After you’ve cooked the pasta, place it in a colander to drain the hot water. While the pasta cooks, prep a large bowl of ice water. TIP: Prep your veggies while the pasta cooks to save time. After that, it should only take a couple minutes to mix everything together. When planning your cooking time, allow yourself 20-30 minutes to cook and cool the pasta. How Do You Cool Down Pasta for Pasta Salad? If you just make the pasta by itself and keep refrigerated, there is a chance that the noodles may stick together. Macaroni salad is perfect the make the day before you plan to serve it, and keep refrigerated. Instead of cooking only the pasta ahead of time, I’d recommend making the entire dish. Pineapple chunks - drained (you can save the juice for the dressing).Cooked elbow macaroni - prepared according to package directions.This is a quick list of shop-able ad links to help you find the products used to make this recipe disclosure policy here.

Related: Be sure to try our Hawaiian Sliders too! It’s one of the most popular recipes on the blog! I won’t claim that this is a 100% authentic recipe, but it is lovingly inspired by my favorite dish at our local Hawaiian joint! It is the next best thing to the getting the real thing! This makes the dish hearty and satisfying, with a burst of sweet pineapple that is brings it all together. We did add ham to our recipe, as well as sliced pineapple and cucumbers. It starts with elbow macaroni and sliced carrots and a sweet and sour mayonnaise-based dressing.įrom there, you can customize with added protein (such as cubed ham) or even extra veggies. Traditional Hawaiian macaroni salad is very simple and consists of only a few ingredients. This classic macaroni salad recipe has a creamy dressing that’s both tangy, sweet, and so addicting you’ll want to have seconds and even thirds! This pasta salad is so delicious, you’ll want to serve it at every barbecue, party, and side during the summer. These meals usually include a protein, rice, and a generous scoop of macaroni salad. This recipe is a recreation of what you’d find in a restaurant that serves Hawaiian style plate lunches. Not gonna lie…I could have eaten the entire order of Hawaiian mac salad!! It was SO good!! It’s out-of-this-world delicious!Ī few years ago a Hawaiian restaurant opened up in our town, so of course we had to try it out right away! My favorite things on the menu were the Spam “sushi” and the pasta salad. Traditional elbow noodles are tossed with ham, veggies, and a sweet and tangy pineapple dressing. This quick and easy Hawaiian Macaroni Salad Recipe is inspired by my favorite dish at our local Hawaiian restaurant.

Hawaiin recipe for mac salad