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Why It Works
- Smashing the peeled hard-boiled eggs through a wire rack or with a whisk quickly and easily produces an ideal egg salad texture.
- A touch of crème fraîche, fresh dill, and quick-pickled red onions create a flavorful and bright egg salad that is perfect for spring (or any other time of year, honestly).
Egg salad is one of those standbys that, while reliable, can often come across as ho-hum. It’s filling, it’s tasty, but it’s also just…egg salad. What’s funny though is that egg salad is really just a blank canvas waiting to be played with, as perfectly suited to flavor variations as deviled eggs. In truth, there’s not much difference between the two—egg salad is basically just a deviled egg that’s been smashed up. It’s easy to have fun with deviled eggs, so let’s take that same attitude to our egg salads.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Proof of point: I recently developed a recipe for herby deviled eggs that were meant to evoke the flavors of spring. They had fresh tarragon mixed into the yolky filling, bright and punchy bits of quick-pickled red onion, some Dijon, and a spoonful of crème fraîche to enhance the creaminess and brightness on top of the requisite mayo. You can consider this spring-themed egg salad an alternate vision of that same idea. Instead of tarragon, I call for dill here (but hopefully you have sussed out that the herbs are very flexible). Everything else is the same from the mayo to the crème fraîche to the pickled onion and Dijon.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
The result is bright and fresh, and perfect for these wonderful spring days when the magnolias explode, the daffodils and tulips rise from the earth, and the whole world feels like a pastel dreamscape (well, technically, quite a bit less than half the whole world, since this kind of spring is only happening well above the Equator right now). Then again, this egg salad would be delicious any time of year. There’s no reason to limit it, nor to limit other variation ideas that may come to you in a moment of seasonal inspiration.
(Note, as with my deviled eggs recipe, this one can be made with mayo alone and no crème fraîche; it’ll be a little less light and creamy, and may benefit from a touch more acid from the onion pickling liquid, but otherwise it’ll still be great.)
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Light, Bright, and Fresh: An Egg Salad Revamped for Spring
Cook Mode
(Keep screen awake)
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6 hard-boiled large eggs, chilled and peeled
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3 tablespoons (45 g) mayonnaise
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1 tablespoon (15 g) crème fraîche (see notes)
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2 teaspoons (10 g) Dijon mustard
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2 tablespoons fresh dill
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1 tablespoon finely minced quick-pickled red onion plus 1 teaspoon (5 g) pickling liquid
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Kosher salt
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Sandwich bread and toppings (such as fresh lettuces), for serving
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Set a wire rack over a medium mixing bowl and press the eggs through it. (Alternatively, smash the eggs with a whisk in the bowl until whites are broken into small, chunky pieces).
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
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Add mayonnaise, crème fraîche, Dijon, dill, and minced pickled onion and pickling liquid. Stir until a creamy egg salad forms. Season with salt. Serve as sandwiches with lettuce, or as desired.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Notes
If you don’t have crème fraîche, you can replace it with an additional 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise; if so, you may want to add a touch more of the pickling liquid for brightness to taste.
Special Equipment
Wire rack or whisk
Make-Ahead and Storage
The egg salad can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
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