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Pimento Cheese Macaroni Salad is a combination of a southern style macaroni salad with egg and pimento cheese spread. The two flavors together are deliciously creamy and cheesy.

I feel like I’m kind of obsessed with pimento cheese. But honestly, who wouldn’t be? All that cheese, roasted red pepper, and green olive goodness is perfect comfort food to me. I have so many memories of eating them on the bank of a river, lake, or in a boat. Because we used to pack them for lunch on fishing trips. Those that Vienna sausages or beanie weenies.

I made some pimento cheese mac and cheese a while back. As I was making that recipe I thought, “Why not make pimento cheese macaroni salad?” I mean, pimento cheese is a cold spread anyway. It has mayo in it and so does macaroni salad. There are green olives in there and I put those in my macaroni salad, too. So, why not?

Who invented macaroni salad?

In my pimento cheese mac and cheese post I talk about what pimento cheese is and how it came to be a southern dish. In this post, I’m focusing more on the macaroni salad part of the recipe. Honestly, I’ve been eating it all my life and never knew where it came from or how it was even created.

Macaroni is not an Italian pasta. In fact, macaroni can refer to any straight, tube-shaped pasta cut into shorter pieces. If the pasta is bent, then it’s referred to as an elbow shaped pasta or macaroni. But macaroni itself doesn’t necessarily mean what we think it does.

As with almost all the foods we eat now, macaroni salad was made popular because Kraft made shelf stable, low cost macaroni and put it in grocery stores. Another convenience food that took hold and created so many of the foods we eat today.

The introduction of boxed elbow macaroni combined with the influx of German immigrants into the US was the perfect storm that made macaroni salad into being. You see, they brought with them mayo and mustard-based dressings for their potato salads. These dressings helped Americans find a new use for their leftover macaroni. Because we all know those little elbows are deceivingly small and expand to way more than you needed. I see you all nodding your head in agreement. We’ve all done it.

Recipes for macaroni salad started appearing in cookbooks in the early 1900s. These salads were served on lettuce, put into Jell-O molds, and combined with other new canned staples like olives and tuna. Speaking of which, I have a delicious tuna noodle casserole pasta salad recipe, too. It has all the flavors of a tuna noodle casserole in a cold pasta salad. Something I created while in college.

Fast forward to 1930 and the Washington Post published a recipe for mock potato salad. But this name obviously didn’t stick. Throughout the decades the name finally landed on macaroni salad. And by the 1960’s macaroni salad was a staple in American households.

How do you make Pimento Cheese Macaroni Salad?

It’s so easy to make. I made sure to measure out the pasta before I cooked it. It’s too easy to eyeball the amount of macaroni and over pour into the pot. So, I’ve started measuring the macaroni in cups to make sure I don’t cook too much. When the pasta is done I drain it and let it come to room temperature. I stir it occasionally so it doesn’t stick together.

I like to toss everything together while the pasta is room temperature. If I toss it all together when it’s cold I don’t think the flavors blend well. Something about the temperature of the pasta allows it to absorb just enough of the dressing to make it delicious.

There’s a trick to dicing eggs quickly and evenly. I share how I cut them up using an egg slicer in my BLT Egg Salad Sandwich post. This is the only way I cut up eggs for any kind of salad unless it’s a cobb where I wedge them. It uses a standard egg slicer and shows you how to turn the eggs to get an even dice.

Typically I use the food processing to shred the cheese for the pimento cheese part. But this time I used the box grater. Since I wasn’t making a full pimento cheese recipe, it didn’t take too long to shred. And it didn’t hurt my arms too much. My shoulder is slow to heal after the accident, but I do what I can.

Unfortunately, I do not have a trick to dicing up the Velveeta. You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. It’s what my family recipe calls for, so I used a little of it in there. For me, it adds to the creaminess of the whole pimento cheese and this macaroni salad version. It’s also the reason I don’t add salt to this recipe. The salt in the Velveeta and the other cheese is plenty.

I put everything on top of the room temperature macaroni and toss it all together. I’m not gentle with this Pimento Cheese Macaroni Salad either. I want all the shredded cheese to break up and blend in with the veggies, pimentos, and olives. When everything is combined, I pop the bowl into he fridge and let it chill. At least 2 hours. That’s plenty of time for the macaroni to get all chill and the flavors of the other ingredients to come together. It’s even better if it can chill overnight. But I know not everyone has the time to do that.

What does Pimento Cheese Macaroni Salad taste like?

It’s creamy. And it’s cheesy. There’s the crunch from the vegetables. The egg yolks blend with the mayonnaise making it even creamier. It also thickens the dressing, so it sticks to the noodles. The sweet pimentos play off the briny green olives and vice versa. The cheese and the noodles make this a hearty side dish. And makes everything taste scrumptious in this Pimento Cheese Macaroni Salad.

The celery seed is the secret ingredient for almost all of my pasta salads. And even my potato salad, too. It adds a flavor that elevates the salad but is such a simple ingredient. You won’t believe that one ingredient like that can really take a recipe like this over the top. That’s why I love adding it to salads and many other recipes.

Southern Food

• Bacon & Pimento Cheese Burgers from The Spiffy Cookie
• Bacon and Cracklin Bread from That Recipe
• Blackened Mahi Mahi from Art of Natural Living
• Pimento Cheese Macaroni Salad from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Skillet Shrimp Boil from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• South Carolina Bird Dogs from Palatable Pastime
• Southern Fried Potatoes from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Southern Style Hush Puppies from Jen Around the World

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