Trader Joe’s Macaroni Salad
Our delicious Trader Joe’s Macaroni Salad recipe is an anytime salad! It’s great for holidays, potlucks, and picnics, and we love it with burgers, hot dogs, or chicken dinners! Made with bread and butter pickles and hard boiled eggs, you’re going to love this easy macaroni salad and the fabulous dressing.
I love a good summer or Game Day salad. We recently made this macaroni salad, inspired by Trader Joe’s ingredients, and served it on an epic sandwich board. Our guests brought the best side dishes to the party, along with dips, and desserts.
Trader Joe’s Macaroni Salad
The best thing about this salad is, it’s loved by all. It has a creamy dressing, mixed in with carrots, eggs, parsley, and our favorite bread and butter pickles. My mom always cooked with this variety of pickles, and it was always the star of her potato salad. So them next time you are making a pasta salad.
Why I love this recipe
- We bought everything at Trader Joe’s.
- Instead of sweet pickles or dill pickles, we use bread and butter pickles.
- You can make this salad ahead. It’s even better the next day!
Gather these ingredients
- Macaroni pasta (we buy all of this at Trader Joe’s)
- Hard boiled eggs
- Celery ribs
- Shredded carrots
- Mini bell peppers (oh so sweet!)
- Red onion
- Bread & butter pickles + juice makes the salad sweet, but not too sweet!
- Mayonnaise
- Sugar
- Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Fresh parsley
How do you make Trader Joe’s Macaroni Salad
Like many of my favorite classics, this recipe is basically my Mom’s. Mom used dill pickles—and of course the hard boiled egg makes the salad! She also had another recipe where you cook the dressing!
- Cook the pasta in salted water according to the package directions.
- Drain and rinse under cold water until cooled. Make sure all the water is drained, before proceeding with the recipe.
- Transfer the pasta to a large bowl and add the chopped ingredients: 4 eggs, celery, carrots, mini bell peppers, red onion, pickles, and chopped parsley.
- Make the dressing: Mix the mayonnaise, pickle juice, sugar, and Dijon mustard in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Add the dressing to the macaroni mixture and toss.
- Season with more salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate for one hour before serving.
- Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Cut last boiled egg in half or slices and serve!
Tips and substitutions:
- Use your favorite pasta, but macaroni is the best!
- Just like this BEST BLT Pasta Salad or this Classic Bay Shrimp Pasta Salad, a good salad is all about the homemade dressing! We love this dressing!
- The dressing for this salad includes pickle juice. You can use either sweet pickles or bread and butter pickles.
- This dressing mixes together very smoothly, and then you can taste it to see if you need to add more salt or pepper.
- Make ahead – it’s great as leftovers!
Serving
We love this salad anytime of year! It’s great for holidays, potlucks, but really good with Fried Chicken! It’s also delish on a hot dog board or hamburger board.
More macaroni recipes to try while you are here:
Get the Recipe:
Trader Joe’s Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb. macaroni pasta
- 5 hard cooked eggs, diced (keep 1 egg for garnish)
- 3 celery ribs, finely chopped
- ¼ cup shredded carrots, finely chopped
- 5 mini bell peppers, finely chopped
- ¼ red onion, finely chopped
- ½ cup bread & butter pickles, chopped
Make the yummy dressing:
- 1 ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup pickle juice
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 ½ TBSP Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Parsley, finely chopped for garnish (mix in with the salad, or add on top)
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in salted water according to the package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water until cooled. Make sure all the water is drained, before proceeding with the recipe.
- Transfer the pasta to a large bowl and add the chopped ingredients (4 eggs, celery, carrots, mini bell peppers, red onion, pickles, and chopped parsley).
Make the dressing:
- Mix the mayonnaise, pickle juice, sugar, and Dijon mustard in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the dressing to the macaroni mixture and toss.
- Season with more salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate for one hour before serving. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Cut last boiled egg in half or slices and serve!
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
sweet pickles, I used bread and butter pickles!<<<<
Thought sweet and Bread and butter were the same ?
Both loaded with sugar
They are different. My mom canned bread and butter pickles (they are sliced), but you can buy sweet pickles (we buy the small whole ones) in the store. You can buy both in the store!
Oh my I just made your Trader Joe’s salad and it’s fantastic.
Thank you for sharing a really good salad known as Trader Joe’s Macaroni salad. Made it to the tee!! It’s my now Mac salad . Going to share it with my family cooks. It’s for our Super Bowl company Sunday.
Thank you Sandy
How many servings is this
Depending on serving size, about 8-12!
I don’t have Dijon mustard can I sub brown? Or yellow?
Yes, you can!
Can you lighten it up with greek yogurt and mayo mixed?
Yes you can! I’ve never tried it for this, but will work! Will taste a little different though.
I do not like sweet pickles. Can I use dill pickles?
Yes!
What kind of pickle juice? Juice from the bread and butter used in recipe? Dill?
Use the pickle juice from the pickles you are using! :)
We absolutely loved this salad without making any modifications! I am not a huge mayo eater so I loved that this was not drowning in mayo. Even better days later.
I truly stay away from making mac salad, it just never turns out the way I like it. But this recipe looks easy enough and great ingredients. Thanks