Hawaiian Macaroni Salad | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Hawaiian macaroni salad. That's right, you're about to learn how to make this from someone who's never been to Hawaii. But that's fine since this is incredibly easy and anyone can make it. And despite being possibly the simplest version ever, this is always the mac salad that gets finished the fastest and gets complimented the most. And to get started, let's go ahead and mix up our dressing, which is going to start with a whole bunch of mayonnaise. And please use the nice stuff. Okay, that off-brand stuff from the dollar store is fine for your kids bologn sandwiches, but for this salad, I need you to go top shelf. And then to that, we will add a little bit of apple cider vinegar, as well as a touch of white sugar, some salt, of course, and then we'll finish up with some freshly ground black pepper, as well as a few shakes of cayenne. And then besides that, I'm also going to add a little bit of an optional ingredient, which would be some finely diced red onion. And yes, any onion will work. And what I like to do after transferring that into a strainer is put that in a bowl of cold fresh water and let it sit and soak for about 20 minutes or so, just to remove some of the harshness and make it a little more mellow in the salad. And that's it. After a nice soak, we'll go ahead and drain that and transfer it into our dressing. And then we'll give that a quick stir before we move on. And the reason to stir this in now is because once you cut an onion and it sits out and starts to oxidize, the flavors can get a lot stronger. So even though we soak these, we want to make sure we mix them right in. And then the only other thing going in this dressing is a couple grated carrots, which I've peeled. And I'm going to break those in half so they're easier to handle. And if we hold these at an angle and apply a little bit of pressure, we're going to get some nice long shreds like this, which would be fine, but I don't want all long shreds. Okay. What I think we should do is hold the carrot flat against the grater and use a very light touch. And by doing that, we're still going to get some longer shreds, but we're also going to get a lot of smaller pieces. And for this salad, I think the smaller the shreds of the carrot, the better. And yes, of course, it's going to take longer to grate it like this. And about halfway through, we'll probably lose our patience and just start grating those the usual way, which is faster. But again, the smaller those shreds, the more surface area, which means more flavor and more sweetness and more color. So, to summarize, use a very light touch. And try to grate those pieces of carrot as small as you can. Oh, and as usual, don't be a hero. All right. No mac salad's worth losing a fingernail over. So, when you get down to the end of the carrot, just stop and have a little chef snack. And that's it. Once our carrots are grated, we'll go ahead and mix our dressing up and we'll simply set that aside until our macaroni is cooked. And for that, as usual, we will make sure our water is well salted. And besides that, we'll make sure it's at a rolling boil before we transfer our elbow macaroni in. And while you could theoretically use any pasta for this, you really shouldn't. You should use this exact one. Oh, and when we do cook really small macaroni like this, we want to make sure we're stirring early and often since this stuff will stick together as well as stick to the bottom of the pot. So, for the first few minutes of the cooking time, make sure that's not happening. And then, speaking of cooking time, make sure you cook it until it's fully done. Right. The package directions for this brand says 5 minutes. And that's always exactly how long I go. And once our timer rings, what we'll do is take that to the sink and we'll drain it and then do something we almost never ever do. We will rinse that macaroni off with cold fresh water, which is going to stop the cooking process, as well as rinse off a little bit of the starch from the surface. And what we'll do once that's rinsed is let it drain for like 20 seconds before we transfer it into our dressing. And we will take our spatula and stir everything together until we feel like everything's been evenly combined. And at this point, it's going to seem like you have a ridiculous amount of dressing and that this might be too soupy and too saucy, but it is not going to be. It's going to be perfect. And if the texture looked perfect at this point, when you're finished, it's going to be way too dry. So, please just give it a stir and don't come to any conclusions. And once that's been accomplished, we will clean down the sides of the bowl. And then we will cover this with a piece of plastic and we will transfer it into the fridge for a minimum of three hours. But if you can, I highly recommend you do this overnight, which is exactly what I did. And when I pulled it out the next day, it looked like this. And we'll go ahead and grab a nice big spoon and give it a mix. And as I was telling you, it is not too saucy. It is not too soupy. In fact, it is dried up significantly. And while it would be fine to serve like this, what I think we should do is add one more dollop of mayo plus a nice big splash of cold fresh water. And as we mix that in, you will notice it will start to look creamier and moistister and like something has just been freshly made. And after mixing and observing, if you want to add a little more mayonnaise, go ahead. I mean, you are after all the Luna of how much mayo to spoon or if you want, just add a couple more tablespoons of water. But anyway, the point is you're going to adjust. And at this point, I decided mine was looking and feeling perfect. So, I grabbed a spoon to give it a taste just to double check we don't need more salt, which I did not. It was tasting perfect, which means we can take that and serve it up into something a little nicer looking. And I think this salad has an absolutely beautiful color, but it is a little bit plain looking. So, I do like to garnish the top with a little touch of grated carrot for some color, as well as one more sprinkling of finely minced red onion. Oh, and pro tip, if you toss a red onion and a little bit of red wine vinegar and leave it in the fridge for a couple hours, it turns into a very enticing shade of pink. And that's it. I finished up with a nice pinch of freshly snipped chives and my version of Hawaiian mac salad was ready to enjoy. So, I transferred that onto a placemat and I took a bunch of contractually obligated pictures. And then I grabbed a spoon and went in for a taste. And that, my friends, is the simplest, most basic, least complicated macaroni salad you will ever have. And yet somehow someway, it's still one of the most delicious. And no matter what event you bring this to, it will be a huge hit. And by the way, the real authentic original classic traditional version doesn't have anything besides mayo, carrot, salt, and pepper. So I guess this is kind of the fancy version. But anyway, the point is the simplicity is the secret. Okay. When we're at a cookout and we're looking at a table full of ribs and smoked pork and barbecued chicken, I think subconsciously we all want something very simple to go with that. And while I'd be happy to eat a whole bowl of this just by itself, where it really shines and where it can really be appreciated to its fullest is next to all those amazing spicy, flavorful meats. In fact, we posted a Kalúa pork recipe a while back that would be an absolutely perfect pairing for this salad. But whether you serve it with that or one of your other summer favorites, America's simplest and easiest mac salad might be its best. And I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.