Amish Macaroni Salad

Amish macaroni salad is a potluck classic! This pasta salad combines cooked macaroni, hard boiled eggs, crispy veggies, and a creamy dressing for a side dish your friends will ask for again and again.

This might sound a little strange, but one of my very favorite foods is macaroni salad.

Although it’s not necessarily something I make very often in the fall and winter, it’s a staple around here in the spring and summer.

If you’re having a barbecue and I’m invited, odds are I’m bringing the macaroni salad and chocolate chip cookies or a lemon cheesecake (or maybe my nana’s easy cheesecake)—that’s just the way things roll. And let’s be real, who is going to complain about any of those?

Years ago I fell in love with a sweet macaroni salad that I had in Amish Country and I scoured the web and tweaked a recipe until we thought it was perfect and I’m finally sharing it with you!

The secret to this macaroni salad recipe

I’m going to just go ahead and get this out in the open:

The salad dressing for my macaroni salad recipe uses Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise.

Depending on where you grew up, you are probably either nodding at your screen right now or your jaw just dropped in shock.

Look, I definitely have recipes that use mayonnaise. My amish ham and pea salad, cranberry chicken salad, and my french onion chip dip all come to mind.

But I also grew up in the Midwest and around here, we aren’t afraid to grab a jar of Miracle Whip for certain recipes.

If you are unfamiliar, Miracle Whip uses a bit less oil than mayo and includes some sugar and spices that mayo does not. Because of this, Miracle Whip has a bit of a sweeter flavor than mayonnaise.

If you really don’t want to use Miracle Whip in this recipe, you can go ahead and use mayo instead. Just know that if you’ve ever eaten my amish macaroni salad at a potluck or barbecue before, it won’t taste quite the same!

How to make my amish macaroni salad

Amish Macaroni Salad is a great side dish to take to a potluck or barbecue because you really do need to make it ahead of time for the best flavor. It just tastes better as it sits!

Ingredients you’ll need

To make my amish macaroni salad recipe, you will need:

• 2 ½ cups uncooked elbow macaroni
• 2 cups Miracle Whip
• 2 tablespoons dill pickle relish
• 3 tablespoons yellow mustard
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¾ teaspoon celery seed
• 3 chopped hard boiled eggs 
• ¼ cup diced sweet onion
• 3 stalks diced celery 
• 1 large seeded and diced red bell pepper 

I already talked to you about the Miracle Whip, but it’s worth repeating. You don’t have to use it—you can use mayonnaise. If you do want to use mayo, I suggest adding an extra pinch or two of sugar to the dressing or swapping the dill pickle relish for sweet pickle relish.

It won’t 100% make up for the flavor difference in the mayonnaise vs Miracle Whip, but it will help!

Hard boiled eggs are pretty much a must if you’re making a traditional macaroni salad. Check out my tips on how to hard boil eggs for the best ways to cook and peel them.

For the veggies, I like to keep things pretty classic and use sweet onion, celery, and red bell pepper. In my opinion, you get the best balance of crunchy texture and flavor with this combo!

Making this recipe

To make this recipe, start by cooking the noodles.

Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil; add the macaroni and cook for 8-10 minutes. You want the noodles to be al dente—cooked through, but not mushy.

Drain the pasta and set it aside to cool. You can rinse the pasta with some cold water to help stop the cooking process and get the pasta to cool down faster.

Now make the salad dressing by whisking together the Miracle Whip, relish, mustard, sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, and celery seed.

Once the macaroni has cooled, add it to a large bowl with the dressing, eggs, onion, celery, and bell pepper. Gently fold the ingredients together until well combined and coated with the dressing.

Let the macaroni salad chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving alongside your favorite cookout dishes such as Juicy Lucy burgers, grilled pork chops, hot dogs, old-fashioned baked beans, and more.

Recipe variations

I like to make a pretty traditional version of amish macaroni salad by using hard boiled eggs, sweet onion, celery, and red bell pepper as the mix-ins.

But feel free to get a little creative with the mix-ins if you like! 

Not a fan of hard boiled eggs? Leave ’em out.

Don’t like celery? Ditch it and try adding in some green bell pepper instead.

You could even mix in diced cheddar cheese, shredded carrots, or thawed frozen peas! It’s all up to you and what you like.