Deli-Style Macaroni Salad


Ingredients:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, grated
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
salt
white pepper
16 oz cooked macaroni (I actually used cellentani)

Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, celery seed, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper. In a large bowl, stir together the onion, celery, carrot, and macaroni. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving, but overnight is best.

My thoughts:

My Grandpop celebrated his 94th birthday today. My mom made crabcakes (naturally, my family’s been in Baltimore over a 150 years, anything else would be sacrilege) and I thought I’d bring a side dish to his birthday lunch. He really likes getting macaroni salad at the deli so I thought I’d make a homemade version. I actually had never made a tradition macaroni salad before so I had to improvise, but I think I did a good job of maintaining the style of the dish, while using ingredients that I like-celery seeds, high quality Dijon mustard instead of what I am sure is the traditional yellow and white wine vinegar instead of plain white distilled. The result? The best macaroni salad I ever had, bar none. Even my normally macaroni salad eschewing husband enjoyed it.

10 Comments

  1. YUM that looks good. Now I want Mac Salad!

    P.S. I seen you at your Mom’s today! I beeped.

  2. I find pasta type salads are actually a comfort food for me & it is so hard to try to eat only a moderate portion!

  3. This looks great! I always wondered how this was made. Thanks.

  4. You have an asterick next to mayo, but I dont see anything else? I’ll assume you wanted to say dont use miracle whip or you can use light mayo!!

  5. Just a typo Randy.

  6. mmm…that looks really good
    I absolutely love macaroni salad and can’t wait to try out ur recipe

  7. What a great side dish – not too sweet, not too vinegary. I just made this recipe for company coming over, and helped myself to a bowl before it had time to chill. Never buying pasta salad from the deli again!

  8. I’m a first timer of making this because I was never a huge macaroni salad fan (due to the drenching of mayonnaise) but since I’ve been here in Italy I’ve been craving American food and thought “This looks pretty good” so I gave it a try and This recipe is Great beyond my expectations!
    I added a couple of little sweet pickles and a 1/2 of cucumber and it still turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!

  9. I've made this several times and came back to make it again for a picnic tomorrow. This is my favorite Macaroni Salad! I'm a huge fan of your recipes!

  10. Yay! I am glad you enjoy it!