As you might have noticed from our $50 weekly menus one of our favorite frugal lunches is egg salad. There are a million and one variations so even though it may be on the menu a couple of times each week for lunch, it’s never the same.
Generally speaking, I hard-boil at least a dozen eggs (usually 2 dozen) each week, peel them and leave them in a covered bowl in the fridge. These are great for snacking, adding to salads & for making super fast, dirt cheap egg salad.
I don’t mix up big batches of egg salad ahead of time, I make it as I need it, using those hard boiled eggs we just mentioned. Here’s a very basic egg salad recipe:
3 (hard boiled) Eggs, 2-3 T. Mayo, 1 T. Diced onion (green/vidalia, whatever), dash of seasoning – these are approximate amounts for 2 sandwiches. I rarely measure the ingredients for egg salad.
Chop, dice or mash the eggs to meet the texture that you prefer
Variations:
- Bacon & Egg Salad– add 1 T. Finely Chopped Cooked Bacon
- Carrot Egg Salad: Omit Onion, add 1 T. Finely Chopped Carrot & 1 T. Sunflower Seeds
- Cheesy Egg Salad– add 1 T. Shredded Cheese, any flavor- swiss is great!
- Creamy Egg Salad– add 1 T. Sour Cream
- Cucumber Egg Salad- omit onion, add 2 T. Finely Chopped Cucumber, dash of Ranch Dressing
- Curried Egg Salad: Add 1/8- 1/4 tsp curry powder
- Deviled Egg Salad– add a dash of hot sauce & 1/2 tsp minced garlic, dash of paprika
- Dijon Egg Salad– add 1 T. Dijon Mustard
- Dilled Egg Salad– omit onion, add 1/2 finely chopped dill pickle or 1 T. Chopped Fresh Dill (herb)
- Ham & Egg Salad- add 2 T. Finely Chopped Ham chunks
- Honey Dijon Egg Salad– Add 1 T. Honey Dijon Mustard
- Hummus Egg Salad- omit mayo, use hummus in its place
- Kicked Up Egg Salad– add 1 T. Finely Chopped Cooked Bacon, 1 tsp Cream Horseradish
- Olive Egg Salad– Omit onion, use 2 T. Finely chopped Green Olives
- Pesto Egg Salad– Omit Onion, add 2 tsp Pesto Sauce
- Southerners Egg Salad– add 1 Tbs. Chopped Pickled Jalapeno Pepper
- Sundried Tomato Egg Salad– add 2 T. Finely chopped sundried tomatoes, omit onion if desired
- Tropical Egg Salad– add 1 T. Crushed Pineapple & 1 T. Finely diced Papaya or mango, 1/8 tsp curry powder
Other Variations– What you serve it on is as important as what’s in it! Here are some ideas:
- Whole Wheat Pita
- Herb Wraps
- Pita Bread
- Steamed Cabbage Leaves
- Hot Dog Buns
- Kaiser Rolls
- Toasted English Muffins
- Hollowed out Tomato or Green Pepper
- Smeared on split cucumber
great idea i am gonna do this one…..
Fantastic ideas! I like the idea of only making as much as you need, instead of a big batch. I think I might be the only one who likes egg salad in my home.
thanks for the great egg salad recipies! I pack my lunch each day and will be trying some of these!
Nice! Man am I stuck in a rut when it comes to egg salad… thank you so much for these variations.
I just made the egg salad version with the chopped bacon. I left out the onion, just eggs, mayo, salt and bacon. Really good! This will be lunch tomorrow in a spinach herb wrap with some fresh tomato thrown it at the last minute to prevent sogginess.
I’m right there with VioletGypsie – stuck in a rut when it comes to egg salad. Funny, I had no idea of these variations! I can’t wait to pack my lunch next week! :thankyou:
I made the bacon one for lunch today. It was a hit. We also raise our own chickens so I decided to do like you said and I have a bowl with ready to eat boiled eggs in the fridge. I really hope my family enjoys them .
It sounds like a good plan. Thank you
We aren’t mayo people, so it goes bad before we get enough use out of the jar, therefore we almost never buy it…is there any reason we couldn’t substitute ranch dressing, or sour cream and milk mixed to the right texture?
Ya know, I only like the mayo with olive oil. Idk what it is but it taste the best to me. I could only imagine ranch dressing as a substitute! I bet that would be delicious!
Please let me know how that turns out, as my young children LOVE ranch dressing!!!
We only use Miracle Whip or other brand salad dressing in egg salad.I think straight sour cream would be good. Tried ranch once; too much seasoning, could barely taste the egg! Maybe part ranch, part sour cream would be better.
By the way, you realize that ranch is made from mayo and sour cream?
We are hoping to start raising chickens next year. Only a small backyard flock, but we are figuring around 2-3 dozen eggs each week from them once they start laying. These ideas will be great to help with the abundance.