This Deviled Egg Pasta Salad is creamy, loaded with bacon and pickles, and packed with all the classic deviled egg flavours. Perfect for BBQs, potlucks and summer gatherings!
Ever torn between taking either a pasta salad or egg salad to a BBQ? Why choose when you can have both!? This pasta is PERFECT for Summer, awesome as a side or great just as a quick & easy lunch. Follow me…
Creamy Deviled Egg Dressing
Whilst it may seem like an odd idea to combine egg and salad pasta, I promise it totally works. You get those same iconic flavours of deviled eggs all wrapped inside a loaded pasta salad.
Speaking of dressing, this is a key part of the dish. As with most pasta salads, the dressing is where all the magic happens. The full quantities are down in the recipe card, but to quickly go over what we’re using and why:
- Mayo – Forms the base of the dressing and keeps everything nice and creamy.
- Sour Cream – Adds a gentle tang and lightens things up a little.
- Pickle Juice – A secret weapon that gives the dressing that signature deviled egg flavour.
- Hot Sauce – Doesn’t make the salad spicy; it just adds a subtle background kick.
- Dijon Mustard – A must for that classic deviled egg taste.
- Seasoning – A little sugar, salt and white pepper help balance and round out all the flavours.
Deviled Egg Pasta Salad Ingredients
Once you’ve got the dressing sorted, the rest of the ingredients are pretty straightforward. This is a loaded pasta salad, with plenty of texture and lots of little additions that really bring everything together:
- Red Onion – Adds a pop of colour and a gentle crunch. I finely dice it so it doesn’t overpower the salad.
- Bacon – Brings a lovely smoky, salty element to the dish. I highly recommend using streaky bacon if you can.
- Pasta – I use macaroni, which does a great job of catching all that creamy dressing.
- Chives – Add a fresh, mild onion flavour and brighten the whole salad up.
- Dill Pickles (gherkins) – A must, in my opinion. They add little bursts of tanginess and tie in perfectly with the deviled egg flavours.
- Celery – Adds some much-needed crunch and keeps the salad from feeling too heavy.
- Eggs – Hard-boiled eggs are, of course, the star of the show. I’ve added my favourite method to hard-boil eggs in the recipe card below.
- Smoked Paprika – For a smoky finish and pop of colour.
- Dressing – Once everything is combined with that creamy deviled egg dressing, you’ve got yourself one seriously delicious pasta salad.
How to make Deviled Egg Pasta Salad
As you can imagine, putting the salad together is pretty straightforward. With that said, I’ve got a few tips to ensure everything turns out perfectly:
- Cool the pasta completely – Warm pasta will soak up the dressing too quickly and leave the salad dry.
- Dice the eggs instead of mashing them – A lot of recipes stir the cooked yolks into the dressing, but I find it can turn the dressing a little clumpy. Dicing the eggs keeps everything nice and creamy and gives the salad a better texture.
- Cook the bacon until crisp – Soft bacon tends to get lost in the salad. Crispy bacon adds a lovely salty crunch and contrasts perfectly with the creamy dressing.
- Check seasoning – A few pinches of salt can change the final dish dramatically, so don’t leave it unseasoned to your taste.
Process shots: add dressing ingredients to bowl (photo 1), mix (photo 2), cook, cool and drain pasta (photo 3), mix in fillings and dressing (photo 4).
Recipe Tip
To easily dice the eggs, I like to put a wire rack above the bowl and simply push the eggs through. They come out perfectly diced and end up straight in the bowl!
Serving Suggestions
This deviled egg pasta salad is best served chilled, with a final sprinkle of smoked paprika and some extra chives to really drive home those classic deviled egg flavours.
It’s the perfect side dish for BBQs, picnics, potlucks and summer gatherings, and pairs particularly well with grilled meats and sandwiches.
If you’re a fan of a little heat, feel free to finish individual portions with an extra few drops of hot sauce.
Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this deviled egg pasta salad shall we?!
How to make Deviled Egg Pasta Salad (Full Recipe & Video)
Deviled Egg Pasta Salad
Equipment
- Medium Pot with Lid (for eggs)
- Medium Pot & Colander (for pasta)
- Small Mixing Bowl & Spatula (for dressing)
- Large Mixing Bowl & Salad Tossers
- Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
Ingredients
Dressing
- 1 cup / 240g Full Fat Mayo
- 1/4 cup / 60g Sour Cream
- 1 1/2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tbsp Gherkin/Dill Pickle Juice
- 1/2 tsp EACH: Sugar, Salt, Hot Sauce (or to taste)
- 1/4 tsp White Pepper
Pasta Salad
- 9oz / 250g Dried Macaroni
- 6-8 Hard Boiled Eggs, diced (see notes)
- 1/3 cup / 5 rashers Bacon, cooked, cooled & chopped
- 1/3 cup / 4-5 small Gherkins/Dill Pickles, finely diced
- 1/3 cup / 1 large stalk Celery, finely diced
- 1/3 cup / 1 small Red Onion, finely diced
- 1 tbsp Chives, finely diced
- few pinches of Smoked Paprika, to serve
Instructions
- Pasta: Pop the pasta in salted boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water until completely cold. Ensure you've shaken out all the water, then place it in a large mixing bowl.
- Dressing: In a small mixing bowl, combine the mayo, sour cream, Dijon mustard, pickle juice, sugar, salt, white pepper and hot sauce. Taste test for seasoning and adjust if desired.
- Pasta Salad: To the large mixing bowl of pasta, add diced egg, bacon, celery, red onion, chives and pickles. Pour in the dressing mix everything until well-combined.
- Serve: Sprinkle over a few pinches of smoked paprika. Tightly cover and store in the fridge, or serve up right away. I like to give it an hour, just to allow the flavours to marry.
Video
Notes
- Place eggs in a pot and cover with cold water (make sure every part of all the eggs is comfortably covered).
- Turn on high heat and leave until you reach a rolling boil. Once the eggs start dancing, immediately turn off the heat, pop on a lid and leave on the hob for 10mins.
- After 10 mins, spoon eggs into a bowl of ice or ice water (this is to stop the cooking process).
- Peel and dice eggs to desired texture for egg mayo.
Your Private Notes:
Nutrition
Looking for more?
You’ll find plenty more delicious comfort food like this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’
Deviled Egg Pasta Salad FAQ
Deviling something essentially means to aggressively season or add spice. In this context, and in the context of deviled eggs, the key ingredient is mustard. Alongside this I like to add white pepper, which gives a very gentle kick of heat, and hot sauce, which gives more of an intense kick of spice.
Because the dressing is very creamy, this spice in this recipe is actually fairly mellow. It’s more about the flavour that the mustard, pepper and hot sauce offer. You can however, adjust the measurements to suit your spicy needs!
Yep! Just tightly cover in the fridge until needed (will last around 3 days).
Looking for another Summer potluck winner? Check out my Creamy Bacon Potato Salad!
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Just made this for dinner and it is DELISH! I used 8 eggs, and would probably use a little more bacon next time. I also used a bit more hot sauce (Sriracha) to our taste. For pickles, I used my homemade bread and butter pickles, but I’ll try dill pickles next time. I plan to take this to a potluck in a couple weeks. I think it will be a hit!
So pleased it went down well, Sarah! Appreciate you popping back for a review 🙂 C.
Where did you get that grate you put the eggs on to slice?? I’m looking for something like that.
Hi Roxanne! It’s just an ordinary cooling rack. C.
Thank you for your quick response. I’m going to try mine.
If, you don’t like hard boil eggs in this recipe, is there something else you could replace it with, instead?
Hey Carol! Unfortunately I can’t think of any subs – the eggs is such a prominent part of the recipe. C.
This is, BY FAR, the best pasta salad I have ever eaten.
Thanks so much for the review, Wendy! 🙂 C.
Do you think the tast would still be good if I subbed regular mustard and omitted hot sauce?
Hey Laurie! By regular mustard which variety do you mean? You can definitely omit the hot sauce if you don’t like spice either way, although a few dashes does add some lovely flavour! C.
Hi, what type of mayo do you use?
I always use full fat Hellman’s or Heinz 🙂 C.
It really does taste and have this amazing mouth-feel of the perfect bite of the best deviled egg you ever had, and also the best macaroni salad.
Thanks so much for the review, Jen!! 🙂 C.
So good and ingredients we had on hand. I used my pressure cooker for the eggs and a grater for the pickles. Turned out delicious.
Great to hear this went down well! Thanks for the review 🙂 C.
Delicious! Made it 4 times for different events and everyone absolutely loved it!
So great to hear! Thanks so much for the review 🙂 C.
I’m always lookimg for new salad recipes and this one gets top marks – I use vegan bacon as I don’t eat meat and this works well for me. Thank you!