This Deli Egg Salad is an easy and delicious 3-ingredient, dairy-free recipe just like the one served in New York Delis!
Deli Egg Salad is perfect for a light meal. Have it in a sandwich on bread, a bagel, or a roll. Mix in with pasta. Add to a leafy salad. Have it as a side. It’s great anyway you like it!
Love deli? Try these!
- Broccoli Salad
- Olivier Salad
- Sweet Deli Cole Slaw
- Israeli Red Cabbage Salad
- Deli Tuna and Egg Salad
- Deli Tuna Salad
- Basic Potato Salad
Love eggs? Try Dairy-Free Scrambled Eggs, Easy Deviled Eggs, or Classic Israeli Shakshuka.
General information regarding cooking:
The following information may not particularly pertain to this recipe but rather answers general useful questions related to cooking.
What are the different oils used in cooking?
“High-heat” oils have neutral flavors and have been processed in order to handle high temperatures and are good for sautéing, searing, and frying. These include canola oil, vegetable oil, avocado oil, and grapeseed oil, each with its own “best for” with chefs.
Some oils have their own flavor and are good for sautéing and roasting and add a little extra to the dish. These include extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and peanut oil. Extra virgin olive oil works well with roasting or sautéing, but not for deep frying.
Coconut oil is good in dishes where a slightly coconut flavor enhances the dish, and peanut oil is good for deep frying and will add a subtle nutty taste and smell. Many Asian dishes call for peanut oil in the ingredients.
Then there are oils that are not used with heat but rather for dressing up foods, such as sesame oil, flaxseed oil, and walnut oil, among others.
What does it mean when recipes say “to taste” about an ingredient?
When recipes say “to taste,” it means that you can put in as little or as much as you like to your own taste. Some recipes have many ingredients that a cook can adjust to their own taste when cooking (not so much when baking though).
The best way to calculate what your taste is with a recipe that you are not yet familiar with is to first taste the dish and then add the “to taste” ingredient GRADUALLY, a little at a time—a splash of this or a pinch of that—until the dish is just the way you like it. Make sure to stir the ingredient after each time you add it so that the flavor will distribute evenly and become part of the dish. Then taste again. Repeat until you reach your personal preference.
Note: If you plan on using the recipe again, it is highly recommended to make a note of what and how much you added so that you can refer to it next time.
What does it mean when a recipe says that an ingredient is “optional”?
If an ingredient is “optional,” it means that you can add it in or not based on your own preference. An optional ingredient can be flavor related (i.e., salty, sweet, spicy, etc.), appearance related (garnish), or even something like nuts or chocolate chips in baking.
What does “savory” mean?
“Savory” refers to foods that are not sweet, such as foods that taste salty, spicy, or herbal.
What cooking measurement expressions mean:
Drop – ¹/₆₄ teaspoon (or less—it’s however a literal drop comes out)
Smidgen – ¹/₃₂ teaspoon
Pinch – ¹⁄₁₆ teaspoon (what you can grab between your finger and thumb)
Dash – ⅛ teaspoon (what comes out when you shake out of a shaker or bottle)
Tad – ¼ teaspoon
Dollop—a glob on a spoon (like with mayonnaise or ice cream)
Scant—a scant cup is almost a cup, just below the line.
Heaping—above the line of the spoon (teaspoon, tablespoon)*
Some useful cooking terms:
Sauté: Cooking quickly in a small amount of oil or fat in a frying pan on a relatively high heat that causes a slight browning of the food on the outside.
Sear: Browning the outside of meat at a high temperature.
Sweat: Cooking vegetables (often onions) in a little oil or fat on a low heat until they become soft and translucent (no browning).
Simmer: Heating liquid to just below the boiling point (has slow bubbles).
Boil: Cooking food submerged in water hot enough to have rapid, rolling bubbles.
Poach: Cooking in a liquid, or partially submerged, on low heat.
Roast: Cooking with consistent dry heat in an enclosed space, over 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bake: Cooking with dry heat in an enclosed space, under 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Broil: Cooking with intense heat from above.
Grill: Cooking with heat from below, typically over a flame or coals.
Braise: Cooking already-seared meat in a small amount of liquid in a covered pot.
Blanch: Quickly submerging food into boiling water and then immediately into ice water to stop the cooking.
Steam: Cooking with vapor from hot simmering water from below.
Shred: Creating long, thin strips (not necessarily uniform) of vegetables, like in coleslaw.
Grate: Scraping food against a surface with rough, tiny holes that break it down into very small, fine pieces.
Zest: The scrapings of the colorful outer skin of a citrus fruit.
Mince: Cutting into the smallest pieces possible.
Dice: Cutting into small cubes.
Chop: Cutting into small (bite-size) pieces.
Julienne: Cutting into long, thin strips (like matchsticks).
Glaze: a thin liquid with high-sugar or high-fat coating applied to food or baked goods that gives a shiny look and adds flavor.
Fold in: To gently combine a light ingredient into a heavier one.
Al dente: Cooking rice or pasta to the point before it gets soft (is slightly firm).
Emulsify: Forcing two liquids together that don’t normally combine (like oil and vinegar) into a smooth sauce or dressing.
Deglaze: Adding a liquid to a hot pan after searing meat to loosen the browned bits (called fond) that got stuck.
Slurry: A mixture of liquid and dry starch, such as cornstarch or potato starch, into a paste that is used to thicken sauces and soups. One can use flour to make a slurry as well.
Roux: (pronounced “roo”) is a cooked mixture of fat and flour.
Considering my lack of patience with cooking and, often, my lack of time, I love simple recipes like this one. It is quick and simple-to-make. It is great for kids and adults alike. It takes little effort and everyone loves it.
The hard-boiled eggs in this recipe can be diced or mashed, as one prefers.
To make things more interesting, one can add pretty much anything from celery to peppers to onions, fried or fresh.
Easy Deli-Style Egg Salad can be made in no time and eaten as a snack, as a side, or in a sandwich. It’s great on rye bread, white bread, in a roll, in a pita, in a bagel…you name it.
Also, you can add a variety of flavors to your basic egg salad. Mix in onions, chives, olives… Also, you can spice it up with garlic or onion powder, paprika, pepper flakes, or any of your favorite spices.
Go crazy and enjoy!
A little about eggs
For many years eggs were considered a source of high cholesterol and a possible cause of heart disease, and people were warned against them and recommended to have only a few per week in their diets.
It is true that one large egg yolk has 200 mg of cholesterol. However, the additional nutrients that eggs contain may actually help LOWER the risk of heart disease by raising the “good” cholesterol in one’s body.
Eggs are high in protein and filling but low in calories. They have nutritional value and contain a large variety of vitamins as well as some antioxidants.
The color of the yolk depends on the diet of the hen, and different types of chickens may lay different colored eggs; white or brownish.
Egg white consists primarily of approximately 90 percent water and contains almost no fat or carbohydrates.
The yolk of a new egg is firm, but then it absorbs water from the egg white, which causes it to increase in size and become loose.
You may be surprised to know that raw egg white is sometimes used in the preparation of vaccines.
Many people believe that since eggs are found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, and very frequently near the dairy section, they are also dairy.
Nonetheless, eggs are NOT DAIRY. You CANNOT milk a chicken!
So, whip up some Deli Egg Salad and enjoy!
Deli Egg Salad
Delicious and easy, deli-style egg salad.
Ingredients
Base for egg salad*
- 12 hard boiled eggs
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise**
Add-ins
- 1/4 cup celery, if desired
- 1/4 cup white or green onions, as desired
- 1 tablespoon mustard or to taste (optional for tang)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mash or dice eggs into a bowl.
- Add mayonnaise and mix well
- Add any or all of the add-ins and mix well.
Notes
*You can leave the egg salad with only the 2-ingredient base or you can add the rest of the ingredients, as desired.
**The best mayonnaise to use is Best Foods or Hellman's (they are the same, just with different names depending on where you live in the US).
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 255Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 379mgSodium: 371mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 1gSugar: 1gProtein: 13g