Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad Lightened Up

This easy Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad is a great dish for summer potlucks and barbecue gatherings. Keep the dish simple or add some of your favorite ingredients like diced hard boiled eggs.

Summer-time is always filled with barbecues and potlucks and this Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad is one of my favorite to share. It makes a lot and goes perfectly with whatever you happen to be grilling!

I was tempted to add Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise to this pasta dish, but thought it might not have the same creamy texture that mayonnaise adds. So I bought mayonnaise to use in this recipe and only added 3/4 cup. It’s just the right amount to coat the noodles without losing the flavor, but we sure cut out a lot of calories!

When my son was about to make a plate for himself, he said “Oh, good, this looks like a healthy mac salad. I would eat this over L&L’s salad!” If you aren’t familiar with L&L Hawaiian Barbecue fast food restaurant, their menu has island favorite foods, and every plate is served with rice and macaroni salad. The salad is simple with a super creamy dressing, but we usually only eat a couple of bites and always wish it was made with less mayonnaise.

I solved the over saturation of dressing by decreasing the amount of mayonnaise and adding some milk, which still gives us the base we want for all the goodies to stick to the noodles.

This is a great recipe to experiment with. Keep it island-style or add other flavors like hard boiled eggs or olives.

Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad Lightened Up

Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad is a great dish for summer potlucks and barbecue gatherings. Keep the dish simple or add some of your favorite ingredients like diced hard boiled eggs.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Uncategorized

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes

Total Time: 27 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 -8 servings

Calories: 261kcal

Author: Sandra Shaffer @ The Foodie Affair

Ingredients

• 4 cups dry elbow macaroni noodles I used large
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup onion grated sweet onion, Maui or Vidalia
• 1 carrot grated
• 4 celery stalks diced
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Boil elbow macaroni noodles according to package directions.
• Drain, rice with warm water and drain completely.
• Whisk together mayonnaise, milk, sugar, vinegar and onion.
• In a large mixing bowl combine macaroni and dressing. Fold in carrot and celery. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill before serving.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 261kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 194mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 4g

Disclaimer

Please note that the nutritional information provided are guidelines and may vary based on the brand of products used. For your specific nutritional goals use My Fitness Pal or Verywell Fit recipe calculators. All content within this site is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical expertise.