Hawaiian Plate Lunch Mac Salad

Ingredients

• 12 oz Semolina pasta (dry), elbow macaroni
• ¾ cup Olive oil mayonnaise
• ⅜ cup 1% milk
• 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
• 2 Carrots, grated
• ¼ Sweet onion, grated
• 2 stalks Celery, diced fine
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• ¾ tsp Black pepper
• 1 tsp Granulated sugar

Method

1. Boil the macaroni about 3 minutes past the package time. Soft is correct here — this is the one pasta dish where al dente is wrong.
2. Drain and, while it is still steaming hot, toss it with the vinegar. Hot pasta absorbs; cold pasta repels.
3. Let it cool 10 minutes, then fold in the mayonnaise, milk, carrot, grated onion, celery, salt, pepper and sugar. It will look far too wet.
4. Chill at least an hour. The macaroni keeps drinking and it tightens into exactly the right consistency.
5. Check the seasoning cold — chilled food needs more salt than warm food. Serve with an ice cream scoop, which is how it appears on a plate lunch.

Notes

✨ The restaurant touch

Vinegar on the hot pasta, mayonnaise on the cooled pasta. Two separate steps and it is why the Hawaiian version tastes seasoned all the way through.

🧒 For the kids

This is macaroni salad at its most child-friendly: soft, mild and creamy.

🥡 Leftovers

Keeps 4 days and is better on day two.

Per serving

Computed from USDA FoodData Central values. A planning tool, not medical advice.