Bring the taste of a deli egg salad home with this simple Zesty Egg Salad recipe. Egg salad can be made in so many different ways but its basic ingredients are hard-boiled eggs, herbs, and mayo.
This Zesty Egg Salad recipe adds watercress and lemon to punch up the flavor. It makes for a delicious sandwich but you can also spread it on a cracker or eat it straight from the bowl. The possibilities are endless. For a sandwich, it’s surprisingly light and refreshing. Maybe that’s because it’s a healthier alternative to cold cuts with nitrates that aren’t the best for you.
Egg salad is great to pack for a beach day or a picnic. It’s a good vegetarian sandwich option for your friends who don’t eat meat. This Zesty Egg Salad recipe makes about six servings. But, if you like to pile it onto your sandwiches (like me), it’ll yield about four sandwiches.
Boiling Your Eggs
To achieve the perfect hard boil, boil your eggs for 10 minutes. For a jammier (not as firm) egg, boil your eggs for only eight minutes. The jammier the egg, the less mayo you’ll need to add to your egg salad. If you cook your egg for under eight minutes, it will be too runny to use.
The Mayo
This recipe calls for 1/4 of a cup of mayo but you can always add more. The amount of mayo is up to your taste and the consistency you want. I personally prefer a chunky egg salad so I go light on the mayo. Add your mayo to your yolks then see if it needs more mayo once you add in the egg whites.
If you have the time, make this easy homemade mayo recipe with an immersion blender. Making mayo at home is easier than you think and you probably already have all the ingredients at home.
Why Watercress?
The secret ingredient to this Zesty Egg Salad recipe is watercress. Watercress adds a peppery taste and bright green color to the egg salad. It’s technically not an herb; it’s a leafy green in the cabbage family. You can find watercress in a bunch or a bag. It’s usually packaged like spinach. As a substitute, you can use an herb like parsley and add more white pepper to achieve the same peppery flavor.
Zesty Egg Salad
Ingredients
- 12 eggs
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1/4 cup watercress chopped
- black pepper
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. While the water boils, prepare an ice bath in a bowl for your eggs.
- Boil 12 eggs for 10 minutes. While they boil, chop up the leaves of a bunch of watercress until you have 1/4 cup.
- After 10 minutes, immediately transfer your eggs to the ice bath to stop the eggs from overcooking.
- Peel your hard-boiled eggs.
- Cut the eggs in half and separate the yolks from the whites.
- Roughly chop up the egg whites and add all the yolks into a large bowl.
- Add 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp white pepper, and 1/4 cup mayonnaise to the same bowl and mix together.
- Mix until everything is combined, leaving you with a yellow yolk paste.
- Add in the roughly chopped egg whites and mix to combine.
- Add 1/4 cup watercress, the juice of 1/2 lemon, and 10 good cranks of black pepper.
- Mix everything to combine and taste to see if it needs any additional seasoning. You may want to add more mayo if you prefer a creamier consistency.
- Serve on toast, in a sandwich, or with crackers.
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