Dill Pickle Macaroni Salad

This classic macaroni salad is made healthier using avocado oil mayonnaise and is the perfect summer side dish. This pasta salad is cool and creamy with crisp vegetables and tender pasta tossed in a tangy dressing. Enjoy this macaroni salad with added proteins such as hard boiled eggs, cheese or meat such as ham or chicken.

This dill pickle macaroni salad is a yummy summer side dish! Perfect for a potluck, a picnic, or a backyard family barbecue.

★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★

Enjoy this macaroni salad on it’s own or as a side for grilled chicken or BBQ. It also makes a great dish to bring to an event since this recipe makes a large batch. Cut in half to feed fewer people.

Lightly Creamy

This pasta salad isn't super heavy. It's cool and lightly creamy with crisp vegetables and tender pasta tossed in a tangy avocado oil mayonnaise + sour cream dressing.

The dressing is made with healthier avocado-oil mayonnaise and pickle juice! So it's not super thick or overly sticky. It's lightly creamy, tangy and refreshing.

You can even adjust the amount of pickle juice to thicken or thin out the sauce.

Vegetarian or Add Protein

This pasta salad can be made with or without hard boiled eggs as a vegetarian dish or you can add meats such as ham or cubes of cheese.

★ Ingredients You'll Need ★

Here's everything you'll need.

The Main Ingredients

• Macaroni pasta. Be sure to rinse after draining to remove some excess starch and thin out the texture.
• Celery. Slice thick or thin depending on how much crunch you want.
• Red onion. This is more mild than other onions but you could use a yellow or white onion. However, I would use half the amount and very finely chop.
• Green onion. Thinly slice these going from white all the way up to the green. Chop as well, if desired.
• Red bell pepper. Or choose any color you prefer. Green tends to be less sweet than the colored peppers.
• Dill pickles. I prefer the more gourmet pickles found in the fresh vegetable aisle but your more typical dill pickles work well too.
• Carrots. You can dice, grate or shred these depending on how much crunch you like.

Dressing Ingredients

• Avocado mayonnaise. This is lower in calories, contains vitamins and fiber. It's a great healthier alternative to typical mayonnaise.
• Pickle juice. This is simply the juice found in the jar of pickles. There may be some garlic chunks, go ahead and add those in too!
• Dijon mustard. This adds a layer of flavor. You can add more or less to taste.
• Sour cream. This adds some tang and creaminess without so much greasiness which you can get using too much mayo.
• Finally, sugar and spices. Table sugar adds a hint of sweetness to balance out the vinegar of the pickle juice and just highlights the vegetables as well. Spice include: paprika, salt, pepper and garlic and onion powder are optional.

★ How to Make this Recipe ★

Here's a snapshot of the steps involved to make this recipe.

Adding hard-boiled eggs is optional but highly encouraged!

Basically: cook and drain the macaroni, chop the main ingredients, fold in the dressing ingredients with spices and ta-da! Chill to marinate and then serve.

The full recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions is below.

★ Tips & FAQs ★

Why use avocado oil mayo?

Using avocado oil mayonnaise reduces calories, adds vitamins as well as fiber and contains healthier fats (instead of trans and saturated fats).

It's a bit pricier than regular mayo, but personally I feel the health benefits are worth it.

I don't feel guilty eating this creamy salad when I opt to make it with avocado oil mayo. You can, however, use regular mayonnaise if you prefer.

★ More Recipes You'll Love ★

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This easy recipe for dill pickle macaroni salad was featured on South Your Mouth!