Egg salad is a classic recipe that can come in handy. Many years ago, When I was a very young mother, very lonely, and newly married, I belonged to a church that often asked the women to take turns hosting small groups.
I wish I had known how little pressure I actually had to put on myself. Each week that it was my turn, I spent too much time and money trying to do more than I should have.
The reality was I could have made a double recipe of this egg salad, bought a loaf of Wonder bread, cut off the crusts and served them with radishes and cucumbers and saved a lot of time, money and energy that I just didn’t have. Know better, do better.
So, I’m here to pass that knowledge on to any of you who may be called to host an event you can’t afford.
The egg salad recipe as written is the classic version. You can doctor it up however your tastes and traditions lean, and everything will be ok. This recipe also works well when it is too hot to “actually” cook.
Start by hard-boiling six eggs. Don’t know how? Guess what? We’ve got a post with four methods to hard boil eggs. We’ve got you covered.
Traditional Egg Salad
Egg salad is a staple recipe, not only for when cooking feels like a lot of effort, but to keep in reserve for when hosting company on short notice and low budget.
Ingredients
- 6 hard-cooked eggs chopped
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl
- Chill in the refrigerator (optional)
Notes
To serve as a salad for company cut the crust off white bread (yes, like Wonderbread or Buttertop). Cut into triangles, You can then optionally spread with a thin layer of butter or mayonnaise before assembling.
Alternately you can use crackers or firm pieces of bread and vegetables and use the salad as a dip.
Don’t just stick to the traditional egg salad sandwiches. Try using it as a dip, too.
If you use a firm Russian or Ukrainian-style bread, you may want to use fresh or dried dill as an accent seasoning.
For a fun experiment, I tried smoking a half-dozen hard-boiled eggs at 150º for 50 minutes. I used these to make egg salad in the same proportions as in the recipe above. I loved the results.
The not quite-cold smoke was my second attempt of the day, for what it is worth. I tried a method I had seen previously where the eggs are smoked from raw at 325º for thirty minutes, and it was an abject failure. The eggs were a complete mess. They tasted fine but a complete disaster to peel. Using an InstantPot to hard boil eggs is now my go-to method.
What ways do you like to serve egg salad?
I used to have egg salad and pickle relish sandwiches in my lunch as a kid. Loved them. But these days I would probably just stick with the egg salad. Thanks for the reminder, I need to try this again! And the lettuce leaf and radish option would make it low carb.
I recently discovered egg salad & learned how to make it. It wasn’t something my mom fixed but since where I live is currently in a heat wave, I am searching for cool meals that are cheaper and healthier than takeout. My vegetarian kid loves it (to the point of eating all of the leftover salad for lunch before I was able to use it for a second supper.)