Macaroni salad is the perfect side dish for casual summer eating. This easy creamy curried macaroni salad recipe is a twist on an old classic.
Ingredients
Full recipe with amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Macaroni. Use any short pasta shape of your choice.
- Cucumber.
- Red bell pepper.
- Red onion.
- Celery. Can be substituted with fennel.
- Canned peaches. The sweetness of the peaches works incredibly well with the curried dressing.
- Mayonnaise.
- Condensed milk. The sweet, creaminess of the condensed milk is just delicious in this dressing. Try it, you won’t be disappointed!
- Curry powder. Any fine spice mix will work. I like curry mixes with coriander, cumin, cardamom, turmeric, etc.
- Turmeric.
- Cayenne pepper.
- Lemon juice.
- Salt and pepper.
Can you freeze macaroni salad?
Any pasta salad really is best served on the day it is made or a day or two after. They generally don’t freeze well because their creamy dressings split once defrosted and pasta can become watery or mealy once frozen.
How long does macaroni salad last?
Depending on the ingredients (meat, boiled eggs, etc) it can last up to 5 days in the fridge, covered well. If you have meat or boiled eggs, it should be safe to eat for up to 3 days if kept chilled and covered.
Do you rinse macaroni for salad?
Rinsing pasta is usually a big no-no as the starch that clings to the pasta is what allows the sauce to cling to the pasta and is often used to emulsify the sauce. However, with pasta salad that isn’t such a big concern so rinsing is perfectly fine. It also helps to rinse cooked pasta for salad as the pasta will stick to each other less when rinsed.
Pasta salad recipes
Easy creamy curried macaroni salad
Ingredients
- 500 g/1lb macaroni cooked
- 2 red bell peppers chopped
- 1 cucumber peeled and seeded, chopped
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- 3 celery sticks finely chopped
- 1 x 400g/14oz can peaches drained and chopped
for the dressing
- 1½ cups mayonnaise
- 4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
- 1-2 teaspoons curry powder to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- pinch of cayenne pepper optional
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice to taste
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine the cooked macaroni with the remaining salad ingredients.
- Stir together all the dressing ingredients.
- Pour ¾ of the dressing over the salad and mix well. Reserve the rest of the dressing.
- Place the macaroni salad in the fridge and allow to chill for an hour (alternatively, you can make this the day before. Cover with plastic wrap and chill.)
- Just before serving, pour over the remaining dressing and mix well.
- Serve.
Can i use fresh peaches?
Absolutely!
Thanks for this great quick and easy recipe, I tried it on Sunday for my sons 16th birthday lunch. it was delicious and such a hit! And to save me time on the big day, I made it the night before. Perfect!
I fixed this for our 4th of July get together, and it was a hit. I barely had enough leftover for my
lunch the next day. Definitely a keeper!
Oh yay, I am so happy to hear that!
Looks amazing! Still I`m not convinced with the peaches (even when i love mango in salads).
Thanks for this recipe 🙂
If you like mango in salad, I’m pretty sure you’ll love the peaches too. But mango would work great too! 🙂
Simply delicious 🙂 Pinning ! Thank you for this beauty !
Thanks so much! 🙂
Ditto. I love Macaroni Salad. Almost any of them to be honest. This one looks amazing and I will be saving to Pinterest for later ?
Thanks so much Cori!
This salad looks so intresting. Adding it to my must-try list.
I hope you love it as much as I do!
My mom also made a rice salad like that with tinned peaches and a curry mayo sauce. I love that you changed it to a macaroni salad because I can’t stand cold rice. Such a nice idea!
So glad you like the idea of this salad Janette. I also prefer the macaroni, to be honest.
That salad looks delicious! It’s so hot in the U.K. at the moment so I’m definitely making it over the weekend.
Thanks Camilla! Hope you loved it.
This sounds fantastic, and just the way my husband will love it – thanks!
Thanks Janet!
Interesting list of ingredients Alida, but this macaroni salad sounds absolutely delicious. I love the addition of the curry (my favorite!). I’ll need to included this one at our next BBQ!
Anything curried is my favorite too! 🙂