This is it! My favorite egg salad sandwich of all time. It is rich and creamy (all without mayo), yet slightly tangy due to lemon juice, mustard, and sour cream. A tablespoon of chive adds some fresh and bright flavors. These are all the ingredients you’ll need – plus the bread and eggs.
For a fresh and crunchy bite, I always add baby spinach. Field salad or arugula make a good substitute too, so simply use what greens you have on hand and what you like. Also, if you have any microgreens like alfalfa or mustard or radish sprouts available, it will take the egg salad sandwich to a whole new level. Btw, I used mustard and radish sprouts here.
How long to boil eggs for egg salad
The most important ingredient, of course, are eggs. For egg salad, you’ll need hard-boiled eggs with firm yolks. I’m using large eggs straight out of the fridge. I submerge them in boiling water – carefully with a spoon – and let them cook for 12 minutes.
After that, I pour off the hot water immediately, leaving the eggs in the pot, and add some cold water to the pot to cover the eggs. After a minute, the water will be warm, so I repeat replacing warm with cold water one more time. It usually doesn’t take long this way for the eggs to cool. This way, you’ll get perfect hard-boiled eggs for egg salad.
Step-by-step recipe for the best egg salad sandwich
Boil the eggs then chop them.
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, lower the eggs gently with a spoon. Simmer eggs for 12 minutes. When the cooking time is up, immediately pour off the hot water, leaving the eggs in the pot. Fill the pot with cold water.
After a minute, the water will be warm. Pour it off again and add cold water. Leave eggs in the water for about 10 minutes until cooled. Peel and finely chop the eggs.
Mince chive, rinse spinach.
Chop chive finely, rinse and pat dry the baby spinach.
Mix all the ingredients for the egg salad.
Mix sour cream, lemon juice, mustard, and chive in a bowl until combined well.
The egg salad will be creamy without mayo.
Add chopped eggs and salt and pepper to taste and mix well.
Assemble the sandwiches.
Top half of the bread slices with spinach, then add some egg salad. Top with micro greens and chive and cover with a slice of bread.
Sourdough bread or a seedy bread, like this sunflower seed bread works great for this sandwich. What I’m not particularly a fan of are overly soft slices of sandwich bread.
Enjoy (with a napkin)!
This is my favorite egg salad sandwich of all time. It is rich and creamy (all without mayo), yet slightly tangy. For a fresh and crunchy bite, I always add baby spinach but field salad or arugula make a good substitute too, so simply use what greens you have on hand. Also, if you add sprouts or microgreens like alfalfa, it will take the egg salad sandwich to a whole new level. I used mustard and radish sprouts here.
Recipe: Ursula | lilvienna.com
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs (from the fridge)
- 1/4 cup (60 g) sour cream
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon chive, finely chopped
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Slices of bread*
- Fresh baby spinach (or arugula, watercress, field salad)
- Microgreens like alfalfa, mustard or radish sprouts
- Chive, finely chopped
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, lower the eggs gently with a spoon. Simmer eggs for 12 minutes. When the cooking time is up, immediately pour off the hot water, leaving the eggs in the pot. Fill the pot with cold water. After a minute, the water will be warm. Pour it off again and add cold water. Leave eggs in the water for about 10 minutes until cooled.
- Peel and finely chop the eggs.
- Mix sour cream, lemon juice, mustard, and chive in a bowl until combined well. Add chopped eggs and salt and pepper to taste and mix well.
- Top half of the bread slices with spinach, then add some egg salad. Top with micro greens and chive and cover with a slice of bread. Enjoy!
Notes
* Sourdough bread or a seedy bread, like this sunflower seed bread works great for this sandwich. What I’m not particularly a fan of are overly soft slices of sandwich bread.
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12 minutes to boil an egg are you mad???? No wonder the yoke looks dry in your photos… 7 to 9 mins tops !
Hi Pete,
The eggs should really be boild until hard in this recipe. I have tried it with 10 minutes and the yolks were still not cooked through with a large egg (60 grams). So 12 minutes is correct. But if you have a different technique etc. and you know that the egg yolk will be hard after 9 mins of boiling, please go ahead and do so. Best, Ursula
How rude😥
Hi! Thank you for the recipe! I was wondering how long you can keep this egg salad in the fridge. :)
Hi Andrea,
So far, I’ve never had any leftovers since the recipe make a small amout of egg salad. But if you make more and you do have leftovers I would recommend eating it within 2 days, stored in the fridge in a tight container. But make sure that the eggs are properly cooked amd hard-boiled, including the egg yolk. Hope you’ll try the recipe :) Ursula
alternatively, if you’ve got an instant pot, place a cup of water in the bottom and however many eggs you like on top of tbe trivet insert. pressure cook 4 minutes, natural steam release 4 minutes, then submerge in an ice water bath for 10. works perfectly
Hi Trish,
Thanks so much for the tip with the instant pot. Never tried it :)
Ursula
Instant pot works perfectly for boiling eggs. I usually pressure cook for 2 minutes (yes, even for large eggs) and then release naturally…. and let them cool naturally. Perfect eggs!
BTW eating your boiled egg recipe as I’m writing this ^_^
Thanks so much for the tip. I have never tried pressure cooking them!