The Easy (And Economical) Swap For Impossibly Creamy Egg Salad

Egg salad is the perfect quick lunch recipe or simple weeknight dinner. It's loaded with protein and can make its way onto anything from an egg salad sandwich to a bed of greens or even in a pasta salad. In its simplest form, it's just hard-boiled eggs that have been chopped up and tossed with mayonnaise. But plenty of other ingredients — such as seasonings, veggies, or even a little bacon — are often added to enhance the flavors of this dish. 

If you're looking for the creamiest recipe, you won't get it by just chopping up plain old hard-boiled eggs. Rather, take those day-old deviled eggs that you were debating throwing out, and use them in your dish instead. The inside of a hard-boiled egg is full of solid yolk, but with deviled eggs, that crumbly yolk has already been tamed with mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, or sour cream. The inside becomes smooth and soft, so chopping these up for egg salad just makes sense.

Leftover deviled eggs will last up to four days if they're properly refrigerated. While you might grab one or two for a snack, if you don't want to choke them down just to avoid waste, simply turn them into something different. Chop up the deviled eggs as you normally would for hard-boiled eggs, then add any additional ingredients as desired. A little bit of mayonnaise paired with some plain Greek yogurt creates a rich, tangy cream base to build on those already-creamy deviled eggs, which is what makes this egg salad upgrade so much better in the first place.

The deviled egg mixture has likely already been seasoned, but you could enhance the egg salad with a touch of hot sauce, some chopped chives, or even a little red onion. For a low-carb lunch, serve it on lettuce wraps, but it also tastes delicious between two slices of lightly toasted potato bread.

Since deviled eggs only last up to four days in the refrigerator, it's safe to say that your egg salad won't last any longer than that. But to keep it fresh for that full four days, make sure you store it the best way possible: constantly refrigerated in an airtight container. Never leave your egg salad out at room temperature for more than two hours, which is also known as the "danger zone" where food starts to rapidly grow bacteria.

From a food safety standpoint, you can technically freeze egg salad. However, the mayonnaise in the mixture won't do well since it separates when defrosted. So, while the egg salad would be safe to eat, you'll need to adjust your expectations in terms of appearance because the egg and oil will split. If you do plan to freeze egg salad, you should store it in a freezer-safe container where no moisture can get in, and eat it within about two months for optimum freshness.