Dill Pickle Pasta Salad is literally my favorite pasta salad ever! In this creamy pasta salad recipe, dill pickles play a starring role and add tons of flavor and crunch! This recipe is even better when it’s made ahead of time making it the perfect potluck dish!
I have a thing for dill pickles. I always have. My sister and I have exchanged pickle themed gifts for about 20 years now… I’ve received everything from pickle erasers and a case of pickle pops (like freezies.. but pickle juice) and given her everything from a yodeling pickle to pickle soap and jewellery. One thing we haven’t exchanged yet is a dill pickle recipe, so of course I have to dedicate this delicious pasta salad recipe to my sister Candace.
I like pasta salads, I make a ton of them. They’re easy to make and usually better if made ahead of time. They’re the hit of every potluck meal and perfect to pack the next day for lunch. As much as I like pasta salads, this Dill Pickle Pasta salad is honestly one of the best pasta salads I’ve ever had! Pickles (or even dill pickle relish) usually play a supporting role in recipes, especially pasta salad recipes and potato salads.
But not this time… nope, this time the prized dill pickle plays the starring role, front and center.
* cheer * yay * cheer *
There is pickle flavor infused throughout this recipe (in 3 different places) yet it’s just the right amount of pickley (if pickley is even a word!?). Yup, time to get pickled people (in the dill pickle sense of course).
When buying pickles for this recipe, I love baby dills if you can find them because I love the crunch they give and I love how they look in little rounds. I’m a bit freakish about my pickles so I actually pick up all of the pickle jars at the store and try to choose jar with the the smallest pickles. I look like a person trying to choose the perfect produce, only in the pickle aisle. If you only have bigger dill pickles (or homemade pickles), they’ll still be great in this recipe too, just chop them but not too small, you want them to keep that crunch.
If you have (or love) sweet pickles you can also throw a handful of those in here too. I mean, sweet and salty, crunch creamy… perfection right?!
Oh, and when you’re scooping out your pickle juice to add to the dressing in this recipe, try to grab all of those yummy little garlicky bits floating around and put them in the dressing too, they add extra flavor. And one last tip about the white onion… be sure to grab the onions with the white papery skin, the ones with the yellow skin are much stronger and will be a little bit overpowering in this dish.
This dill pickle pasta salad is pretty much guaranteed to be the hit of your next potluck and the best part is that it is awesome made the day before! If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers (which I doubt would happen) they’ll keep several days in the fridge and make the perfect lunch!
Items You’ll Need For This Recipe
* Dill Pickles * Shell Pasta * Cayenne Pepper *
Dill Pickle Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- ½ pound medium shells about 3 cups
- ¾ cup sliced pickles
- ⅔ cup diced cheddar cheese
- 3 tablespoons minced white onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- ½ cup dill pickle juice
Dressing
- ⅔ cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 tablespoons dill pickle juice
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Boil pasta al dente according to package directions. Run under cold water to stop cooking.
- Toss cold pasta with about ½ cup of pickle juice and set aside for about 5 minutes. Drain & discard pickle juice.
- Combine all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
- Toss all ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.
Video
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Side Dish
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Your key ingredient, pickle juice, dill or sweet style, add some to caseroles, soak hard boiled eggs in it to use in egg salad or potato salad. Add cherry tomatoes to juice to marinate, or garden veggies to make gardenera mix.
You have a thing for dill pickles, I have a thing for Gherkin Pickles, so I’ll change it up a bit.
Looking forward to trying it this weekend!
Great recipes!
I bet the dressing would be great on potatoes also!
Great use to mellow out a VERY strong (we’re talking slap your mawmaw potent) batch of dill pickles from last summer. They were garlic dill pickles to boot which was a great addition I’d say! Halved the recipe my first try (just in case megadillckles screwed it up) and it worked nicely.
Ooh! I bet garlic pickles would make this recipe ah-mazing! I am glad that the recipe helped you make use of your strong pickles Tyler!
I am going to try this but I am going to replace the onion with chives.
Hi Holly! My sister and I consider ourselves pickle considers as well, so I’m pumped to make this for her as a surprise side dish! Just wondering, what brand of pickles do you favor, especially in a dish like this?
I hope she loves it! I’m going to make it for my sister this weekend too :) While I don’t use a specific brand I always look for the jar with the smallest dill pickles because I love the way they taste and look… and if it has extra garlic I will choose that one!
I tried this recipe and really wanted to like it, but it is was somewhat dry, and I didn’t like the dressing. I think next time I will not add the sour cream, and use mayo and dill pickle juice. I am a huge dill pickle fan, but it didn’t deliver on the first go.
I’ve made this twice now and love it! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Cat, I am so glad to hear you liked it enough to make it twice!
Made this twice now. Ate it all myself! Added some grilled chicken the second time to make it a main dish…still awesome. Used a little less pasta and a little (lot) more pickles. Tweaked the ratio of mayo to sour cream. Very versatile. Thank you SO much from one pickle lover to another.
I have to will myself to share this recipe! I don’t think you can ever have too many pickles in this recipe!
I have not tried your salad yet but plan to make it, I would love to receive your emails for more recipes. Thank you.
Hi Jenny, To receive emails with new recipes, you can click here to sign up to receive emails.
I would love to send you yummy recipes weekly!
Could you use Macaroni pasta instead of the shells or is the shells the best choice?
Yes, you could use macaroni in place of the shells.
This salad was awesome! Thanks for sharing!
P.S. Your photos are gorgeous!
I am so glad that you liked it Kathy! It is one of my favorites!
The store didn’t have fresh dill :( can I use dry dill weed?
Yes, if you substitute dried dill you will only need about 2 teaspoons. I would suggest stirring it into the dressing. Enjoy!
Made this pickle pasta salad twice now. Love it! So good my kids love it! So easy and so tasty!
I’m so glad your family loves it!
I only used about 2/3 of the dressing and it was enough. Recipe is fantastic. Very yummy!
So glad you loved it!!
I bet this would be great with a few chopped boiled eggs! Can’t wait to try this recipe, it looks absolutely DELICIOUS!!!
Eggs would be delicious in this recipe!!
My family are all big pickle lovers so when I came across this recipe I knew it would be perfect for a get together we were having. Everyone loved it! I think everyone had seconds. The only thing I added was some hard salami. I will definitely be making this again, thanks!
Salami would be an awesome addition to this salad!!
Well, I doubled the recipe and it is chilling in the fridge awaiting the potluck at work tomorrow.