You Only Need 3 Ingredients To Make A Simple And Delicious Macaroni Salad

Macaroni salad is not a difficult dish to make, but chopping vegetables can become time-consuming. Life comes at you fast and before you realize it, the potluck you agreed to attend is upon you. That's when the three-ingredient macaroni salad is an absolute lifesaver. All you need is cooked pasta, mayonnaise, and pre-bagged coleslaw. Any pasta will do but stick to short types so every spoonful includes a little of everything. You can also choose any mayonnaise including Martha Stewart's favorite, Hellman's, or mayo-adjacent Miracle Whip for that nostalgic '70s macaroni salad feel.

Finally, put your knife away because you're using pre-bagged veggies you can pick up at any grocery store. One great option is the Trader Joe's coleslaw blend that's packed with carrot strips and red and green cabbage. Stir-fry packs also work and can include broccoli, cabbage, peas, carrots, and colorful peppers. The bags are sealed to ensure freshness and crunch, and everything has already been chopped. You can start mixing the contents of the bag with mayonnaise while the pasta is cooking and then bring in the pasta as the last item in the bowl. Macaroni salad doesn't get any easier than this, which is why you can afford to tweak it to your tastes easily.

An easy way to give a macaroni salad a kick without much more effort is to sprinkle a pinch of cayenne pepper over the top before taking it to the table. A little Dijon mustard mixed in with the mayo also does the trick. For a more flavorful experience without the heat, one of our experts recommends Old Bay spice blend as the secret ingredient.

Macaroni salads can include plenty of add-ins from sliced hardboiled eggs to chicken, cubed ham, pickles, relish, chopped celery, and anything else you can find in your fridge. But more doesn't always mean better, and it certainly almost always means more work in the kitchen. Many of the meals we look back on fondly were thrown together when our parents came home late, and had to get dinner made quickly (remember Hamburger Helper?). 

A classic macaroni salad, at its core, can be made with just three grocery store items and perhaps a pinch of something from your spice rack — so you can relax with everyone else at the table.