the bowl with your spoon or rubber spatula, because the pasta always tries to hide there, dry as a bone. I prefer a big rubber spatula for this job, but a large spoon works. Use what’s clean. That’s my kitchen philosophy after 6 p.m.
Cover the bowl and chill the macaroni salad for at least 2 hours before serving. Don’t skip the chill time if you can help it. Right after mixing, it’s good. Two hours later, it tastes like the version you meant to make. Serve it cold, preferably with something sizzling nearby and somebody complaining that they’re starving even though they had a snack twenty minutes ago.
Variations
You can choose sweet pickles for a softer, old-fashioned flavor or spicy ones if you want a little kick. I’ve made it both ways.
I did try adding celery once, because I had half a stalk rolling around in the crisper drawer and thought I was being resourceful. It wasn’t bad, exactly. But it made the salad feel busy, and the roasted red peppers and pickles already give you plenty of texture. So I don’t bother now. Sometimes more is more; sometimes more is just another thing to chop while your glasses slide down your nose.
Storage & Reheating
Keep the macaroni salad covered in the refrigerator and serve it chilled. There is no reheating situation here, obviously. Please don’t microwave macaroni salad.
It keeps well for a couple of days in the fridge, and I think it’s especially good the next day. If it looks like it has thickened up after sitting overnight, just stir it well before serving. The dressing settles into the pasta, which is normal. I don’t usually add anything extra because this recipe is meant to be creamy without being soupy.
If you’re putting it out for an outdoor meal, don’t leave it sitting in the heat all afternoon. Set out what people will eat and keep the rest cold.
Final Notes
There are recipes you make because they’re impressive, and then there are recipes you make because they belong at the table. This is the second kind. It isn’t fussy, it doesn’t require a special trip across town, and nobody has to pretend they only want a tiny scoop.
I like that it gives summer meals a little softness. The evening gets loud, somebody is hunting for bug spray, a kid—or grown kid, more likely—has misplaced their phone, and there’s this cold bowl waiting in the refrigerator like one sensible person showed up. That person is not always me, but the macaroni salad makes a convincing case.
Make it early. Let it sit. Put it out with dinner and watch people circle back for “just a little more.” Then save yourself a spoonful for later, if there is any later.
The Pioneer Woman's Macaroni Salad
Ingredients Â
- 4 cups elbow macaroni cooked, rinsed, and drained well
- 1 cup diced roasted red peppers drained well and blotted if wet
- 1/2 cup black olives chopped
- 6 sweet or spicy pickle slices diced
- 3 green onions chopped, including some tender green tops
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon pickle juice straight from the jar
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 3 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
InstructionsÂ
- In a large bowl, combine the cooked and rinsed elbow macaroni, diced roasted red peppers, chopped black olives, diced pickles, and green onions, then gently toss, making sure the macaroni is well drained and not sitting in rinse water.
- In a smaller bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, milk, pickle juice, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, and black pepper until smooth; the dressing should look thinner than a typical mayonnaise dressing.
- Pour the dressing over the macaroni mixture and toss until everything is evenly coated, using a spoon or rubber spatula to reach the bottom of the bowl so no pasta is left dry.
- Cover the bowl and chill the macaroni salad for at least 2 hours before serving it cold.