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Home » Recipes » Salads & Starters » Easy creamy curried macaroni salad

Easy creamy curried macaroni salad

June 19, 2019 by Alida Ryder 21 Comments

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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.

Easy creamy curried macaroni salad

Macaroni salad/Noodle salad/Pasta salad. Whatever you call it, I love it. Any pasta salad reminds me of my childhood and hot summer days spent with family. I’m pretty sure my mom was the queen of all summer salads when I was young because hot damn, that woman knew how to knock them together. And because of that, macaroni salads were a staple at pretty much all of our braais (barbecues/cook outs/summer gatherings).

This creamy curried macaroni salad is an amalgamation of two of my favourite childhood salads. My mom’s pasta salad and her curried rice salad. Rice salads are an odd thing to me. I could never totally wrap my brain around them but my mom always made her curried rice salad for Christmas day and slowly but surely I fell in love with it. The flavors of my mom’s rice salad might seem odd to a lot of people but I promise, it just works.

Easy creamy curried macaroni salad

Condensed milk and canned peaches?

Afrikaans people have a special talent for working sweetened condensed milk into savoury foods. It’s very weird. But in this salad, it is genius. The condensed milk adds serious creaminess and just the right amount of sweetness to the curried salad dressing. (So no need to add honey or other sweeteners usually used in mayo-based dressings.)

Another weird ingredient in this salad? Canned peaches. Again, Afrikaners have this way of adding fruit to everything. Something I usually don’t agree with, but again, here it just works. The peaches (feel free to use fresh if you want) compliment the aromatic dressing so well and the bell pepper, cucumber and celery add serious crunch. (If the thought of fruit in a macaroni salad gives you the heebie-jeebies, just leave it out or replace with orange bell pepper.)

So I took my mom’s old school rice salad and replaced the rice with al dente macaroni and you guys. It is so delicious. I would be lying to you if I told you I didn’t eat most of this bowl by myself. It’s honestly such a great salad to take to pot luck dinners and will be the star of the show at any of your summer parties (um, hi 4th of July)! Also, keep a little to one side because this salad is unbelievably good the next day.

Can you freeze macaroni salad?

Macaroni salad really is best served on the day it is made or a day or two after. Macaroni salads 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), macaroni salad 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 macaroni 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 or macaroni 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

  1. Mexican street corn macaroni salad
  2. Sundried tomato pesto pasta salad
  3. Greek orzo salad
  4. Asian noodle salad with peanut ginger dressing
Easy creamy curried macaroni salad on blue cloth.

Easy creamy curried macaroni salad

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.
4.43 from 19 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Easy Recipe, Macaroni salad, Pasta, Salad, Summer
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Macaroni salad, Pasta salad, salad, Side dish
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 10 people
Calories: 387kcal
Author: Alida Ryder

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.

Nutrition

Calories: 387kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 167mg | Potassium: 312mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 905IU | Vitamin C: 34.3mg | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 1mg

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Pin363
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Filed Under: Dinner Recipes, Lunch, Pasta, Quick and Easy, Recipes, Salads & Starters, Sides, Vegetarian Tagged With: 4th of July, Barbecue, easy macaroni salad, easy recipe, easy salad, entertaining, grilling, Macaroni salad, noodle salad, Old school recipe, pasta salad, Retro pasta salad, Salad, side dish, Summer salad, vegetarian

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Comments

  1. marnie

    July 6, 2020 at 1:23 AM

    Can i use fresh peaches?

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      July 6, 2020 at 8:48 PM

      Absolutely!

      Reply
  2. Meagan

    September 4, 2019 at 11:49 AM

    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!

    Reply
  3. Schmidt

    July 22, 2018 at 7:05 PM

    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!

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      July 23, 2018 at 8:40 AM

      Oh yay, I am so happy to hear that!

      Reply
  4. María

    July 3, 2017 at 9:45 PM

    Looks amazing! Still I`m not convinced with the peaches (even when i love mango in salads).
    Thanks for this recipe 🙂

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      July 5, 2017 at 3:15 PM

      If you like mango in salad, I’m pretty sure you’ll love the peaches too. But mango would work great too! 🙂

      Reply
  5. 2pots2cook

    June 27, 2017 at 5:30 PM

    Simply delicious 🙂 Pinning ! Thank you for this beauty !

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      June 29, 2017 at 8:29 AM

      Thanks so much! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Cori @ Sweet Coralice

    June 24, 2017 at 5:16 AM

    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 ?

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      June 29, 2017 at 8:30 AM

      Thanks so much Cori!

      Reply
  7. Christi

    June 23, 2017 at 9:08 PM

    This salad looks so intresting. Adding it to my must-try list.

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      June 29, 2017 at 8:31 AM

      I hope you love it as much as I do!

      Reply
  8. Janette

    June 23, 2017 at 9:07 PM

    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!

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      June 29, 2017 at 8:31 AM

      So glad you like the idea of this salad Janette. I also prefer the macaroni, to be honest.

      Reply
  9. Camilla

    June 23, 2017 at 9:06 PM

    That salad looks delicious! It’s so hot in the U.K. at the moment so I’m definitely making it over the weekend.

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      June 29, 2017 at 8:32 AM

      Thanks Camilla! Hope you loved it.

      Reply
  10. Janet Perry

    June 23, 2017 at 7:47 PM

    This sounds fantastic, and just the way my husband will love it – thanks!

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      June 29, 2017 at 8:32 AM

      Thanks Janet!

      Reply
  11. Mary Ann | The Beach House Kitchen

    June 23, 2017 at 7:39 PM

    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!

    Reply
    • Alida Ryder

      June 29, 2017 at 8:32 AM

      Anything curried is my favorite too! 🙂

      Reply

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Hi! I'm Alida, mom of twins and creator of Simply Delicious. I hope to encourage a love for cooking by creating fool-proof recipes that are easy and delicious. Read More…

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