Share this:
Mariel here. Egg salad once occupied the same reviled space as Bloody Marys, tomato soup and green olives. My mom has always been a fan, but for the life of me, I could not figure out how or why people would toss together hardboiled eggs and mayo and slap it between two slices of bread. Sick. Or is it?
My husband and I took a much-needed vacation last week and I lolled on the beach lazily turning the pages of as many books as I could get my paws on (I tore through The Leopard, Bel Canto, Boomerang, The Diving Bell & the Butterfly, and The Redbreast in under a week). I also “caught up” on my magazines, which had been sitting neglected on my nightstand for months.
As I was flipping through the pages of SHAPE, I spied a delicious-looking “Enlightened” Egg Salad Pita Sandwich and was struck with an intense craving – so intense that I could think of nothing but egg salad for the remainder of the trip. Thank you kind sir, but you can keep your miso-glazed lobster. No duck confit for moi, garçon. Just give me a hardboiled egg and some mayo before I rip your face right off.
Sadly, since I had traveled by plane to Mexico and not via a time-machine back to the 1950s, I was SOL, as the kids might say. Upon my return home, however, the very first meal I made myself was an egg salad sandwich, daintily pressed between two pita pockets and topped with crisp cucumbers and crunchy bacon. Heaven. I suppose I could’ve saved us a boatload of money and spent the week mass producing deli salads instead of holidaying in the tropics, but next year I’ll remember to BYO-eggs if we hit up the beach again.
Print This Recipe
The Ultimate Egg Salad Sandwich
Makes enough for four pitas
Gently adapted from a recipe in the January 2012 issue of SHAPE
Ingredients:
6 large eggs – stock
3 Tablespoons light mayonnaise – stock
2½ teaspoons Dijon mustard – stock
¼ teaspoon paprika – stock
¼ teaspoon kosher salt – stock
Generous grind of black pepper – stock
2 Tablespoons of finely chopped sweet onion – $0.99
1 Tablespoon of finely chopped fresh chives – $1.99
4 large pitas, sliced in half – $1.39
4 strips of crispy turkey bacon – $3.49
3 cups of lightly packed greens/lettuce – $1.50
½ large cucumber, sliced – $0.99
Grand total assuming well-stocked kitchen: $10.35
Cost per pita: $2.58
Directions:
1. Place your six eggs in a med saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover saucepan, turn off flame and let eggs sit for about 12 minutes. Strain hot water and transfer eggs to an ice water bath, let sit for 5 minutes before peeling and coarsely chopping the eggs.
2. In the meantime, whisk together the mayo, mustard, paprika, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir in the onion and chives.
3. After coarsely chopping the peeled eggs, gently fold them into the mayo mixture.
4. Cook the bacon until crispy.
5. Slice the pitas in half and stuff each side with a scoop of egg salad, half a strip of bacon, cucumber slices and lettuce. Enjoy immediately!
I hate to say it, but I LOVE egg salad. Just a hint of mayo is all it needs. A little dill relish, some salt….. man now you’ve got me craving a sandwich. I know what I’m having for lunch today. 🙂
Ok you may have convinced me. They sound wonderful and I’ve never liked egg salad. Is this much different from your moms version that she lives so much?
Way back when (when she was little), her version consisted primarily of mayo, hardboiled eggs, salt & pepper, but she’s definitely upgraded to something more similar to this. It’s that dijon mustard that makes all the difference… Also think adding “crunch” to the sandwich via crisp bacon and cucs is a big help for anyone who is sensitive to texture (like I am).
And one more thing – from Mary Anne here. I used to put real bacon atop my egg salad sandwich and ate it with a side of pork rinds (Seriously!) and a topped it all off with a chocolate shake! Oh, those were the days! 🙂
Ohhhhhhh I have a huge craving for egg salad now. I LOVE egg salad. I don’t make it a lot, because if I did, I would probably eat a total of a dozen eggs in one day.
Awesome! I never thought of egg salad in a Pita pocket before. That might just be the kick egg salad needs to bring it back to life again.
I’ve never been much of an egg salad fan myself, but I could totally get down with this version! I love the addition of bacon…which clearly makes everything better. 🙂
I must admit I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to egg salad, but last year I made an egg salad with lemon and dill, and it was delicious. So I think I’m more open to trying new variations now. This one goes on the list.
Looks like the perfect egg salad to me!
Oh, gosh, I love egg salad! It’s always our day-after-Easter treat 🙂 I’ve never thought of putting bacon on my egg salad sandwich, but OMG would that be fantastic!
Now you have me craving egg salad, I could eat one right now and I just finished dinner. Lunch tomorrow for sure!
I love egg salad sandwiches and heated V-8. Adding bacon slices seems like a delicious idea.
This is one of a handful of dishes that my husband makes. He and our 4yo have been making egg salad sandwiches together lately. It’s definitely become a favorite around here too. 🙂
Oh, this brings back memories! There was a wonderful seafood restaurant here in the Portland area back in the seventies called Ryans, and they had an egg salad sandwich on the menu called “The Clucker” – egg salad lightly flavored with curry, on a pita, with alfalfa sprouts. Mmmmm. Today, were I to make this, because I dislike mayonnaise, I would use greek yogurt, but otherwise, would hew to their example. A few green onions, too, I believe. (Greek yogurt, by the way, is excellent with tuna to make a tuna salad sandwich. It tastes a bit as if you added cream cheese, which of course, would be way too decadent.) Thank you for reminding me, I’ll have to add this to my plans for lunches this week!
The Clucker, I love it!