Macaroni Salad

A few months ago, I had the good fortune of dining at the Montage in Portland Oregon. If you ever find yourself in Portland, you must seek out this restaurant. It's an amazing little restaurant that specializes in Louisiana dishes- and after only one meal, this amazing little restaurant has left me with an almost a daily craving for macaroni. I had the Spold Mac, which is a combination of creamy, old style macaroni and spicy, Louisiana style. And, now that I know that there's a partial list of ingredients on their website, I'm going to perfect this dish.



In the meantime, I tried Simply Recipes Mom's Macaroni Salad. It's good and by adding a few additional ingredients, I ramped it up with another dimension of flavour. It's a great summer side dish or light lunch with leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. It's also a great potluck dish.


Macaroni Salad (serves 4-6)
This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled, making it perfect for summer potlucks.

Ingredients
2 cups (about 1/2 lb) dry macaroni pasta
salt
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
1 roasted red bell pepper*, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
1 bunch green onion, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar
1 teaspoon chipolte pepper, pureed
A generous amount of mayonnaise (1/3 to 1/2 cup)
Several pinches of paprika
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup smoked salmon, chopped

Directions
Cut the red pepper in half, remove the seeds and stem and place cut side down under the broil until blackened. Remove from oven, and place in a pot with a lid for 5 minutes. Once it's cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and dice.

Cook macaroni, as directed on its package, in big pot of salted water. Once done, remove from heat, drain and rinse with cool water until room temperature.

While macaroni is cooking, put chopped green and red onions into a medium bowl and sprinkle the lemon juice or vinegar over them. This will take the edge off the onions. Add red pepper, chipotle pepper, paprika, smoked salmon, mayonnaise, macaroni and black pepper. Stir to combine and and adjust seasoning.

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