Don't Like Mayo? Here's How To Make Egg Salad Creamy Without It

An egg salad recipe seems to be just about everybody's go-to for using up leftover hard-boiled eggs, but no matter what ingredients are used for flavoring, the base of the salad is usually eggs mixed with mayonnaise. In fact, in Australia, people refer to the dish as "egg mayonnaise," as they feel that the term "salad" implies the addition of vegetables. If you're not a mayo fan, though, it's still possible to make egg salad without this ingredient. Cookbook author and recipe developer Justine Doiron advocates mixing chopped eggs with olive oil and tahini, then stirring in a handful of herbs to make a "greeny tahini" egg salad.

Doiron explains to Mashed that the reason she went with a mayonnaise alternative is because she's just not too fond of the condiment in general (although she makes an exception for the Kewpie brand). She does have another reason, though: Her egg salad recipe calls for medium-boiled eggs cooked for seven minutes, and these yolks, she explains, won't hold up to mayonnaise as well as hard-boiled ones. In order to offset this, she uses oil to give the salad its necessary fat element. "The sauce really complements the eggs without overwhelming them," she tells us, adding that the oil "achieves a great texture using egg yolks that are set, but not firm."

If you want to taste Doiron's cooking firsthand, you can catch her hosting the first-of-its-kind Cayman Jack River Cruise on October 19, which departs from Pier 83 in NYC. The cookbook author will be serving up crab tostadas (with a vegetarian jackfruit option) paired with Cayman Jack sweet heat spicy lime margaritas, as well as samples of her blackened cod skewers.

As evidenced by Justine Doiron's egg salad (which, unfortunately, won't be appearing on the Cayman Jack River Cruise), oil makes a great dairy-free mayonnaise substitute. In fact, our mayo-free egg salad recipe also uses olive oil, mixing it with apple cider vinegar for flavoring. If you're okay using dairy, though — after all, there's no way to make vegan egg salad without finding egg substitutes, too — replacing the mayo with cottage cheese can make for a protein-packed egg salad. Greek yogurt and hummus are two more ingredients that can serve the same purpose.

You may also want to take a cue from international egg salads. While egg salad is known around the world, not all of these dishes are made with mayonnaise. Pasta jajeczna, which is Polish egg salad, may consist of cream cheese and butter combined with chopped eggs. In a Swedish or Hungarian egg salad, sour cream may take the place of mayonnaise.

Finally, if you aspire to get in touch with your inner Sam-I-Am (or you're expecting this Seussian character over for lunch), you can make a bright-green egg salad using guacamole as a binder. Our guacamole deviled eggs would be a great place to start — to convert the recipe into a salad, all you need to do is chop up the egg whites and stir those into the filling.