From as far back as I can remember (21 years tops) I’ve had a thing for spicy food. While I personally don’t consider Buffalo sauce to be very spicy, I still really enjoy the subtle heat and vinegary edge that comes with it. And I know it pairs amazingly well with blue cheese.
So why not combine those two flavors with something else I like? You guessed it, macaroni salad!
The raw vegetables in this salad bring a nice fresh crunchiness to the dish. And the Munster cheese is a perfect accompanying cheese with its soft texture and subtle taste that won’t try to compete with or overpower the flavor of the blue cheese crumbles. The tanginess of the Buffalo sauce and the bold salty flavor from the blue cheese are what carry this dish.
Typicaly, macaroni salad has a sweet aspect to it, usually in the form of some added sugar. I don’t feel this macaroni salad should contain any additional sweetness outside of the natural sweetness from the red peppers. It’s meant to be savory.
I also decided not to add any additional salt to the recipe below because I feel the blue cheese and the Buffalo sauce both contain more than enough sodium, so there’s no need to go overboard by adding more salt. But if you absolutely need your salt fix, I can’t stop you.
As with every noodle dish, don’t overcook your noodles. If you overcook them too much, they’re going to fall apart on you when you go to mix everything together. You also want some texture from the macaroni noodles as you’re eating them. Overcooked noodles are soggy and just all around no good.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Quite honestly, my Buffalo sauce consumption can quickly get out of hand. Let us know what you do or don’t like about the recipe in the comment section below. We love hearing from everyone.
Buffalo Blue Cheese Macaroni Salad
By: Semiserious Chefs
Serves: 6 – 8
Ingredients:
- 2 cups elbow macaroni
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce or something similar (cayenne, vinegar, salt, and garlic)
- 4 oz. blue cheese crumbles (a little over half a cup)
- 2 oz. Munster cheese cubed (about half a cup)
- 1/4 cup celery (diced)
- 1/4 cup red peppers (diced)
- 1/4 cup green onions (thinly sliced)
- 1/4 cup red onions (diced)
- Dash of black pepper
Directions:
- Fill a large cooking pot about 2/3 full of water and heat over high heat until boiling, adding salt if desired.
- Add elbow macaroni and immediately stir to prevent the noodles from sticking.
- Cook until close to al dente. Don’t overcook. I like to go somewhere between 12 – 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
- Remove noodles from heat and rinse with plenty of cold water to stop the cooking process. When the water has cooled enough, move the noodles around a bit with your hand to make sure they won’t stick and then let them soak.
- While the noodles are soaking, cut up the celery, red peppers, green and red onions.
- Combine the mayonnaise and the hot sauce in a bowl and mix thoroughly then set aside.
- Drain noodles and empty them into a large bowl.
- Add chopped up vegetables, crumbled blue cheese, cubed Munster cheese, the mayo and hot sauce mixture, and a dash of black pepper.
- Fold everything together with a spatula until well combined.
- Best when served after sitting in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
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