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Jump to RecipePickle lovers, unite! I have the ultimate pickle lover’s dream pasta salad to share with you today. Dill Pickle Pasta Salad is bright, crunchy, and totally unexpected. It’s my new favorite pasta salad of all time! The dressing is creamy and tangy and pairs perfectly with the crunchy pickles. Make this for your next cookout and everyone will love it.
Ingredients for Dill Pickle Pasta Salad
- Shell pasta: Use any type of pasta that you like. Shells are fun because they hold little bits of the dressing and other salad ingredients like little flavor pockets.
- Cheddar cheese: For this recipe, I like to use cubed cheese, so I’ll buy a big block of cheddar and chop it up into little cubes.
- Fresh dill: Adding fresh dill really enhances the pickle flavor in this recipe. Using fresh dill is best, but in a pinch you can sub for dried dill and it will still turn out great.
- Dill pickles: If you’re a pickle expert, use your favorite brand of dill pickles. I wouldn’t recommend using bread and butter or spicy pickles for this recipe.
- Onion: Putting raw onion in pasta salad might be a little much for people, so it is optional, but I think it is delicious. You could use a red onion or a yellow onion.
- Mayonnaise, sour cream, and pickle juice: These three ingredients combine to make the most punchy and delicious dressing.
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper
Pasta Salad Tips
Making pasta salad is pretty simple, but I’ve found a couple of things that make it even easier. Here are my best tips for making pasta salad.
- Salt the pasta water for maximum pasta salad flavor.
- Rinse the pasta in cold water immediately after it is done cooking. I like to use this over the sink strainer to help it cool down faster. Running your pasta under cold water helps it not to overcook. I like to make sure that the pasta is totally cool before I add the other ingredients so I don’t have to chill it in the fridge for hours before I want to serve it. No one likes a warm pasta salad!
- Store in the fridge if you’re not serving it immediately. During the summer, pasta salad can spoil pretty quickly without even realizing it, especially if it has dairy and other perishable ingredients.
- Make the dressing in a separate bowl first, and then add it to a big bowl with all of the other ingredients. If you don’t whisk the dressing together first, it might be hard to distribute all of the seasonings and other dressing ingredients throughout the pasta salad.
- Serve it in a pretty bowl like this one.
More Pasta Salad Recipes
Pepperoni Mozzarella Pasta Salad
Dill Pickle Pasta Salad
Dill Pickle Pasta Salad is bright, crunchy, and totally unexpected. It’s my new favorite pasta salad of all time!
Ingredients
Pasta salad
- ½ lb shell pasta
- 8 oz cheddar cheese block, cubed
- 3 tbsp fresh dill , (or 2 tsp dried)
- 8 small sized dill pickles, sliced thin
- 1 yellow onion, diced small
Dressing
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
- ¼ cup dill pickle juice
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the box instructions. Once the pasta is cooked, strain it over the sink and rinse it super well with cold water to let it completely cool down. Add the cooled pasta to a large bowl. Add the remaining pasta salad ingredients and stir well. Set to the side.
- To make the dressing, add all of the dressing ingredients to a small bowl except for the pickle juice, then whisk together. Stir in the pickle juice and combine.
- Top the pasta salad with the dressing and stir well to coat evenly. Serve immediately or keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 687kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 44g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 14g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 77mg | Sodium: 1959mg | Potassium: 328mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 862IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 478mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Made this and share with my neighbor. Any one says dill, they have our total attention. We really liked it. A keeper except i would hold back on the cheese. How could you have too much cheese?! I love cheese but it was a lot. Would be great with burgers on the grill. Yum!