Oh Egg Salad! I can’t say that I have fond memories of you. From bland dollops of pale white salad piled on bread to days-old deli style egg salad, it is generally not my favorite thing. But this Spicy Avocado Egg Salad is punched up with crunchy veggies, chile pepper heat, and creamy avocados (less mayo!)
I think if you used two really ripe avocados instead of one you could probably skip the mayo entirely, but personally I like the super-creamy mayo element.
I’m getting ahead of myself though. First, of course, we need to cook eggs for Avocado Egg Salad!
How to Cook Hard-Boiled Eggs
I’ve never totally understood what the fuss is about cooking hard-boiled eggs. I just toss my eggs in a pot and cover them with water. Bring the water to a boil, then remove them from the heat, cover them, and let them sit for 12-13 minutes.
I’ll admit that this might not be the absolute perfect way to cook hard-boiled eggs, but it’s very adequate for egg salad and also very easy. I’ll leave the hardcore testing to Kenji.
Prepping the Avocado Egg Salad
So you have two options when it comes to the avocado. If you want a creamier salad, find very ripe avocados that will almost mash into a guacamole egg salad situation.
My preference is to find an avocado that is ripe, but not completely mushy. It gives, but doesn’t fold. Then I dice it really small so the final egg salad has some chunks in it.
To start the salad mixture, add your diced (or mashed) avocado with the hot sauce, red pepper flakes, and salt. I like to add some traditional egg salad crunchy veg – celery and scallion – as well.
Once the eggs are cooked and cooled (I drain my pot and fill it with cold water to rapidly cool them), then peel the eggs starting at the fat end for easier peeling.
Dice up the eggs and fold them into the salad mix. Easy enough!
I was kind of hoping for a brighter green color on the salad, but I sabotaged the color with all the hot sauce I added.
I regret nothing!
How to Serve the Avocado Egg Salad
There are two standard serving cases. First, pile it on greens for a healthy and hearty salad. Second, pile it on toast for an open-faced sandwich situation. Either way I like to use arugula which adds some peppery bite to the salad.
Leave a comment if you have other good egg salad uses!
Avocado Egg Salad doesn’t keep particularly well in my experience. The avocado browns quickly and the eggs get a bit funky after 2 days. Enjoy it quickly!
Spicy Avocado Egg Salad
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 1 scallion, diced
- ¼ cup mayo
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ – 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- Arugula for serving
Instructions
- Cook eggs by adding them to a pot and covering them with cold water. Make sure the water covers the eggs by a few inches. Place over high heat until the water boils. Then remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes. Drain water and add cold water to the pot to cool the eggs.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, add diced avocado, celery, scallion, mayo, red pepper flakes, hot sauce, and salt. Stir together.
- When eggs are cooled, peel them starting at the fat end for easier peeling. Then roughly chop eggs and add them to the avocado mixture.
- Stir together and season to your liking with salt and pepper.
- Serve egg salad over arugula for a salad or on toast for a sandwich!
- Leftover egg salad keeps well in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Mary A
Decided to try this while staying in the house social distancing as the refrigerator is getting barer and barer. It is really good. Great texture and not the usual bland egg salad!