Zippy Egg Salad
By Catherine Newman
3 (½-cup) servings or 2 (3/4-cup) servings
Total carbohydrates: 1-2 grams per serving
Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Homemade egg salad is a wonderful treat – which is kind of amazing, considering how easy, cheap, and full of nutrients it is. If you’re not in the habit of making it yourself, give it a try. Just be sure to season the salad vigorously, and not to cook the eggs too long. Over-boiled eggs, especially ones that aren’t cooled quickly after cooking, risk developing the kind of chalky, green-ringed yolk that makes people think they don’t like eggs. And they’re wrong! They love eggs! They just don’t know it yet.
Ingredients
4 eggs
1/3 cup mayonnaise (Hellman’s or Best Foods)
1 tablespoon brine from the caper jar (or 2 teaspoons white vinegar, if you’re not using capers)
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon finely chopped dill
2 stalks celery, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Put the eggs in a medium-sized pot and cover them with cold water. Cover the pot, put it on the stove, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Turn the heat off immediately and leave the eggs in water. After exactly 9 minutes, drain the eggs and run cold water over them until they’re cool enough to handle, then peel and chop them, making them as coarse or fine as you like. (You can mash them with a fork if you prefer.)
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Meanwhile, whisk together the mayo, caper brine or vinegar, and dill. Stir in the eggs and celery, add a grinding of black pepper, and then taste the egg salad. If it needs more zip – either salt or tang – add salt and/or more caper brine or vinegar.
About Catherine
Catherine loves to write about food and feeding people. In addition to her recipe and parenting blog Ben & Birdy (which has about 15,000 weekly readers), she edits the ChopChop series of mission-driven cooking magazines. This kids’ cooking magazine won the James Beard Publication of the Year award in 2013 – the first non-profit ever to win it – and a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Last year they started the WIC version of the magazine for families enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and are currently developing Seasoned, their senior version, commissioned by the AARP. They distribute over a million magazines annually, through paid subscriptions, doctor’s offices, schools, and hospitals. Their mission started with obesity as its explicit focus – and has shifted, over the years, to a more holistic one, with health and happiness at its core. That’s the same vibe Catherine brings to the diaTribe column.
[Photo Credit: Catherine Newman]
