Macaroni Salad With Bacon, Peas, and Creamy Dijon Dressing

Submitted by SarahBeth

"From Cooking Light. Another pre-wedding winner! :)"

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photo by Diana 2

Ready In:: 45mins
Ingredients:: 17
Yields:: 8 cups of salad
Serves:: 8

ingredients

¹⁄₂ cup reduced-fat cream cheese
¹⁄₄ cup chopped shallot
¹⁄₄ cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons nonfat sour cream
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
³⁄₄ teaspoon black pepper
¹⁄₂ teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces uncooked large elbow macaroni
²⁄₃ cup fresh green peas
²⁄₃ cup finely diced red bell pepper
²⁄₃ cup finely diced red onion
¹⁄₂ cup thinly sliced green onion
¹⁄₄ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
¹⁄₂ teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 slices bacon, fat removed, cooked and crumbled

directions

To prepare dressing, combine first 9 ingredients in a food processor, and process until smooth. Cover and chill.
To prepare salad, cook pasta according to package directions.
Add peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking time. Drain; rinse with cold water. Drain.
Combine pea/ pasta mixture, bell pepper, and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Toss pasta mixture with half of dressing. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Toss salad with remaining dressing, and sprinkle with crumbled bacon; serve immediately.

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Reviews

This was delicious and relatively easy, given all the ingredients. The dressing is really creamy and tasty and blends together beautifully. Even though I am not a bacon fan, I enjoyed this very much and made a container to take to work for lunch for the week. I think this would be equally tasty with cubed ham, hard-boiled egg, turkey, etc. Thanks for posting this keeper. Made for Please Review My Recipe Tag Game.

JackieOhNo!
Fantastic. :) This is so smooth and creamy with wonderful flavour. I did add extra sweet peppers (yellow and orange), as I had some in the fridge, and used medium shell pasta. Ooops!...forgot the bacon. SarahBeth, I think I've just found my new favourite. Without a doubt...this will be made over and over again. ;) Honoured to make this as a "Thank You" for voting for Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia in the 2010 Kraft Hockeyville Competition.

Diana 2

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

SarahBeth

I am Sarah. I am married to a wonderful man. He is a great Husband and Father. In March of 2011 we welcomed our daughter Evie into this world. She is everything and nothing I expected, and is without a doubt the best thing I have ever done with my life. I love to cook, and eat, and laugh, and drink and play. I have a wonderful life. There are things you do because they feel right, and they may make no sense and they make no money and it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other and to eat each other's cooking and say it was good. ~Brian Andreas, Story People~   Get to know our family at www.itsavol.blogspot.com <img src=http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss316/sarahbethevans/bfe23bac.jpg alt= width=477 height=639 />

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