How to Make Egg Salad

Egg salad is a timeless deli staple. It's also a budget-friendly dish that can be used in sandwiches or eaten on its own. You can't afford not to learn how to make egg salad!
Egg Salad Tips
1. Put your egg salad on toasted bread to avoid soggy, floppy sandwiches.
2. Use older eggs. They're easier to peel once they've been hard-boiled.
3. Hide carrots, peppers or tomatoes in your egg salad to get vegetable-phobics to eat their veggies.
4. Save time and dirty dishes by crumbling your hard-boiled eggs, rather than chopping them.
5. Don't be concerned with measuring your ingredients precisely. Taste everything as you go, and add or subtract various ingredients until your egg salad is unique to your taste!

Introduction
- Egg salad is a dish that is friendly to both cooking novices and well-seasoned chefs. It's easy to prepare and can be made in under half an hour. Read on to learn how to make egg salad.
What You'll Need
- There's nothing worse than getting all excited to try your hand at a new recipe and finding out you don't have all the necessary ingredients and tools to follow through. Luckily, you don't need any fancy ingredients to make a great egg salad. In fact, most of the ingredients are kitchen staples.
- These are the ingredients needed to make a basic egg salad:
- 12 eggs
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise or creamy salad dressing
- 2 tablespoons mustard
- 2 teaspoons each salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons dill
- 1 stalk celery
- 1/2 a small onion
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Though most basic egg salad recipes include these ingredients, feel free to leave out whatever you don't like. All an egg salad really needs is hard-boiled eggs and a binding agent (like mayonnaise).
- You'll also need to make sure you have the kitchen equipment to make egg salad.
- Small- to medium-sized pot with a tight-fitting lid
- Sharpened chef's knife
- Cutting board
- Mixing bowl
Step 1: Prepare the Eggs
- Egg salad is made with hard-boiled eggs, not soft-boiled eggs.Ask Mr. Breakfast: How do you boil an egg? A soft-boiled egg has a runny yolk inside the cooked white, while a hard-boiled egg has a hard yolk.
1. Take the eggs out from the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature for about fifteen minutes.
2. Place the eggs in the empty pot.
  - The pot you use should be small enough that the amount of eggs you are choosing to boil don't have too much room to move. If the pot is too large, the eggs could knock into each other while the water is boiling and crack their shells.
3. Bring the water to a rolling boil.
4. Remove the pot from the heat, and cover with a lid.
5. Let the eggs sit in the covered pot for 13 minutes.
6. Take the pot off the stove and set it in the sink, beneath the faucet.
7. Run cool water into the pot until the eggs are cool enough to handle.
8. Peel the eggs.
  - Using older eggs is an simple way to ensure an easy-peeling egg.Food Network: Shells and hard-boiled eggs
9. Chop the eggs.
  - There is no rule as to what size the chopped up hard-boiled eggs should be. A large, rough chop will result in a chunky sandwich. A small, precise dice will make your egg salad more of a spread than a filling. Ultimately, it's completely up to you and your taste buds!
Step 2: Prepare the Dressing
1. Dice the vegetables.eHow.com: How to Dice Vegetables
  - Though your eggs can be any size you like, it's best if the celery, onion and other vegetables are diced. This is egg salad, after all.
  - Make sure to clean the vegetables before cutting!About.com: Wash Fruits and Vegetables
2. Mix the mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice with the diced vegetables.
  - It's best to mix up your dressing in the bowl you'll be mixing your egg salad in. Get a bowl big enough to work in. Trying to mix up egg salad in a small bowl is difficult, and you'll probably end up spilling or knocking food out of the bowl.
3. Once the wet ingredients and vegetables are completely mixed, add the herbs, salt and pepper to taste.
Step 3: Mix Together
- Dump your eggs into the bowl in which you prepared the dressing. Using a large spoon, carefully mix the eggs and dressing together. Be gentle with your mixing, and try to use more of a folding technique.About.com: Fold Batter If you mix it vigorously, as you would a cake batter, your eggs will fall apart and the mixture will resemble a thick spread. (Of course, mix away if you're aiming for an egg salad spread!)
Step 4: Serve
- Your egg salad is ready to serve! There are countless ways to eat egg salad.
1. Spread your egg salad on a crusty bread with your favorite sandwich toppings, and enjoy it as a sandwich.
2. If you're low-carbing, have your egg salad on a bed of lettuce.
3. Dig in with a spoon!
Variations
- The method above with give you a classic egg salad, just like the one you remember from your childhood. However, egg salad is an extremely versatile dish. Try these variations:
1. Use bell peppers instead of celery and onion for a sweet crunch.
2. Add curry or chili powder (or, if you're daring, both!) for a spicy, creamy salad.
3. A classic variation is egg salad with sweet pickle relish mixed in.Epicurious.com: Egg Salad with Sweet Pickles and Celery
4. Try egg salad with smoked salmon for your next brunch.Food Network: Smoke Salmon and Egg Salad Tartines
Conclusion
- Egg salad is simple to make, and you likely have all the ingredients handy already! Try it next time you're entertaining; it's pleasing to people on all types of diets and budget-friendly. It's always smart to have a recipe as versatile and as delicious as egg salad in your culinary repertoire.