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Our Favorite Macaroni Salad (gluten free)

Macaroni Salad is the perfect dish to bring to a summer pot luck or picnic.  Everyone loves it and its easy to make enough to feed a lot of people.  Its also easy to make this salad gluten free by just using gluten free pasta.  Of course, if you don’t want to, you can make it with wheat pasta.  Both taste incredible.  The choice is yours.

Macaroni Salad

Debbie told me that Mark, her hubby, used to play baseball a while ago and when they would have potluck dinners for the team, everyone requested that Debbie bring this salad.  She was more than happy to because its so easy and quick.

This particular recipe happens to be my brother, Matt’s favorite!  Debbie has been making this exact same salad for 20 years!  Apparently shes not allowed to change it up at all as Matt says, “Why change a good thing?”  He has moved out of Debbies house and is living on his own now, so every once in a while when he comes home for a visit, Debbie makes a big bowl of this salad for him to take to his new place.

Macaroni Salad

This recipe has flaked ham, pickles, carrots and peas in it.  I think I like it so much because of the pickles and ham.  I pretty much like anything with pickles in it.   The ham is flaked ham and while you might be thinking that flaked canned ham sounds weird or too much like spam, its not.  Its not spam, spam is nasty.  And the ham that IS in this salad is delicious. It kind of  becomes part of the sauce and just melts in  your mouth.  We like this salad with gluten free Rotini pasta as its the best pasta for holding in all the yummy sauce in the spirals.

Macaroni Salad

You all don’t live with Matt or make this for Matt, so feel free to add some extra veggies if you like…lol.  Broccoli florets would be really good in this salad.   Its a great way to sneak in some veggies and have everyone still asking for more!

Favorite Macaroni Salad

4.67 from 3 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Pasta, Salad
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 33 minutes
Servings: 8 - 10
Author: Cooks with Cocktails

Ingredients

  • 1 large box or bag of Gluten Free Rotini Pasta (or regular pasta)
  • 4 Stalks Celery
  • 2 Carrots , grated
  • 1 cup Frozen Peas
  • 4 Green Onion , finely sliced
  • 5 Dill Pickles , diced
  • 2 cans Flakes of Ham
  • Half a bottle of Sun Dried Tomatoes Dressing (Kraft)
  • 1/2 cup Mayo (you could use light, or half fat mayo here too)

Instructions

  • Cook pasta as directed on the pkg to al dente. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.
  • Add in the sun dried tomatoes dressing and cool.
  • Cook peas slightly, cool then add to pasta.
  • While everything is cooling, grade carrots and add to pasta. Chop celery, onions, dill pickes and add to pasta.
  • Then add the flakes of ham and mix.
  • Finally add the mayo and stir. If u like more mayo go ahead and add some more.
  • Chill and serve

 

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6 Comments

  1. Your recipe sounds delicious , but I’m not familiar with canned flaked ham? Is it available in southern calif? What brand do you use?
    Thanks

    1. Hi Debi, thanks for stopping by! I’m sure you can get canned flaked ham in California. In canada you can find it in the tuna aisle. I hope u can find it, it really makes this salad!

  2. I couldn’t find canned ham in California either so I used canned chicken and added sun dried tomatoes as well. it was a huge hit at our party. I will definitely make this again soon. Thanks for the recipe!

    1. Hi Wendy,

      Thanks for letting us know about the variation and that it turned out well. It sounds delicious with sundried tomatoes! Debbie’s not allowed to change the recipe one little bit, but I can 😉

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