Egg salad! We love it. It is a great meal for a busy mom, because it is so easy to whip up in a pinch. I’ll be really happy when we have our own duck eggs. For now, the local farm from whom we get pastured eggs has got eggs coming out their ears. Literally.
This is sad – the farmer told me that until the Farmer’s Market starts, they don’t have enough regular customers who go out of their way to arrange egg purchases. Recently, they had to give away 36 dozen eggs. I’m sure that is great for the food bank, but not so good for the farmer. Another reason to support your local farmer, especially during the off-season!
This is my basic egg salad, which is admittedly, nothing fancy. I season to taste, so it is a formula rather than a recipe. Last weekend, we had egg salad sandwiches on Erin’s fabulous sourdough English muffins. Oh, man! So good.
See all Basic Recipes.
Basic Egg Salad
- 10 to 12 hard boiled eggs – cooled, peeled, and diced
- 3 to 4 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise
- 1/4 onion, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried dill
- herbed seasoning salt (or sea salt) and pepper, to taste
- add-ins: crumbled feta cheese or other raw cheese, sliced olives, etc.
Stir all ingredients lightly. Serve as a sandwich, a side, or atop a salad. Enjoy!
How do you make your egg salad? Do you have any special ingredients that kick yours up?
I’m sharing this post in Real Food Wednesday and Pennywise Platter Thursday.
About Wardeh
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Wardeh, this looks delicious! I love egg salad, and I have access to wonderful pastured eggs. I want to make it soon with l-f mayo. Your herb salt sounds intriguing, too. Thank you so much for posting this! It’s in my “to cook” folder in my reader.
.-= Meg´s last blog post… Fish and Pasta – Penne in Guazzetto =-.
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Egg Salad here is a simple dish that we all love. I boil the eggs just right so that the yolks don’t turn green and chop the eggs into not-too-small pieces.
I add homemade mayo, salt and chopped sweet pickles. That’s it! If its just me eating I add tarragon from the garden or dill.
.-= Sylvia´s last blog post… Just A Short Interlude ….. =-.
Sylvia, perhaps you would share how you cook the eggs just right? I boil for 8 minutes and no more and they are usually perfect for me. Do you have any tricks for helping to peel fresh eggs that don’t want to peel well?
Meg, enjoy!
Yum! We love egg salad. I like mustard and a smidgen of curry powder in mine. And sometimes a little chopped dill pickles.
.-= Mary Ann´s last blog post… Home Manager Evaluation =-.
I am definitely making this salad!!! On one hand, I am dying to make the homemade mayo; then, I can almost taste the salad from the picture! It looks so yummy!!!I This past weekend, I made your herb salt and used it on a chicken dish. The family loved it! Thank you for posting the egg salad recipe.
Claudia Vasquez
I love Egg Salad. I like to put in diced dill pickles (bubbies) and a little mustard. Yummo!
.-= Kimi @ The Nourishing Gourmet´s last blog post… Dealing with Junk Food at Holidays and as Guests =-.
I found this way to cook eggs perfectly, and it really works.
Place eggs in single layer in saucepan.
Cover with at least one inch cold water, cover pot, bring to boil over medium heat.
As soon as water comes to a full boil, remove from heat and let stand.
Large soft-cooked eggs, 1-4 minutes
Large hard-cooked eggs, 15-17 min.
When done, immediately drain off hot water and cover with cold, add a few ice cubes.
For soft eggs, let stand until cool enough to handle; for hard, until completely cooled.
For egg salad, I like to add some dijon mustard, kind of reminiscent of deviled eggs.
leih
We make ours almost just like yours except I add chopped “confetti” – a mixture that I use for a salad topping – usually broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, green onions, etc. If you chop it really fine and mix it with your egg salad it is delicious.
As for pealing fresh eggs – according to Julia Child you cook them like Leih says above and then you move them quickly to ice water and bring your cooking water back to a boil. Put them back in the boiling water for about 10 seconds and then move them back to the ice water. The change in temperature is supposed to cause the eggs to release from the shell. In reality, does it work? I do think it is better than when I just peel them, but I don’t get 100% beautiful eggs – maybe more like 50%. Oh well!!
Enjoyed your post – I think we’ll have egg salad on Friday. I’m making those English muffins Friday morning. Yea!!!
Connie
Love egg salad. Eat it just as it is or on bread.
My basic recipe I do is as follows:
boiled eggs – peeled / chopped
mayo – homemade
onions – diced
mustard – which ever you enjoy – I especially like the German mustards.
red cayenne – pinch or so
grated carrot
Amounts vary each time I make. I just go by taste.
I’ve never sat down to figure out amounts since when I do make it is according to how many eggs I am doing up.
.-= Pamela´s last blog post… Getting to know your Local CSA’s: =-.
I make egg salad quite often – I always add a smidgen of anchovy in olive oil – mince it up and add it in – adds some great flavor and nutrients without anyone knowing….but they always rave how much they like it…even ardent fish haters
Another thing I sometimes do is separate the yolks, mayo and other add-ins and quickly blend those together and than add coarse chopped egg whites at the end….
Smoked paprika is another fav to sprinkle in…
Lisa, your addition of a bit of anchovy in olive oil sounds great! Extra nutrition and perhaps an element of umami as well? What brand of anchovy do you buy for this?
Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions. I feel inspired to make egg salad soon!
.-= Meg´s last blog post… Fish and Pasta – Penne in Guazzetto =-.
My mom has free-range (there’s no grass, so I’ll refrain from calling them “pastured”) chickens, and the way we boiled eggs, which she does often, is this: Key ingredient, AGED eggs. Fresh eggs are extremely difficult to peel, so one week old, and preferably older, really is better. Then, the single-layer, cold water, bring to boil method works–be sure to use plenty of salt in the water–and to prevent the yolks turning green, don’t over-cook them and ice them immediately after removing from heat to stop the cooking. I haven’t tried the hot-cold shock, but that Julia, she knew what she was talking about! I’m at altitude, so this makes all of my timing be too long for those that aren’t. We don’t do “three minute eggs” in restaurants, or they’d be raw!
I also read where someone does a “no-peel” egg salad: she poaches her eggs then chops them. Perfectly cooked every time, and since they don’t need to be “pretty” (as if for deviled eggs), it sounds perfect! I will be trying this one soon.
It’s a shame that your farmer had to give away so many eggs, especially with Easter! That’s just nutty. Does he have a sign up out by the road? My mom does, and she never lacks for interest! (and she doesn’t even have that many chickens! She takes it down when she gets a good “customer base”) Wish I was closer–we have to go 20 miles to get our eggs.
As far as secret ingredients in my egg salad, I will frequently use a little celery salt and mustard–even a dash of raw apple cider vinegar if it’s only for me, in addition to the usual herbed salt, pepper, and mayo. Mmm, over lightly toasted sourdough and with a slice of fresh garden tomato and leaf of romaine lettuce…YUM!
I’ve started using strained yogurt, b/c I haven’t crossed the making my own mayo bridge yet…still can’t figure out which oils would be the best ones to use.
So…
2 eggs,
1 big spoonful strained or Greek yogurt
1 small spoonful yellow mustard
Dill pickles – 2 mini, chopped fine.
Salt/pepper (I LOVE the herbed salt from this site, and my child is eating kelp on the sly now!)
I’ve been eating 1 egg’s worth daily for breakfast…so good!
I love dill pickles in our egg salad. The kids are very happy with just mayo and a little salt. I think it tastes best when all the yolks are incorporated with the mayo.
I love all your ideas for additions! I’m realizing that the reason we love this egg salad SO much more now is because of our mayonnaise – which includes mustard and apple cider vinegar – extra ingredients mentioned by some of you!
Dani, I love the “no-peel” egg salad idea! I am going to try that.
Connie, thanks for sharing what Julia Child says. The kids and I are about to watch “Julie and Julia”; we haven’t seen it yet!
And Leih, thanks for sharing your method. It sounds familiar, because I think I learned that in HS home ec!
Love the ideas – keep them coming!
My secret for perfectly peeled eggs…add a little olive oil to the water when you boil them. Eggshells are porous and they absorb a little of the oil, which makes the shell come right off. I read this in a cooking magazine and it has worked for me every time!
Oh, and ditto on using older eggs. Really fresh ones don’t peel well.
Adding oil- huh that’s intriguing.
I usually cover the oldest eggs i have with cold water, bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes ( starting at the first sign of boiling) then turn off heat and let sit 8-10 minutes then straight to cold water till cool.I have noticed that they are easier to peel after getting cold in the fridge. Then break up the shell all over (roll it om the counter) and start peeling from the end with the air sac. If sticking is a problem a rinse under water helps. I usually get 95% perfect eggs this way. The no shell (poach) method works great too but then you have odd looking deviled eggs
The lf mayo is super delicious and does work really well with the egg salad. You almost don’t need anything else! We usually add some relish to our egg salad . It literally takes a minute to whip up egg salad for the whole family.
Wardeh,
I like to “up” the nutrition in my egg salad by adding sauerkraut (which I add to almost everything with mayonnaise in it) and maybe a little curry powder. And I agree with Dani about older eggs and adding lots of salt to the water for easier peeling.
If you have any leftover bacon, crumble it into the egg salad at the last minute – or even layer the whole slices in the sandwich. Delicious & adds extra vitamin D!
My mother in law gave me an egg cooker for a wedding gift 32 years ago and when it burned out (25 years later) I bought a new one. I LOVE it because it makes perfect eggs every time and they’re so easy to peel because the moisture gets between the shell and the white making the peel come right off. My current one is a Krups brand I bought on Amazon. It cooks them from soft boiled to hard and also has an insert so you can make them poached.
We like a bit of horseradish in our eggsalad or deviled eggs. Adds just a bite of interest
.
Years ago I ran across a recipe to add honey and curry to egg salad. It tastes wonderful and is a nice change from ‘regular’ egg salad.
.-= Millie @ Real Food for Less Money´s last blog post… Sourdough Sandwich Bread- Variation =-.
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My “special recipe” is from the Asparagus to Zucchini book and features fennel. Yum! I can’t wait for CSA season!
.-= Wendy (The Local Cook)´s last blog post… F&FC Week 1 Round-up and Winner =-.
I eat mine like Mary Ann–with a touch of mustard and curry powder. Lately, it feels like I’m adding curry and tumeric to everything. It’s just soooooooo good.
I love Dani’s friends’ suggestion of poaching the eggs. I have such a hard time peeling them without taking half the “meat” with the shell.
These comments are fabulous! Thanks Wardeh & everyone else!
Hi … i was wondering where these ‘pastured’ eggs can be found… i live in Orrington and would to buy g o o d eggs . . . thanks for your time
Debbe – You should search http://localharvest.org to find local egg producers in your area. Call them to see how they grow their chickens – on pasture, able to eat bugs? Happy shopping!
Wardeh – Perfect timing; I just boiled some eggs.
Lisa – Anchovies, I will have to try this!
Leah – Love your idea about the oil.
Liz W – This is exactly the way I cook my eggs!
So many terrific ideas. Thanks everyone!
Another helpful tip to shelling eggs is to shake the pan after adding cold water so that the egg shells crack when hitting against each other. Make sure all the eggs are cracked; let the eggs cool in the water, which gets underneath the shells. All of you are right though, the eggs do much better when aged. I love the idea of adding oil to the water, and the poaching idea would definitely work, although no matter how fresh my eggs, I always lose some of the whites. I guess the loss is minimal though, when the eggs are at their freshest. My favorite add-in is anchovies. My recipe is very basic: mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. By the way, what is I-f mayonnaise?