This is our favorite way to make egg salad! This simplified recipe calls for mayonnaise, celery, fresh herbs and lemon juice. Jump to the Simple Egg Salad Recipe or read on to see our tips for making it.
More popular egg recipes: Try our avocado egg salad, these 5-star scrambled eggs or see how to make perfect hard boiled eggs.
How to Make the Best Egg Salad
You will need hard boiled eggs for this egg salad. For 1 cup of salad, you will need 4 hard boiled eggs. You can buy hard boiled eggs at some grocery stores, but they are really easy to do at home. We shared our no-fail method for cooking hard boiled eggs a while ago and more recently have shared how to cook them using a pressure cooker (like an Instant Pot).
Once you have hard boiled eggs, this egg salad only takes 5 minutes to make. We add the following ingredients:
- Mayonnaise for moisture. For a mayo-free version, try adding natural or Greek yogurt or swap some or all of the mayonnaise for mashed avocado like we do in our avocado egg salad. When we have it on hand, we love using homemade mayonnaise, here’s our easy recipe.
- Celery for crunch. We love a little crunch in our egg salad, but have also added chopped onions and sometimes, dill pickles. We use the same crunchy ingredients when making tuna salad.
- Fresh herbs for flavor. My personal favorite is fresh chives, but parsley and tarragon are also delicious options.
- Fresh lemon juice for pop. A squeeze of fresh lemon adds such a lovely pop of flavor. It also cuts through the richness of the egg and mayonnaise.
- Salt and ground pepper to taste. A pinch of salt and pepper goes a long way when it comes to making the egg salad taste good.
Making egg salad ahead of time
Egg salad is perfect for a quick, healthy breakfast or lunch. I love adding it to a slice of toasted multi-grain bread or spooning it over salad greens. Egg salad is best eaten within 2 days of making it. We recommend using food-safe glass containers to store egg salad.
You can make hard boiled eggs and store them in the refrigerator up to a week. Once you have made hard boiled eggs, remove them from the water and plunge into cold water to stop them from cooking. Then remove the eggs from the cold water and pat dry. Store the unpeeled eggs in your refrigerator up to one week.
More: If you love egg salad, try this mashed vegetarian chickpea salad.
Recipe updated, originally posted June 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Egg Salad
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This is our favorite way to make egg salad! This simplified recipe calls for mayonnaise, celery, fresh herbs and lemon juice.
You Will Need
4 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise or substitute plain or Greek yogurt, try our homemade mayonnaise
1 medium-length celery stalk, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives, parsley or dill
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Stir eggs, mayonnaise, celery, chives and lemon juice in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
2Egg salad is best eaten within 2 days of making it. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- To make hard-cooked (hard-boiled) eggs, in a saucepan, cover eggs with 1 inch of cold water, bring to a boil then immediately remove from heat and cover with lid. Let eggs stand, covered in the hot water for 12 minutes. Then plunge eggs into ice cold water to stop the cooking. A full tutorial with photographs can be found here: How to Cook Hard Boiled Eggs.
- Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. We assumed mayonnaise and did not include any bread.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
There is nothing like Mayo, celery, onion and just a smidge of horseradish salt and fresh cracked pepper.
YUM!! I’m definitely going to add dill pickles. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so very much for your amazing mayo recipe… I just made three batches, one for my two daughters and one for me. I cant have soy bean oil of any kind. Your home made mayo is quick and easy…taste great! Can’t wait to make this egg salad with your mayo..I am sure it will be outstanding. 🙂
Has anyone tried the mayonnaise made from olive oil? I just bought some but have not opened it.
Nothing beats Hellmans Original Mayonnaise!!!
I’ve tried the olive oil kind, but it doesn’t beat the original.
Sounds very good
I add cucumber salad dressing instead of mayonnaise, very tasty and fewer calories
that cucumber salad dressing sounds great! I have never noticed it but will look for it now. What a great idea to cut calories, and I’m sure it tastes great! Thanks for the tip!! ?
Delishhhhhhh
Sometimes I add a little chopped olive.
Thanks for the tip about the lemon!
I think 2 tbsp. of mayo is not enough. Use 4
I definitely can’t do egg salad without mayo, mustard, celery, and minced red onion. Top with a dash of salt and cayenne.. Delish!
I add a little grated onion and sliced green olives. I like to top an opened tomato with the egg salad. Delish!