Back in my single days when I was a gal about town, I used to frequent a local pub that served this fabulous macaroni salad. It was one of the few non-greasy, vegetarian dishes offered and I could not get enough of it. I also loved the fact that I could order a pasta salad at a restaurant that did not have onions in it.
Oh, did I mention I hate onions. Unless of course they are thinly sliced, breaded, fried and barely distinguishable as an onion.
Also I love pasta…
And I love to reminisce about the past. Especially when good food and friends were involved!
The pub’s macaroni salad evokes fond memories of time well (and sometimes not so well) spent with my girl friends..talking about heartaches and hopefulness, weekend plans and life lessons learned…always over a beer or a cheap glass of wine. Sigh…
I eventually found love, started a family and moved away from that town with the great little bar. I’ve gone back and the macaroni salad is now off the menu. What a pity, no more memory lane macaroni salad, I thought.
But I was wrong!!! Thank goodness I was wrong!
I was staring recently at the 50 some odd boxes of pasta sitting in my pantry, realizing I needed to start using this stuff up. So I did a search for some pasta recipes that included ingredients I had on hand. What I was most drawn to was the Classic Macaroni Salad. I found many variations of this recipe and morphed them into something I actually could eat.
The result…a stroll down memory lane. The macaroni salad tasted surprisingly similar to that old favorite of mine. Apparently, that old favorite wasn’t as proprietary as I had believed it to be.
Cucumber Macaroni Salad
1.5 cups macaroni noodles
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light mayonnaise
1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
1/3 cup cucumber, diced
1/3 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup carrots, shredded
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Rinse thoroughly and allow to chill in refrigerator before mixing remaining ingredients (to reduce the amount of dressing absorbing into the pasta).
2. In a large container, mix remaining ingredients.
3. Gently fold in chilled noodles.
4. Refrigerate until serving.
I will be submitting this recipe to following fabulous food events…
Presto Pasta Night #224 hosted by Anu from Truth Personified
A Little Bird Told Me
Tasty Tuesdays
Cast Party Wednesdays
These Chicks Cooked
Whats on Your Plate
Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier, I’m glad u did, since I’ve got the opportunity to stop by u’r space. I seen a few posts and I love them. I can wait to see more! Happy to follow you!
Your macaroni salad sounds fabulous! I’ll be trying it real soon! Thanks for sharing!
Great summer pasta dish. Thanks for sharing with Presto Pasta Nights.
Thanks a lot for this recipe. Me (vegetarian) and my boyfriend (celiac pescetarian with egg sensitivites, yes our cooking exploits are awesome) are both full-time college students and I’ve been meaning to stock up on handy casserole recipes to help us make it through the school year. The existence of this blog is very heartening. I think this is a good recipe for us, since it’s mixed cold it would be easy enough to use gluten-free noodles. I’m also a bit weirded out by cucumber in a macaroni salad recipe, but I figure it’s worth trying at least once. My boyfriend has already okayed the recipe so I’m pretty certain we’ll be trying this after our next trip to the grocery store.
Mmmm…Your reminiscences conjured up some memories of a delicious macaroni salad that I used to get at a local deli (now closed) back during my single days too. With the exception of the fact that the deli where I went used the short macaroni, your recipe sounds like it might be just the key to taking me back down memory lane as well!
Thank you so much for linking up to “A Little Birdie Told Me…”! I hope you’ll swing by and share more of your talent tomorrow! Best, Jenn
Thank You So MUCH for joining me last week for Cast Party Wednesday. I hope you will come back tomorrow and share more of your recipes with us.
Thanks,
I hope to see you there!
This looks really yummy. I’ve never seen cucumber added to a macaroni salad, but I bet tastes good!
Cheers,
Tracy