In this delicious Turkish Pasta Salad (makarna salatasi) with yogurt and mayo; vegetables, pickles and pasta come together with a light and tangy mayo-yogurt dressing to carry your picnics, potlucks and parties to perfection. It is quite customizable too.
If you are interested in pasta in general, you might want to see our homemade pasta recipe without machine.
Macaroni pasta salad is a very popular summer side in Turkish cuisine along with Turkish Bulgur Salad Kısır.
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You can find tons of recipes online. But what’s the best macaroni salad? For me, it is the question of the balance of the ingredients. The right amount of creaminess and tanginess of the dressing and right cooked pasta makes a great difference.
Of course, I do not talk about a box of macaroni salad from the supermarket when I talk about the best. Pre-packed cold macaroni salad is usually too heavy with lots of mayo in it or too much starchy and dull with overcooked pasta in it.
What a disappointment to have on a nice summer picnic! No worries. With this super easy recipe, you will put your own homemade elbow macaroni salad on your summer table.
How do you make macaroni salad? It is no big deal, at all. Seriously, it is soooo simple to make. You literally need a 15-minute work; the same amount of time you would take to go get your salad from a supermarket. So why not having your own tasty and healthy homemade salad?
Ingredients
This old fashioned macaroni salad with pickles has the following 4 vegetables:
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Peas
- Fresh dill
All the vegetables except fresh dill are cooked. I cook them in a small pot while cooking the pasta in another pot.
You can always add in other vegetables or take out some of them, as well. For example, if you only like peas among the vegetables mentioned, make your macaroni salad with peas only. And leave the others out.
Creamy Dressing
A typical American version of macaroni salad with mayo does not have yogurt in it. However, we use a combination of mayo and yogurt when making makarna salatasi. Yogurt and mayo make the salad even creamier when they come together in a dressing. You don’t need to mix them in a separate bowl. You can add them both on the other salad ingredients and stir them all together.
For this recipe, you can also add pickle juice (just use the juice in your pickle jar) or lemon juice to make the dressing tarter. And of course you can add in any spice you want.
A Word On Thick Yogurt
Turkish strained yogurt, also known as Greek yogurt, is a staple ingredient in many Turkish dishes. It has a very thick consistency but it can easily get creamy. You just need to thin it out with some water. There is no right ratio for this. It really depends on the thickness of yogurt and on how thick or thin you want your dressing. So whisk in water gradually and decide it yourself.
For me, 2-3 tablespoons of water for 1 cup of yogurt is fine.
We have a good reason to eat so much yogurt. It is very rich in protein, calcium and probiotics. It is much lighter than mayo or sour cream. And it goes great on top of almost everything from vegetables to meat or chicken. We use it to make a healthy coleslaw recipe too.
We usually combine yogurt and little mayo in salad dressings to make them lighter. And it makes a difference in this macaroni salad calories too when compared to a pasta salad dressing with mayo only.
Just think about how much calories a tablespoon of mayo has. 57 calories for 1 tablespoon. On the other hand, 1 tablespoon yogurt has 18 calories. Yogurt seems like a better option, right?
How to Make It
There are three super easy parts of this recipe.
First, cook elbow macaroni according to package instructions. It is very important to follow the instructions correctly to have a perfect bite. Overcooked pasta will be too mushy to mix with the vegetables. Please follow the duration given in the package directions.
When the cooking time is over, drain and rinse your pasta immediately under cold water. This is another important tip not to overcook the pasta because cooking stops under cold water. Remember to drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over it and stir gently so that they don’t stick one another when you are preparing the other ingredients.
Second, bring a small pot of water to boil and cook diced carrots and potatoes for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Carrots don’t need to be super tender. Add in the frozen peas in the last 2 minutes. Again, rinse them immediately under cold water and drain after cooking.
Third, put cooked macaroni and cooked vegetables, chopped fresh dill and dill pickles in a large bowl. Drizzle over 1 tablespoon olive oil and add in salt, mayonnaise and yogurt. Toss until the ingredients are well combined.
If the Greek yogurt you are using is too thick, thin it out with 2-3 tablespoons water before adding it on your salad.
What Else To Add
Traditionally this is our basic macaroni salad. However, it has plenty of room for modifications. You can easily play around the ingredients. If you like, add green onions or red onions, garlic, different herbs or nuts like walnuts. You can add diced cucumbers or celery sticks to have extra fresh crunch.
You can make this salad with shrimps or diced ham or salami or cheese if you crave for more protein.
You can also have makarna salatasi with tuna but when we have it with tuna, we do not use this yogurt & mayo dressing. We go for a mix of lemon, olive oil and vinegar.
Serving Suggestions
Macaroni salad makes a great side dish with meat dishes or / and vegetables. For us, this salad is a must when we make Turkish Chicken Kabobs In Oven or Lamb Shish Kabob Recipe.
FAQs
No Greek yogurt left at home. No worries. You can prepare a pasta salad dressing with mayo, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, vinegar or pickle juice. If you use cottage cheese or cream cheese, just taste as you prepare your dressing so you do not have too much of it.
It is not really a good idea. Cold pasta salad with mayo is not the best dish for freezing due to the ingredients in mayo. It loses its creamy texture when it is thawed and it also changes the consistency of the macaroni salad. What you can do is to freeze the salad without the dressing. You can add the dressing after you thaw the salad in the refrigerator for a few hours.
I would actually recommend to cook the amount you will consume. You can make a rough calculation and put ½ cup of pasta per person. But if you end up with more macaroni than you need, you can freeze it up to 2 weeks. Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight before consuming it.
You can keep your macaroni salad in fridge for 3 or 4 days. I usually have them for lunch the next day, which is really practical.
Yes, absolutely. If you do not do that, your pasta will continue cooking with its own heat so you will end up with sticky and overcooked pasta.
More Summer Salads
- Potato Tuna Salad
- Healthy Tuna Salad No Mayo
- Turkish Kısır
- Green Olive Salad
- Turkish Piyaz
- Rus Salatasi (Russian Salad)
- Turkish Potato Salad
More Pasta Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Turkish Pasta Salad - Makarna Salatasi
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound elbow macaroni
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup carrots diced
- ½ cup potatoes diced
- ½ cup frozen peas
- ½ cup fresh dill chopped
- ¼ cup dill pickles chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup greek yogurt thinned with water (see the note below)
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cook elbow macaroni according to package instructions. Drain and rinse immediately under cold water. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over it and stir gently so that they don’t stick one another when you are preparing the other ingredients.
- Meanwhile, bring a small pot of water to boil and cook diced carrots and potatoes for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add in the frozen peas in the last 2 minutes. Rinse immediately under cold water and drain.
- In a large bowl, put cooked macaroni and cooked vegetables, chopped fresh dill and dill pickles. Drizzle over 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add in salt, mayonnaise and yogurt. Toss until well combined.
NOTES
NUTRITION
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Mimi says
This reminds me of a Russian salad I made from a cookbook once. Really interesting ingredients. Like canned peas! But it was really good! And yours is pretty.
Mendy says
Love how creamy and slightly tangy this salad is. I added some pickled cabbage too and it came out soooo good!