Cracked Out Pea Salad – Macaroni and green peas tossed in mayonnaise, cheddar, bacon, and ranch. Seriously delicious!!! Great for potlucks or a side dish with sandwiches. Great for all your spring and summer cookouts! Can make ahead and refrigerate until ready to serve. It has become our favorite pasta salad recipe!! #pastasalad #sidedish #bacon #ranch
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Pin This RecipeThis Cracked Out Pea Salad was a HUGE hit in our house! Macaroni, green peas, mayonnaise, cheddar, bacon, and Ranch. Oh my! With those ingredients, how could this not be delicious?!?!
This pasta salad goes great with grilled meats or a sandwich. This pea salad and some Olexa’s Chicken Salad is one of our favorite lunch or quick dinners. Heck, Chicken Legs ate just this pea salad as his dinner one night.
This macaroni salad is great for a potluck! The recipe can be easily doubled for a large crowd. We have been making a batch on Sunday and eating it with lunch during the week. It keeps great in the fridge. This will be a staple in our house this spring and summer! Give it a try ASAP! You won’t regret it!!
As I said, this is a staple at our cookouts and potlucks. Here are a few of our favorite recipes from the blog that go great with this pea salad:
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Cracked Out Pea Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 cup elbow macaroni, uncooked
- ¼ cup cooked chopped bacon
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 2 cups frozen baby peas, thawed
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup prepared Ranch dressing
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions:
- Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain and cool.
- In a bowl, combine cooked macaroni and bacon, green onions, peas, and cheese.
- Whisk together mayonnaise, Ranch dressing. Pour over macaroni mixture and toss to coat.
- Cover and refrigerate 2 hours before serving.
Steph
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I added salami next time I’ll double it cause it’s “Only me”
How would you adjust the ingredients if using one pound of pasta?? Not sure how many cups of dry pasta are in a one pound box/bag. But I never make less than one pound of pasta salad.
pour the dry pasta in a measuring cup to measure 1 cup of dry pasta
Add cut up chicken to it and you have a meal. It’s delicious!
This salad is hard to stop eating. Especially after it has sat overnight in the fridge. I used a can of baby sweet peas. And used 1/3 cup each mayo, ranch dressing and miracle whip for the dressing. And don’t forget to season with salt! So freaking good!
How far in advance can this be made?
Can I use canned peas drained and rinsed instead of frozen?
Can I use creamy italian dressing instead of ranch dressing because I don’t have ranch
You can make this however you wish.
Is this good leftover?
Yes
I just made this salad this morning. It is wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
I just recently found your recipes….amazing! I love that the ingredients are usually in house and easy to work with! Tonight I fixed The Cracked Out Pea Salad. I followed the recipe exactly. Hands down the best pea salad I have tasted! It will be so easy to increase the salad for a large group. I will be trying many of your recipes! Thank you! Laurie
WE LOVE THIS……………..YUM, YUMMMMMMMMMM !!!
I would have to triple this recipe in order to serve 6 people.
This is the best pea salad I have ever had! My husband loves it too.ill never have to buy pea salad again.thank you.
I have made this many times, everyone loves it. This time I used turkey bacon, my daughter won't eat the regular bacon. Everyone still loves it.
Do I have to use ranch dressing??
You can make this any way you want, Linda.
Love your recipes. Non complicated!
Thank you for giving out this fantastic pea salad receipe.It looks to die for. I found that some of the best receipe's are the simplist to make, and taste the best. I think I would add some diced red or green peppers and some diced radishes, as we love salad. Many thanks.
I used whole wheat Penne pasta instead of plain macaroni.
I wouldn't suggest this substitution. I think using plain macaroni pasta as recipe calls for would be more complimentary to the peas texture-wise.
The flavor is decent 🙂
My daughter made this for us. It is "shut ur mouth" good!
Is there bacon in this recipe? Also, how many does this recipe serve?
LOVE ALL YOUR RECIPES….COULD YOU ADD TO THEM HOW MANY EACH DISH WILL FEED!!!
I ALREADY DO!!!!! IT IS ABOVE THE PHOTO ON EACH RECIPE CARD!!!!!
Great tasting, very fast to make for those last minute pot luck invites! Only thing different that I did was add my favorite spices and cut .5 back on the mayo. Thank you very much
Can you use canned peas in place of frozen?
I’m sure that would be just fine. Enjoy
Prepared ranch dressing just means the ranch dressing in a bottle, right? Not the one you make from a packet? Thanks!
yes – bottled ranch dressing.
Miracle Whip instead of Mayo?
either is fine
It tried it with creamy italian just for something different and loved it as well. Added some chopped pepperoncini’s and diced plum tomates too. I still love the original recipe best though!
Great. Thanks for clarifying! Can't wait to try this recipe. It looks delicious!
I made this for a family gathering yesterday and it was a hit! This will be my go-to for the next family gatherings!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is perfect for our church fellowship meal. Definitely not the same old thing that everyone brings. I can't wait to make it!
I wonder if you could use chopped ham pieces instead of bacon.
You can use anything you like.
Looks great but I leave out the cheese and add hard cooked eggs. I used to add cheese but my husband doesn’t like it.