Macaroni Salad with crunchy veggies, in a mayo and sour cream seasoned dressing, and tossed with black and green olives.
Macaroni and Olive Salad
I love pasta salads, even if they aren't all that photogenic. Though this one is loaded with veggies for crunch, the central feature of this pasta salad is olives - both black and green.I've already included pimentos as an add-in with this pasta salad, even though I use a stuffed olive, or use your own favorite pitted green olives. I've actually even used olive salad before in place of green olives, when I've had some leftover from making Muffuletta Sandwiches, and it is an excellent, tangy addition, but if you prefer black olives over green, it's still a great pasta salad with black alone.
Macaroni and Olive Salad
Yield: About 4 to 6 servings
Prep time: 15 MinInactive time: 8 HourTotal time: 8 H & 15 M
Macaroni Salad with crunchy veggies, in a mayo and sour cream seasoned dressing, and tossed with black and green olives.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry elbow macaroni
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons pickle relish
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon Creole or Cajun seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama), optional
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
- Juice of half a lemon, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup Vidalia or other sweet onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
- 2 large green onions, sliced
- 1 (2 ounce) jar chopped pimentos, drained
- 1 (15 ounce) can pitted black olives, drained and halved or sliced
- 1/2 cup of sliced or halved pitted green olives
- Pickle juice
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and generously salt. Add the macaroni and cook according to package directions; drain, rinse and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Transfer to a large bowl.
- In a small bowl blend together the mayonnaise, sour cream, milk, pickle relish, dry mustard, Cajun seasoning, basil, lemon juice and salt and pepper; set aside.
- Add the onion, celery, green onion and pimentos to the pasta and mix in.
- Stir in the mayonnaise blend and mix well; add olives and pickle juice; toss lightly, just to mix.
- Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed, toss, cover and refrigerate overnight, or up to 24 hours before serving, if possible, stirring occasionally.
- Let come to room temperature before serving.
Notes:
As always with pasta salads, veggie measurements and add-ins are estimates; use more or less to your liking. I used sweet pickle cubes, Coleman's spicy dry mustard and dried basil, though use fresh if you have it. Green olives have a distinctly different taste from black olives, so if you're not a fan of the green ones, just eliminate them and add in extra black olives. Feel free to also substitute your favorite short cut pasta for the elbow macaroni - rotini would work nicely here.
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