Give Egg Salad A Gourmet Umami Bite By Adding In One Canned Vegetable

Egg salad is many things — it's creamy, full of protein, and relatively easy to make. But let's be honest, it can also be a little repetitive, especially if you have been following the same basic recipe for years. The fix, however, could be sitting in your pantry right now. While some egg salads keep it simple with just three ingredients, adding some olives is an easy way to give this classic lunch a more grown-up twist. By chopping olives into small pieces and folding them through the mixture, you can get a much more salty and briny punch that makes the whole thing taste way more interesting.

While technically a fruit, olives are often treated as a canned vegetable in cooking because of their rich and savory flavor. And that flavor works really well to break up a dish like egg salad, something that is generally mild and creamy, whilst also adding little bursts of texture to interrupt up the softness of the boiled eggs too. Green olives are a good choice — they have a sharper, more pronounced tang — but black olives work if you want something a little milder and softer. And then there are Kalamata olives, which have a deep, fruity flavor, or even pimento-stuffed green olives, which can bring a little sweetness into the mix. It really comes down to personal taste. 

The best and easiest practice here is to just follow your usual egg salad recipe, then simply add about 2 tablespoons of chopped olives for every four hard-boiled eggs. It's important to ensure the olives are well drained before you chop them, as their brine can easily make the mixture too salty or watery. And if you find that you're working with particularly salty olives, you can give them a quick rinse and dry before adding them to get rid of some of their brine. As olives have plenty of their own seasoning, give the final mixture a taste before you add any extra seasoning like salt or mustard.

There are plenty of other ingredients that belong in your next egg salad that go well with olives — you can create a little contrast to the salty olives by adding fresh ingredients like finely diced celery, chopped chives, dill, or oregano, or give it a good squeeze of lemon juice to brighten the whole thing up. Or go the opposite way and double down on the saltiness by throwing a scattering of capers or pickles into the mixture before serving. Eat it on soft bread for a classic sandwich, double up on bread and add tomatoes to turn it into an egg salad club sandwich with an olive twist, or outside of sandwiches, you can also enjoy this as a dip served with chips, crackers, or vegetable sticks.