Summery Sausage Pasta Salad

Macaroni Salad is always a crowd pleaser during the summer! It is one of the best side dishes to round out a good BBQ. The typical macaroni salad in my house was tuna, celery and onion. The odd time it also had Green peppers. This is one the easiest things to make and also change up! Its so forgiving you can put just about anything in it!

This is my newest version of Macaroni Salad.

Here is what you need:

1 Leftover Chicken Sausage
1/2 cup Red Onion cut into chunks
1/2 cup celery cut into chunks
1 cup coloured peppers cut into Chunks (whatever you have…. I had red, orange & yellow)
2 cups Cooked and Cooled Macaroni
1/4 chopped peperoncini peppers
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used Monterrey Jack)
Dressing
- 1/4 cup Mayo
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt or Sour Cream
- 1 tbsp grainy mustard
- 1 tbsp Red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tbsp Spicy Italian Mix (Basil, Garlic Powder,Onion Flakes, Parsley, Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Chili Flakes)
- S & P to taste

What to do:

Make the sauce
Mix all your ingredients in a bowl with the sauce
Eat and enjoy!

Tips:

*Add whatever you Like – Black Olives would be good, roma tomatoes, corn, asparagus…. Italian sausage, chorizo, BBQ chicken, Tuna, feta cheese, cheddar… whatever you have an excess off!

*Change up the sauce… the basics will stay the same (Mayo, Yogurt/Sour Cream, Sugar,) and then you can change these up — Vinegar (white or red or apple cider) and Mustard (grainy, regular, hot, spicy, dijon) but you could just use different spices to make it ranch, greek or taco flavoured. Experiment.

*Take a little tsp of your base sauce and add in the spices you are thinking might be good and mix them and then taste test – you won;t waste the whole thing if its no good, and it will give the option to keep adding to it until its perfect!!