Macaroni salad is a summer favorite due to its variety of flavors and chilly, crisp taste from chilled storage. Salads are devoured in the thousands on hot days, especially by working people, and macaroni salad is a crowd favorite because it is healthier than a burger or bag of fries.
The explosion of flavors in store-bought macaroni is something many people appreciate and eat again and again. However, the same dish with the same ingredients can become dull despite being excellent enough to buy again. The salad may have rested for a long period, deteriorating its flavors.While the effects will vary, most of them should make store-bought macaroni salad taste better.
Table of Contents
How to make store-bought macaroni salad taste better: Some Recommendations
It is important to point out that most if not all store-bought macaroni salads are formulated with more or less the following ingredients:
- Cooked enriched macaroni
- Mayonnaise
- Sugar
- Hard-boiled egg
- Red and green bell peppers
- Carrots
- Mustard
- Salt turmeric
- Paprika
- Garlic powder
- Mixed spices
The above ingredients make for a fine mixture and a variety of flavors but the salad may not be to your liking all the time and you may find that you need to shake things up while still having your salad.
You can add the following ingredients to your store-bought macaroni salad to ramp up the flavor.
Pickles and pickle brine
Pickles are sour-tasting fermented cucumbers that can add an interesting twist to the blandness of a dish you have grown accustomed to. Chop up whole pickles and line them on top of your store-bought macaroni salad. Mix if you so wish and enjoy.
Pickle brine, which is the liquid mixture in which pickles stew and ferment is a sour-tasting tangy juice that can be used to dress many dishes and instantly applies an excellent twist to the dish making it very sumptuous.
Your store-bought macaroni salad will definitely taste much better with a dash of pickle brine.
Mozzarella cheese
Sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella cheese on your store-bought macaroni salad to enrich both flavor and texture. Mozzarella cheese or any cheese that you favor will make your macaroni salad that much richer, delicious, and quite filling.
Fresh chopped celery
Celery is a healthy vegetable that is a welcome addition to any meal and your store-bought macaroni salad is no exception.
Chop up a handful or two of celery and sprinkle it onto your salad. Mix and let the flavor carry through. Your store-bought macaroni salad should taste very different and that much better with celery.
Honey
For those with a particularly well-developed sweet tooth, adding honey to your salad should prove quite the taste builder, and considering your storebought macaroni salad already has many ingredients, honey should make the taste quite interesting.
This is not something for everyone to attempt since honey is very sweet and for many, it could be too sweet. Adding it to paste that’s soaked in mayonnaise should produce a particularly peculiar taste not acceptable to everyone.
Try it and if it works for you, make it an ongoing ritual.
Black pepper
Eggs, bell peppers, carrots, and other seasonings are already flavorful, but black pepper should add explosive flavor to a bland salad.
Black pepper is strong, so a generous sprinkle on a store-bought salad should shock your taste buds. If you can handle it, black pepper blended with your salad’s seasonings and vegetables will enhance your macaroni salad.
Sour cream
We all love sour cream and aside from a case of allergic reactions or lactose intolerance, dairy products never cease to impress in the culinary department. The tangy fermented flavor of sour cream is unique and delightful.
Mixed with the plain taste of mayonnaise and the tangy taste of mustard, the mixture of all these flavors promises to make your store-bought macaroni salad very tasty.
Of the many things you can add to your salad to make it tastier, this should be the first thing you try, and more than likely this mixture will become a favorite.
White wine
This is rather controversial the question being whether you should be drinking while snacking on salads but if you are a wine lover then a glass along with your meal should not adversely affect your sobriety.
Granted, lunch hours are basically working hours and you should be careful about taking alcoholic drinks while in the middle of a workday. If you are having your macaroni salad for dinner then a glass of wine to wash it down is an excellent way to end your day.
Fresh cherry tomatoes and red onions
Wash a generous amount of fresh cherry tomatoes and red onions. Chop them up and dice them to produce small-sized cubes and mix. Pour a small amount of vinegar into this mixture and let the mixture sit for a while to produce the blended flavors.
If you have made a large amount, you do not have to consume all of it. The mixture can safely be stored in the refrigerator to be used again with another meal.
The tomato-onion mixture goes very well with storebought macaroni salad and should greatly improve the flavor of your salad.
Chicken and ham
Cut up a few pieces of cooked chicken and shallow fried ham and place a healthy helping on your storebought macaroni salad.
The added meat should add a whole new layer of flavor and richness to your salad and this is easily one of the most agreeable additions to your salad to improve flavor and also nutrition value.