This Hawaiian style macaroni salad is full of tangy flavor, soft macaroni pasta, and a handful of ingredients such as shredded carrots, celery, peas, and onion.
The tangy dressing is thick, coating every inch of the cooked pasta - ready to be enjoyed as the perfect side dish for summer cookouts or family gatherings.
We absolutely love pasta recipes, they are so easy and go well with all the veggies!
From our Creamy Chicken Fajita Pasta, refreshing Zesty Italian Pasta Salad with salty sausage, to cheesy Broccoli Pasta Salad - there's something for everyone and guaranteed to satisfy even picky eaters.
This Hawaiian Macaroni Salad is no exception!
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Ingredients
- Mayonnaise - Use your favorite brand, but I suggest a full-fat mayonnaise for the best flavor and creamy texture. Duke’s mayonnaise would be a great choice for this pasta salad.
- Yellow onion - Grated.
- Sugar - Use dark brown sugar.
- Pepper - I prefer ground pepper to keep with the smooth consistency of the dressing, but you could use freshly cracked pepper instead.
- Salt - Add to the pasta water and the ingredients.
- Pasta - Elbow macaroni.
- Apple cider vinegar - Use rice or white wine vinegar if you don’t have apple cider vinegar.
- Green peas - Fresh or frozen.
- Green onions - For garnish.
- Celery ribs - chopped into ¼-inch pieces.
- Carrots - Grated. It's a good idea to squeeze any excess water from the carrots so that it doesn't thin the dressing.
For the full list of ingredients, please scroll down where you'll find the recipe card.
Instructions
Cook the pasta according to package directions adding a couple of extra minutes until the pasta is very soft and plump. This way it will absorb the sauce better.
Drain and let cool in a colander for 10 minutes. Add the pasta to a large mixing bowl, drizzle with vinegar and let sit for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a medium bowl whisk together milk, cream, mayonnaise, onion, sugar, salt, and black pepper.
Add the sauce to the pasta.
Add the remaining ingredients: green onions, peas, celery, and carrots to the pot and stir to combine, and season with salt and pepper if needed.
Let the pasta salad cool completely at room temperature. After that cover, the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.
Decorate with green onions and black pepper on top.
Tips
- For a mayonnaise alternative, you could use yogurt or sour cream but the consistency may turn out too thin n the end.
- It’s important to allow this macaroni salad to chill in the refrigerator so that all of the flavors infuse and blend well. 2 hours should be adequate to chill the Hawaiian mac before serving.
- If you don’t feel like making another batch of creamy dressing for leftover macaroni salad and the salad needs additional coating, simply mix in a little extra mayonnaise or even Greek yogurt.
- It’s always advised to be generous when adding salt to pasta water before adding dried, uncooked pasta. It's the secret ingredient that makes a huge difference in the taste of this classic macaroni salad.
- The vinegar added immediately to the cooked and drained pasta will be absorbed by the pasta for great flavor but also helps prevent the pasta from sticking together.
- While I often cook pasta until it’s al dente pasta for most other recipes, this macaroni salad requires very soft pasta to absorb the dressing better. Therefore, I highly recommend adding 5 minutes of cooking time to whatever the pasta packaging suggests.
- You can turn this traditional Hawaiian mac salad into a main lunch plate dish by adding leftover Huli Huli chicken pieces or BBQ pork!
Freezing and Storing Instructions
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. For this type of pasta salad, I recommend eating it right after chilling.
By that time, the pasta has absorbed the sauce, and the texture and flavor will be at their best. After repeated refrigerating the pasta salad will be a little dry. You can easily fix this by mixing up a double batch of the sauce.
The sauce can be made a 2-3 days in advance and stored in a separate container in the fridge.
Can macaroni salad be frozen? It is best to freeze the salad right away after making it, this way you'll preserve most of its flavor and help avoid it becoming soggy.
Defrost macaroni salad in the fridge overnight, drain excess liquid and add more fresh creamy sauce.
Pasta will absorb a lot of liquid and the salad will look a little dry. For this reason, keep some extra salad sauce on hand.
Serving Suggestions
We love this pasta salad with a variety of main courses. From juicy classic pan-seared Pork Chops, BBQ Ribs, baked pesto Chicken, to all types of patties and burgers.
You can find all our recipes in recipe-index or for go-to Dinner recipes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Macaroni salad always tastes better the day it is made since the extra time chilling the combined ingredients in the fridge allows all the flavors to infuse together.
This dish was introduced to the Hawaiian locals when Europeans brought dry elbow macaroni and mayonnaise to the Hawaiian islands.
These simple ingredients are affordable and not perishable, making this creamy macaroni salad ideal to serve as a main dish or side dish at home.
To slow down the pasta from absorbing the creamy mayonnaise, chill the ingredients before combining them to make the salad. This slows the absorption rate if that is your desire.
Some mayonnaise dressing can settle at the bottom of the pasta salad if the pasta hasn’t entirely absorbed it.
If this happens, stir the salad from the bottom up so that the mayonnaise dressing can be redistributed evenly throughout the Hawaiian pasta salad ingredients.
No. Rinsing the pasta will reduce the starch, which helps the mayonnaise dressing stick to the pasta.
Thank you so much for reading about how to make a Hawaiian Macaroni Salad. Please feel free to comment with any questions you may have! I love reading your feedback. Rita
Easy Salad Recipes
If you craving for more pasta dishes try our creamy Tuna Pasta Salad, healthy Cheddar Broccoli Pasta Salad, or Zesty Italian Pasta Salad with juicy sausage .
Or simply browse through our Salad Collection.
Did you make this recipe? Please be sure to leave a rating and a comment below. Thank you!
📖Recipe
Easy Hawaiian Macaroni Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 cups mayonnaise
- ½ cup milk
- 1 ½ tablespoons brown onion, grated
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Black pepper to taste
- 1 pound elbow macaroni pasta or similar small pasta
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup green peas, fresh or frozen
- 2-3 tablespoon green onions for garnish
- 2 celery stalks, sliced
- 1 cup carrots, medium grated
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions adding a couple extra minutes until pasta is very soft and plump. This way it will absorb the sauce better. Rinse and let cool in colander for 10 minutes. Add the pasta to a large mixing bowl, drizzle with vinegar and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile prepare the sauce. In a medium bowl whisk together milk, cream, mayonnaise, onion, sugar, salt and black pepper.
- Add the sauce to the pasta.
- Add in the remaining ingredients: green onions, peas, celery, and carrots to the pot and stir to combine, and season with salt and pepper if needed.
- Let the pasta salad to cool completely at room temperature. After that cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.
- Decorate with green onions and more black pepepr on top.
Notes
- For a mayonnaise alternative, you could use yogurt or sour cream but the consistency may turn out too thin in the end.
- It’s essential to allow this macaroni salad to chill in the refrigerator so that all of the flavors infuse and blend well. 2 hours should be adequate to chill the Hawaiian mac before serving.
- It’s always advised to be generous when adding salt to pasta water before adding dried, uncooked pasta. It's the secret ingredient that makes a huge difference in the taste of this classic macaroni salad.
- If you don’t feel like making another batch of creamy dressing for leftover macaroni salad and the salad needs additional coating, simply mix in a little extra mayonnaise or even Greek yogurt.
- Is it better to make macaroni salad the night before? Macaroni salad always tastes better the day it is made since the extra time chilling the combined ingredients in the fridge allows all the flavors to infuse together.
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Rita
Easy And delicious classic Hawaiian Mac!
Suzanne
It is delicious. I only used about 3/4 of the dressing mix and it was perfectly moist.
Rita
Thank you Suzanne! Thank you for letting me know!