There is an egg salad recipe for every occasion and the great thing about egg salad is how easy it is to prepare. We have all tasted egg salad from the store but have you ever made your own?
A homemade egg salad recipe is one of the best things you can make with eggs, and there are lots of different ways to do it. It’s very easy to prepare. You just need to boil eggs and make the dressing.
The basic ingredients in an egg salad recipe are eggs and mayo, but there is lots of room to personalize this basic recipe. In fact, you don’t even have to use mayo if you fancy using sour cream or something else instead. What about adding minced red onion or finely diced celery for some crunch?
How to Make Egg Salad Unique
As well as adding crunchy ingredients to your egg salad, what about flavoring the dressing? Basic mayonnaise works well but you can also add mustard, ketchup, hot sauce or something else to give your egg salad recipe a unique flavor.
Egg salad can be jazzed up with watercress, minced onion, garlic, chives, parsley, or anything else you want to add, to give it a unique and special taste.
Serve an egg salad recipe on a bun or in a sandwich, or use it to top your baked potato.
You can sprinkle some crispy bacon over the top for a gourmet touch, or add a slice of ham or turkey. Egg salad is one of the most popular salads and its delicious creaminess is always supremely satisfying.
Egg salad is usually served in sandwiches for lunch and is a very affordable one at that.
Eggs are a great source of protein and are easy to prepare and although usually made into sandwiches there is no reason you can’t use them in appetizers.
We all love deviled eggs but they can be quite a bit of work for how fast they always seem to go.
Why not capitalize on this popular appetizer and streamline the production part of the job? Look at it like a factory-type efficiency move and your production time is being trimmed.
Normally this would mean increased profits but in our case it means less time in the kitchen and more time with guests. This appetizer can be made before the guests even show up so it makes a great make-ahead dish and is much easier than its cousin the deviled egg, but still delivers the same great taste.
In fact it might even be better as you get the buttery richness of the crackers with each bite. The cracker serves as the delivery vehicle in this case and adds both texture and flavor to the egg salad.
The beginnings of the sandwich itself are credited to the Earl of Sandwich as for egg salad no one is quite sure where it comes from. Many speculate that it was a spinoff of deviled eggs and it was adapted from this into a sandwich form.
The egg salad sandwich became popular for a few reasons one the ease of preparation, the high protein count and the sheer economics of it.
As a lunch item it makes it affordable for working class people trying to stretch their food budgets. One dietary benefit to eating eggs is they help you go longer between meals as the eggs leave you feeling full longer.
Whether you choose egg salad for health or for budget, the bottom-line is it just tastes good and that’s got to be the most important reason to make a food item – the yummy flavor!
PrintSimple Egg Salad
Egg salad appetizers are great tasting and simple to make. They have a lot of flavor in a bit size appetizer that you can make ahead of time. Serve the egg salad mixture on melba toast or crackers. I also love it in a croissant with some watercress on top!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 6 eggs, hardboiled and chopped roughly
- ¼ cup (60ml) mayonnaise (Hellman’s works well)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon dry mustard powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
To Serve:
- Ritz crackers or similar
- Fresh dill sprigs (for garnish)
Instructions
- Start by placing the eggs in an empty saucepan.
- Add cold water, bring to a boil and simmer for 12 minutes.
- When the eggs are cold, remove them from the water and gently crack and peel them.
- Rinse the peeled eggs under cold water and let them dry a bit.
- Take the eggs and roughly chop them into about ¼-inch pieces.
- In a bowl mix all the other ingredients with a fork until well blended
- Gently stir in the chopped eggs until they are completely covered, adjust the mayonnaise as necessary – you want these slightly on the dryer side.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Divide the prepared egg salad over crackers, melba toast or even in big lettuce leaves.
- Top this with a small sprig of dill
- Place on a platter and gently cover with plastic wrap, then chill until serving.
Notes
- Variations to the recipe include chopped crispy bacon and finely chopped celery.
- This appetizer is a play on the deviled egg appetizers that are so popular with partygoers.
- The nice thing is though they are much easier to make and also will not cost you a lot.
- You may even have most of the ingredients on hand so you could make them up for a snack for the kids to enjoy after school.
- The truth is once you try these you may just decide to forget deviled eggs altogether and substitute this recipe and save yourself the extra work.
- After all, the prep work for a party shouldn’t take up all your free time, like anyone has any of that these days anyway!
Keywords: egg salad recipe
Egg Salad with Chives
It’s always nice to know there is something in the refrigerator to use for a great salad. On busy days, gather hardboiled eggs, basic greens and determine what else is available to make an enticing, healthy salad.
Because many salads are easy to prepare and require just a few items to make them perfect, there’s bound to be something to give it just the right taste you want. That is why thousands of salad recipes can each offer their own unique taste.
There are times when you will want the salad to encompass your entire meal and times when you want it to be more of an appetizer, leaving family and guests somewhat satisfied but ready for the main course.
Egg salad gives you a choice of many recipes and can be as basic as a hardboiled egg sliced into quarters or a fancy dish of diced eggs, vegetables, meat, and pasta. Many salads require no cooking at all, with the exception of the hardboiled eggs.
In the same mode as stir-fry cooking, having the ingredients ready makes the preparation quick and easy.
Decide ahead of time what you want to include in the salad so you can drop by the store to pick up anything missing before it’s needed.
Use your creativity and pick out shallow or deep bowls and assorted shapes of salad plates to build and serve each salad. Diversity often makes a colorful and enjoyable table setting with different designs and shapes and this egg salad perched on lettuce and surrounded by tomato slices will fit very well with your plans.
Salads fit any type of weather and when it is hot, cool vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, regular or green onions, cucumbers and radishes seem to bring the temperature down a bit.
Chilled hardboiled eggs are a great source of protein and let the cook have a lot of leeway in creating delicious salads when a satisfying one-dish meal is sufficient.
Your egg salad garnish can be elegant or simple, such as a sprinkle of paprika across the top of the egg salad. Bibb lettuce serves as the bottom layer for today’s menu, adding just the right touch to the egg salad presentation.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head Bibb lettuce
- Bread, toast or crackers, to serve
- 2 large red tomatoes, such as beefsteak
- 6 hardboiled eggs
- 1 single stalk of celery
- 1 medium onion
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons milk or cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Chives, for garnish
Instructions
- Cut the bottom off the lettuce and separate the leaves, washing them a few at a time and laying them out on paper towels to dry.
- Rinse the tomatoes and trim the top. Cut in half downwards and cut those halves into three wedges each.
- Crack and peel the eggs, rinsing to clear any small bits of shell, and set the eggs on a plate.
- Use an egg slicer and dicer to cut the eggs into cubes or cut them with a small, sharp knife.
- Put the egg pieces in a medium bowl.
- Cut the onion in half. Put one of the halves into a sealable plastic bag and place it into the refrigerator to save for another meal.
- Peel and dice the other half and add it to the eggs.
- Trim and wash the celery stalk. Cut lengthwise into several sections and then cut across to make small pieces for the salad.
- Put it into the bowl with the eggs and onions.
- In a small cup or bowl, combine the mayonnaise and cream (or milk) with a bit of salt and pepper.
- Use a whisk or fork to blend. Add to the eggs and mix the ingredients together.
- Take out four salad plates and spread out a layer of the Bibb lettuce leaves on each one. Place a serving of egg salad at the center of the dish, allowing it to spill out towards the sides of the plate. Arrange three slices of tomato around the edge.
- Sprinkle the chives over then serve.
- If preferred, serve the egg salad and lettuce on toast or in sandwiches.
Notes
- Feel free to tinker with the ingredients, omitting the tomato and/or celery if preferred and adding in anything else you like.
Keywords: egg salad with lettuce, egg salad with celery
So the key to making a great egg salad is to start out with the basic ingredients (ie egg and mayo) and then choose what else to add to it. You can also choose the texture. I usually use an egg slicer to slice the eggs, then rotate them and slice again. Some people might prefer to cut them roughly with a knife or even mash them. Anything goes.
And if you want some egg-stra recipes using eggs, consider salmon deviled eggs or eggs benedict!
