A Taste of Down-Home Comfort

This easy southern egg salad recipe is delicious, flexible, and so easy to make for a quick lunch, snack, or party appetizer. It’s also budget-friendly! This is a classic egg salad, so you can make it as-is in this recipe or include some of your favorite add-ons.

If you want to print the recipe, you’ll find a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Easy Egg Salad Recipe

The thing about the way I do it is that you can make the basic easy egg salad recipe and add other ingredients to make it your own. If you’re not sure you’ll like something, test it on a small amount of the egg salad. Just don’t be afraid to try something new.

Ingredients

The list of ingredients I have below are flexible. Take away anything you don’t care for and add more of what you like. Here are the items I use in my egg salad:

• 6 large hardboiled eggs
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (sweet or red onion)
• Salt and black pepper to taste (fresh ground pepper is best)
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika for garnish (regular or smoky)

How to Make Egg Salad

I’ve learned the hard way to gather all of my ingredients before I begin a recipe. Otherwise, I might discover that I’m out of something essential to the recipe. So do that before you start. First, cool your boiled eggs. I “boil” mine in an air fryer, which is super easy, and they’re easier to peel. In fact, I wind up with perfect hard boiled eggs when I use this method. See more about this farther down in the post.

There are so many different ways to cook eggs, including in my Instant Pot as well as the traditional way on the stovetop. Or if you have an egg cooker, that’s even better.

After you cool and peel the eggs, chop them up. I normally do this with a fork or knife … or both. If you don’t have the patience to use a fork or knife, place eggs in a bowl and use a potato masher. That makes the process go very quickly. Regardless of how you choose to chop your eggs, it’s still a delicious recipe.

After the eggs are chopped, put them in a medium-size bowl. Make sure the bowl is big enough to hold the eggs and all of the remaining ingredients. Now, add the chopped celery, chopped onion, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper, and optional paprika. If you’re not sure how much salt to add, just sprinkle a little bit into the mixture. Taste it before you add more.

You don’t have to add paprika. However, it sure does make the egg salad look prettier. I love colorful food, so I go through a lot of paprika and other colorful spices. Finally, give the ingredients a good stir. Make sure it’s well mixed so the flavors can blend like they’re supposed to.

Cover and refrigerate the bowl of egg salad until you’re ready to serve it. This is one dish that needs to be served cold.

Different Ways to Make Egg Salad

You can also make this egg salad recipe without mayo if you want. However, if you don’t want it too dry, you’ll need to add something else, such as more mustard or even cream cheese. By the same token, there’s nothing wrong with making this egg salad recipe without mustard. The result will be creamier and less tangy. I’ve run out of mustard and made it this way before, and it’s delicious.

If you want extra tangy flavor, use dijon mustard. The seasonings in dijon add a distinct flavor. So if you’re not sure about it, try just a little bit before adding it to the whole batch. Another thing you can do is replace some or all of the mayonnaise with Greek yogurt for a protein boost.

For those who like a little bit of sweetness, make your egg salad recipe with sweet pickle relish. I alternate between adding sweet relish and adding onions. If you like crunch, toss in a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans.

More ingredients to add to your egg salad:

• Green onions
• Lemon juice
• Pinch of sugar
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Fresh or dried dill weed
• Cinnamon
• Cayenne pepper
• Your favorite hot sauce
• Your favorite fresh herbs
• Chopped nuts
• Dill pickles

Most of the time, I make the classic egg salad recipe without any add-ons. However, I often want something extra, so I make a spicy egg salad by adding a couple of the ingredients listed above.

Experiment and try different things from your spice cabinet. You never know when you’ll discover your new favorite way of enjoying this delicious treat. The best way to make this easy recipe is by adding the ingredients you know you’ll like.

How Long Does Egg Salad Last?

Egg salad is fine at room temperature for 2 hours. Any time beyond that, you risk having it go bad. If you’re not able to eat all of the salad on the day you make it, put it in an airtight container and put it in the refrigerator. Store it properly in plastic wrap or a sealed container, and the egg salad should be good for several days. 

I’ve eaten it two days later, and it’s still good. But that’s only happened once because we typically finish it within a day. You can also freeze egg salad. Follow these directions here for the best results: How to Freeze Egg Salad.

What to Serve with Egg Salad

You don’t have to serve anything with egg salad because it’s delicious all by itself. However, there are some delicious additions that will elevate the meal. And they’re all easy!

You can enjoy this salad all by itself or serve other delicious foods on the side. I also like to tuck a leaf of lettuce and slice of tomato into a sandwich to add texture and even more delicious flavor.

There are so many different things you can serve with it, whether you enjoy it in a salad, as a wrap, or in sandwich form. Here are some wonderful soups to serve with egg salad:

Creamy Homemade Tomato Soup – This colorful soup is delicious and comforting! You won’t believe how easy it is to make!

Homemade Bean Soup – Filling and absolutely yummy, this homemade bean soup is filling and oh-so satisfying.

Lentil Soup – Packed with protein and lots of deliciousness, your family will want you to make this often. I like to keep at least a couple of containers of lentil soup in the freezer.

Butternut Squash Soup – Serve this elegant but down-to-earth soup with anything else, and you’ll impress everyone at the table.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus – After all, who doesn’t like bacon wrapped anything? Plus the asparagus adds color, texture, nutrition, and flavor to the meal.

Air Fried Sweet Potatoes – These fried sweet potatoes are super tasty, and they’re packed with lots of vitamins.

Zucchini Parmesan Chips – The crunch from these zucchini chips adds a delicious balance to the creaminess of the egg salad. If you want to add your egg salad to an all-salad meal, here are some you might want to try:

Watermelon Cucumber Salad – When you need something refreshing yet nutritious, serve this flavorful salad.

Tomato Cucumber Corn Salad – There’s a lot of nutrition to go with the wonderful flavor in this one!

Easy Chickpea Salad – Enjoy this salad with any meal, and you can rest assured that you’re getting a hefty dose of nutrients along with great flavor.

More Southern Recipes

If you like southern-style cooking, you’ll probably enjoy this delicious potato salad. It’s my mother’s recipe, and I guarantee it’ll be a hit. When she brought it to gatherings, it was one of the first things to disappear.

Another southern-style food is this pimento cheese. We usually eat it on sandwiches, but you can also stuff celery with it. Mmm, so delicious!

If you like my egg salad recipe, then you should try this ham salad from Julia’s Simply Southern blog. Julia has quite a few delicious recipes that are so delicious.

Something else we enjoy here in the South is cornbread. In fact, I have several ways of cooking it and taking it from being crumbly to being moist. I actually like the traditional southern-style cornbread, but my husband prefers the moist version of it.

Some southerners only eat these black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. However, most of us appreciate them year round. They’re really good with whatever type of cornbread you like.

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