Amazing Egg Salad Without All the Mayo

Hey everyone! Today we’re making egg salad—really fun, quick, and you will love it. Let’s get started.

We’re meeting up with some of our family later today for a picnic, and my contribution is going to be the egg salad and a couple other things. First off, we’re going to hard-boil eight eggs, and this might be a bit controversial, but I’m sneaking in a couple of potatoes. Does it make it a potato salad even if there’s just a little bit of potato in there? Let me know—I’m very curious what you think. I maintain this is an egg salad. If you don’t like it, skip the potatoes.

I’ve actually already hard-boiled my eggs and those couple of potatoes, setting them aside for a few minutes. Let’s do some of the other chopping prep work first.

Prep the Produce

Apple

One small apple—your choice. I love Honeycrisps, but anything will do. Give it a good peel. You can add anywhere from the whole apple (about a cup) to half a cup if you’re not feeling it. We’re going to mince it so it’s really small pieces, and they’ll add a little bit of texture and a tiny bit of sweetness. Cut the flesh away from the core. Nice small pieces like that—they’ll blend right in. I think of them as the sweet version of celery: similar mouthfeel.

Celery

One cup of celery, chopped thinly. I totally don’t mind the leaves—those are staying in. Just make sure you give it a nice wash first. Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop. One cup of celery—there you go.

Peel and Chop the Eggs

Do you have any tips for peeling eggs? If you have a suggestion on how to remove shells easily, I’m all ears. These are peeling fine, actually. Rinse them in water because you don’t want any tiny little eggshell fragments giving you that unwanted crunch. You want nice natural cucumber and apple crunch.

Chop the eggs into smaller pieces, but it’s really up you. If you like big chunks, just quarter them—whatever you want; it’s your salad. For this recipe I’m hard-boiling my eggs, but I would not do a soft boil. You could do a notch below a hard boil so the egg is a little translucent in the center—that’s delicious as well.

Potatoes

I have four petite gold potatoes—pure cream. One of my pet peeves is when potatoes have that mealy taste after they’ve been cooked. These are like solid cream, and they make a wonderful addition. You could leave the skin on, but I think it’s extra indulgent for them to be naked. I kind of wanted to hide them in there. This is gonna be so good.

Aromatics and Herbs

Shallot

I happen to have a shallot here. It’ll add just a little bit of bite. You could use red onion if you wanted, though it’s not a deal breaker. Remove the skin, mince it into little strips and then little cubes. Add the minced shallot now.

Fresh Dill and Chives

This makes all the difference. Adding as much as you like—about a quarter cup of fresh dill and maybe three tablespoons of chives. I’ll reserve a tablespoon for garnish and add the rest.

Dressing

A liberal quarter cup of mayonnaise (store-bought), two teaspoons or so of Dijon mustard, half a teaspoon of sea salt (you can use kosher salt; I would not use iodized—it’s a little harsh), and a little pepper.

Give this a mix—be gentle with your salad. A lot of people are afraid to add extra things into egg salad, like it should be totally classic—just eggs, mayonnaise, salt, maybe some other flavorings—but be adventurous; you can experiment. Taste and add more salt or seasonings if needed. To me, that’s perfect.

Serving

I’m treating myself to my dream lunch. My favorite bread is pumpernickel—it comes in a brick, really solid, packed with seeds and nutrients, and it really makes me happy. Try it out; I think it’s more popular in Europe and Scandinavia.

Using my favorite scooper, pop on just the right amount, smooth it out, and this is a delicious snack—perfectly balanced.

Garnish

A little bit of paprika (smoked or sweet—it’s your choice), some more dill, and chives. There we go—that really makes me happy. If you wanted, you could have a little tomato salad or whatever you want with it, but I will be eating it just like this.

Hello… hmm… you complete me. I’m gonna have some just by itself so I’m not biased by that delicious bread. Yes, yes, yes—a thousand times yes!

If you like this egg salad, they go perfectly well with strawberry shortcake, because what is a meal without dessert?