As much as I love eggs, I never make egg salad. I guess it just always seemed a little too heavy, ooey, and gooey.
This egg salad, on the other hand, is light, fresh, and summery! The combination of lemon juice and fresh herbs provides tang and a light herbal flavor to contrast the rich eggs and mayonnaise based dressing.
I used thyme because I recently planted some fresh herbs and have been eager to use them. You can use fresh or dried and I actually used a combination of both (because mine are still quite young and I didn’t want to use it *all*). If you’re not into thyme, you can also try parsley or dill instead. Both will go well with lemon. I suggest fresh parsley if at all possible, but either dry or fresh dill will do.
For an extra lemony punch, use fresh lemon juice and try grating a little of the zest into the dressing. For extra crunch, try adding some chopped up red onion, green onion, celery, or even cucumber.
Lemon Herb Egg Salad
Servings 4Ingredients
- 8 large hard boiled eggs ($1.37)
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise ($0.44)
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice ($0.09)
- 1 Tbsp dijon mustard ($0.11)
- 1-1 1/2 tsp fresh or dried herbs ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 10-15 cranks fresh cracked pepper ($0.03)
Instructions
- Peel the hard boiled eggs and then roughly chop into half inch chunks. For instructions on how to perfectly hard boil eggs (including photos), click here.
- In a medium bowl, prepare the dressing by combining the mayonnaise, lemon juice, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. Stir until mixed. Chop the herbs roughly and then add to the dressing. Begin with about one teaspoon, taste and then add more if desired. The herbal flavor will become more pronounced after refrigeration.
- Stir the chopped eggs into the dressing. Either refrigerate until ready to serve or serve immediately. Serve on a sandwich, over a bed of lettuce, or with your favorite crackers.
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Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
Hard boiling eggs without ending up with a green yolk can be tricky. Check out our tutorial on how to hard boil eggs. This recipe uses 8 eggs, but could easily be scaled up to include a whole dozen. None of the ingredient quantities are set in stone and you could probably eye-ball measure most of them!
The dressing is basically mayo, dijon, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. (That’s the dijon there under all of the pepper). If you have a fresh lemon, I highly recommend using it and some of the zest (I didn’t, but it was still delish). I used light mayo and it was also still great… but I can only vouch for Hellman’s. All other brands of light mayo that I’ve tried are just not worthy of the name “mayonnaise.”
I used some fresh thyme from the garden, but I didn’t have a lot so I also used some dried. If using all dry herbs, use about 1 tsp. If using fresh, use about 1.5 or 2. Or, just add them to taste. Chop the herbs slightly to allow the flavorful oils to infuse into the dressing.
Stir it all up, give it a taste, and adjust the herbs to your liking. I used thyme, but dill, or parsley would be great alternatives. (I think this picture is before I added the herbs, but it looks pretty much the same after).
Lastly, stir in the chopped eggs. You can refrigerate the egg salad for a while to allow the flavors to blend and intensify, or serve immediately (if you just can’t wait, like me).
Egg salad is great as a sandwich, but you could also scoop it up with some crunchy whole grain crackers, or even just serve it on a bed of spinach. Mmmm, or maybe top an english muffin with it for breakfast? Yes, please!
This recipe was absolutely delicious!! Thanks Beth ๐
I made this yesterday and it is wonderful! Love the lemony hint and fresh thyme in it is perfect. Very easy and fun thanks!
Delicious! :)
Good! Loved the lemon. Definitely a keeper and flexible.
My mother used to dice up celery for the crunch in her egg salad recipe. She’d also use green onion. I do not recall her ever using herbs, but dried mustard was in the recipe. Sadly I forget what else but this one looks absolutely delish! Pinterest worthy indeed.
Love this simple and easy egg salad – the lemon and fresh herbs are a home run – my โgo toโ recipe for egg salad!ย
Now that you mention it, adding lemon juice to egg salad seems obvious. :-) Anyhow, I use your list of ingredients (w/olive oil mayonnaise and dried dill weed for the herb) but just eyeball the ratios, mainly because I thought adhering to the above ratios (which I did the first time around) made it too salty. Thanks for another great idea.ย
I’ve made this twice now, and this last time I used mostly mint & chives with a smaller amount of marjoram and even smaller amount of thyme. I’ve gotta say that the mint adds SUCH a nice touch, it’s perfect. Also, try to use eggs straight from a farm or get them from a friend who raises them. The taste makes all the difference.
Sounds yummy cant wait to make to.morrow.
The Lemon Herb Egg Salad is so freaking good!! Unfortunately, I didn’t have dijon mustard on hand but used honey mustard instead. I added some dried dill. I’m looking forward to have the egg salad for lunch this week. Thank you, Beth!!! :-)
I made this last night and it was delicious! I also used pita bread, which really cut down on the messiness factor. :P I’m going to suggest it for my friend and her kids!
I have had this recipe pinned for a long time and keep thinking about it. Finally, today, I had two eggs already boiled and decided to give it a try. Holy cow was it good!!! Easy to whip up just a small portion of the recipe. Used parsley fresh from my garden with dried dill. The suggestion to add cucumber was perfect! 5 stars as always!
I just successfully made my first lemon herb egg salad and love it, though I could’ve added cucumber and onions, but wasn’t sure if that’s really needed. Too bad I didn’t buy any turkish bread(pita) to go with it.
I want it now!
I’m a fan of egg salad and this recipe is so nice! The addition of lemon makes it light and tangy and not as heavy as other egg salad that I used to make. I added in cucumber and red onions to give it a bit more crunch and add more flavors as I have run out of mustard. Still nice but I would definitely add in mustard for the oomph factor next time!
Chio’s idea of adding bit of onion to this was brilliant.
By itself it’s quite unique, what with lemon juice. I like it, super fresh and thank you Beth for posting a link how to prepare the eggs right :)
Yummy!!! I used dill weed and loved it!
Yummy!! I used dill weed, live it!
nice posting.. thanks for sharing.
Oh, my! this salad must be awesome! I have to check it by myself, i don’t ever do egg salads because I don’t like them, but this lemon taste makes it very likeable!
greetings
Monika
I just finished making it (will dill) and it should last about two lunches! I can’t wait till lunchtime tomorrow~
Fresh herbs are growing and I pick them just prior to using them. Dried herbs are dehydrated and can be purchased at the grocery store in small jars. I used both because I had both on hand, but you can use either one :)
Hello,
I’m not really sure what you mean by “fresh or dried herbs” Which herbs do you use?
Thanks in advance.
Looks great. Since you love eggs, you might like this great collection of “eggy” recipes. Food on Friday Eggs
Back again to write (again) how much I love your blog. It seems like no matter what I’m focusing on in my eating habits (whole foods, or vegetarian, or rice and beans, or low carb) you always have something delicious and frugal for me!
Oh gosh, I am not a big fan of anything that is not a standard prepared egg, not deviled eggs & not egg salad. But because of the tartness of the lemon, I would give this a try.
I remember being on your site for the first time about a year or so ago. Thought you were a cutie & a half, I see now you only seem to get better with time, like a bottle of fine wine! Keep up the excellent work, you’re BF/hubbie is very lucky !!!
I found the link to cooking perfect hard boiled eggs very helpful, thanks Beth! Mine always seem over or undercooked. For all of you suggesting Greek yogurt, that’s a great idea. I have IBS so always looking for ways to incorporate good bacteria. I’ve been substituting greek yogurt for mayo and sour cream and even adding it to soup. As an added bonus to feeling better, I’ve also lost weight!
I made this last night. The lemon makes it a bit too strong for me. Maybe next time I’ll cut the lemon juice in half.
I found you on pinterest and OMG so glad that I did. This is my new favorite food blog! I’m going to try your yakisoba noodles tonight!
This is terrific, very Spring- and Easter-happy.
I didn’t have any other fresh herbs, so I chopped up a scallion. Worked great with the other flavors.
Have you ever tried Duke’s mayonnaise? To my taste buds, the light Duke’s mayonnaise is the only mayo I like (both taste and texture). I was raised in SC and recently moved to Nashville TN, and I can’t find it (I’ve heard Kroger has it, but I doubt they stock the light)! Nashville being the country music capitol of the U.S., you would think there would be a southern staple like Duke’s at every grocery store! Your egg salad sounds really good, and I’ll probably try it soon. :) I made your naan (with half whole wheat flour) last night and it was delicious.
I also think I might start experimenting with non-fat greek yogurt in place of sour cream and mayo.
I’ve been looking for a great way to zest up some egg salad! Your post couldnt have come at a better timing! Thanks!!!
To add extra tangy-ness and cut back on the fat, you can substitute non-fat (or lowfat) greek yogurt for some of the mayonnaise. I tried it and was surprised to find I loved it even more than I did with mayo.
i love egg salad, and this sounds like a great version!
I actually don’t have any hard boiled eggs from Easter, but that photo looks so good I’m thinking about boiling some now for dinner!
How did you know I’m on a total egg-salad kick this past week?? I usually use just a smidge of mayo (maybe a little Greek yogurt instead) and a whole lotta mustard, but I love the idea of lemon and herbs as well. Addictive…
Carla– I’m not a fan of mayo, so I swap it out for hummus or Greek yogurt. I bet they’d work just as well in this recipe (and loads healthier!).
It ends up being less than 2 Tbsp of mayo per serving and I used light for the very same reason ;D
Looks so yummy and easy to make!
But too much mayo is just too sinful for me!:P