Easy CREAMY Macaroni Salad _ Comfort Food Favourites

This easy macaroni salad is creamy , crunchy and packed with deliciousness .

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This is the perfect side for all your barbecues coming up this summer right now .

Let's get started .

Let's kick off our recipe by putting a pot of water on the stove to boil .

And here's a tip .

If you have hot water running from the faucet , fill your pot with hot water .

So the water boils faster and once the water has boiled , we're gonna season it like the sea .

We're gonna add two tablespoons of salt to it and that we're gonna toss in our cut macaroni and I'm using £1 which is around 4 50 g .

Give it a stir so that the salt dissolves in the water and the macaroni does not stick to the bottom of the pot while the macaroni is cooking , we're gonna stir it occasionally and we're gonna cook it till it's just tender .

It took me about 17 minutes and once the macaroni is done , we're gonna spray it in a colander and run it under cold water to shuck it so that it stops cooking .

We're gonna shake off the excess water and leave it in the colander to dry off completely .

While we work on our dressing .

We're gonna go in with one and a quarter cup of meal and to that , we're gonna add one tablespoon of Dijon mustard , half a teaspoon of garlic powder and this really enhances the flavor of the dressing .

Next , we're gonna go in with about half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper to balance the flavors .

We're gonna go in with 1.5 tablespoon of white granulated sugar and we're gonna add just one tablespoon right now and we'll use half a tablespoon later just gonna eyeball the one tablespoon and this , we're gonna use later for a little bit of tang .

We're gonna add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar .

If you want , you're gonna add white wine vinegar .

And once again , we're gonna add only one tablespoon right now and we're gonna preserve one tablespoon to use later .

We're gonna give this a whisk and bring all the flavors together .

We're not gonna add any salt right now to our dressing because the meal already has plenty of salt .

So once our salad is ready , we'll taste it and accordingly , adjust the seasoning .

Let's leave this aside so that the flavors get a chance to enhance while we prep our veggies for our veggies .

We're gonna start by adding in for a cup of finely diced red onion .

You could even use a sweet onion if you like .

But I like using the red onion because it adds to the color .

Now , red onion has a little bit of bite to it .

So to cut the bite here is where we're gonna add the one tablespoon of vine that we had left aside and half a teaspoon of sugar .

And this is gonna help to marinade the onion , giving it a little bit of sweet and a little bit of tang and cutting that right now .

We're gonna leave this aside to do its thing .

When we cut the remaining veggies for a little bit of crunch and color .

We're gonna go in with one cup of finely diced red bell pepper , just gonna cut it on the sides so that we don't get the seeds in .

It's gonna cut it in strips first and then we'll dice them into smaller bits when cutting the bits you want to keep them as even as possible .

Now , we're just gonna measure it .

You don't have to be very particular about it .

A little bit more , a little bit less .

It's fine .

This is gonna be very generous one cup and to that , we're gonna add one cup of diced celery .

So we're gonna cut down the length of the ribs and now we're gonna dice it into smaller bits .

And here we have one cup of celery and to that , we're gonna add one cup of finely diced carrot .

We're gonna cut it up into smaller bits .

So it's easier to chop up .

You want to keep all your veggies of similar size so that when you eat the salad , you get a taste of everything .

I'm just gonna measure that up and there we have our one cup of carrot and we're gonna go in with three boiled eggs and this adds to the creaminess of the salad .

And if you want to know how to boil your eggs perfectly and shell just like this , head on to my youtube channel and click on devil eggs to get the recipe .

Now for that little extra crunch , we're gonna go in with half a cup of lightly toasted peacocks .

We're just gonna give it a rough chop .

This is totally optional .

If you have anybody who's going to be enjoying this salad that has nut allergies or if you do not like nuts , you can omit this .

You could even substitute with walnuts or almonds if you preferred .

Once the macaroni has cleaned completely and all the water has drained off and it's dry and it's a little sticky to the touch .

It's time to put our salad together .

That's our red bell pepper , the chopped celery , the chopped carrots , the chopped eggs .

And now we're gonna add in our chopped onion , which I've got a little tint .

And to that , we're gonna add three tablespoons of sweet relish .

You can even sub in chopped pickles for this and not forgetting to add in our peacocks .

Now , we're gonna finish this off with our salad dressing and we're gonna just preserve a little to add in later and we're gonna preserve half a cup to add in later .

Ok .

Before we give our salad a mix , let's brighten it up by adding some herbs .

We're gonna go in with two tablespoons of finely chopped parsley and one tablespoon of finely chopped chives .

You could go in with all parsley if you wanted .

Let's give this a mix and bring all the flavors together .

Wow , it's looking so good .

All the colors and the meal is coating the macaroni so well .

And the egg is also adding to the creamy texture of the salad .

Now , let's give our salad a taste and check if we need to season it anymore .

I think it's just perfect macaroni salad tastes best when it's kept in the refrigerator overnight so that the macaroni gets a chance to absorb all the flavors of our salad dressing .

But since we're in a crunch for time , we're gonna refrigerate it for just four hours before we give it a taste .

Let's cover it up well , and place it in the refrigerator .

I'll see you later .

You'll notice that once you take it out of the fridge , the macaroni has absorbed some of the dressing and so it tends to look a little bit dry and that is why we have preserved some of the dressing so we can bring our salad back to life before we serve it .

Let's toss in the remaining dressing and get the salad a mix and instantly it's creamy again and now it's ready to be served .

If you're having a barbecue , you want to double this quantity .

Because I'm telling you this salad is going to move fast .

We're gonna garnish it with some finely chopped parsley and top it off with two sticks of chimes .

Oh , my goodness .

Look at that .

Now , let's give our macaroni salad a taste .

Want to get some of that pecan in this also .

Mhm .

It's so creamy yet crunchy and packed with flavor for the full written recipe log on to my website plating it at Wendy dot com .

This salad is my go to at summer time and it pairs very well with barbecue ribs , KFC chicken tenders and the recipe for those two are on my website .

Thanks for watching .

See you soon .