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This healthy High Protein Egg Salad is creamy, fresh and packed with flavor! Made lower calorie from traditional egg salad recipes by using Greek yogurt and adding more egg whites. This lightened up egg salad recipe is perfect for lunch or a protein packed snack.
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Protein Egg salad is going to be your new favorite go-to for a quick lunch or healthy meal. This low calorie egg salad has been lightened up from the classic recipe to make it lighter, higher in protein, lower in saturated fat and still delicious!
If you love my other high protein salad recipes like this High Protein Chicken Salad and this Cottage Cheese Tuna Salad, you will love this egg salad with Greek yogurt too!
Not only is this lightened up egg salad easy to prepare ahead of time, it's versatile. You can enjoy it as a sandwich, wrap, salad, dip or by the spoonful.
Why You Will Love This High Protein Egg Salad Recipe
Classic egg salad recipes are lower in protein and higher in saturated fat. Fat is definitely needed in a balanced diet, however, the amount in traditional egg salad is a lot. This recipe has just 5 grams of saturated fat.
- Healthy Egg Salad: Adding Greek Yogurt and egg whites boosts the lean protein content and reduces the calories. While reducing the mayo and egg yolks significantly reduces the saturated fat and calories. All these changes work together for a more balanced egg salad. Egg salad is also Paleo, low carb and gluten-free friendly!
- Versatile: You can enjoy this recipe in many ways and make it work for you!
- Easy: Egg salad is super easy to make. It's perfect for a quick meal or meal prepping ahead of time for lunch.
Ingredients
Here's what you need to make this high protein egg salad recipe! For full ingredients, instructions and nutritional information for egg salad recipe scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post!
- Eggs: You will need both hard-boiled whole eggs and egg whites. By adding in extra egg whites bulks up the egg salad and adds more protein.
- Creaminess: The creamy texture of this healthy egg salad comes from a combination of Greek yogurt and mayo. The Greek yogurt maintains the creamy texture while contributing extra protein and lowering the overall fat content. I like to use some mayo (rather than 100% yogurt) to maintain some of the flavor.
- Flavor: Dijon mustard makes the salad zesty while paprika and dill enhance the overall flavor of the egg salad. Yellow mustard, spicy brown mustard, honey mustard or any mustard you like can be used instead!
Variations
- Cottage Cheese Egg Salad: You can easily use cottage cheese as an alternative for the Greek yogurt. If you want it to have a smoother consistency, blitz it in a food processor for a few minutes.
- Egg Salad With No Mayo:You can omit the mayo if you want to and use more yogurt in its place.
- Dairy-Free: Most dairy-free yogurts are not recommended as they don't usually have a high amount of protein and have a higher fat content. I also find they don't have the same consistency. This brand has a dairy-free yogurt that is higher in protein that may work.
- Add Veggies: Feel free to add in extra veggies such as onions, celery, or shredded carrots for more flavor and texture.
- Swap the Herbs: Instead of fresh dill, you can also use tarragon, chives, or parsley.
How To Make Healthy Egg Salad
It's very simple to prepare a low calorie egg salad. The hardest part is boiling the eggs ahead of time in my opinion!
Perfect Boiled Eggs
Before you can make your healthy egg salad, you will need to boil the eggs. Place the eggs in a large pot and fill the pot with water to cover the eggs. Bring to a boil and then cook the eggs for 10 minutes. Drain the water and place the boiled eggs in an ice bath with ice and water to chill. Let the eggs chill for 10 minutes. You can do this ahead of time too!
Step 1: Prepare the ingredients. Peel the eggs and discard the yolk from 4 of them. Chop the hard-boiled eggs into bite-sized pieces and place them in a large bowl. Add the yogurt, mayo, and paprika to the bowl.
Step 2: Mix well. Stir the ingredients together while mashing the eggs until it resembles an egg salad consistency.
Step 3: Garnish and serve. Sprinkle the egg salad with dill and serve over a large bed of greens, on a slice of bread, or using one of the suggestions below.
Serving Suggestions
There are many ways to enjoy egg salad. One of my favorite things about it is it's easy to prepare and so versatile. You can make it a snack, a meal, low carb or balanced with complex carbs. Some many options to make protein egg salad work for you and your health goals!
- Sandwiches: Whole grain breads are a great high fiber option. Breads like Dave's Killer Bread and Ezekiel breads are generally the highest in fiber. Remember high fiber diets are associated with decreased risk of disease development long-term. Whole grains are complex carbohydrates higher in fiber that are slowly digested compared to those with less fiber that spike blood sugar.
- Wraps: High fiber wraps, egg white wraps, low carb wraps like carb counter, mission carb balance wraps are all options for enjoying egg salad.
- Lettuce Wraps: This is a great low carb option! Romaine lettuce or butter lettuce are great for stuffing with egg salad and enjoying.
- Salads: Place your egg salad on top of a bed of spinach, kale, romaine or your favorite greens. I like to add more vegetables to the salad - grape or cherry tomatoes, red onions, shredded carrots and cabbage are great additions to make salads less boring.
- Dips: You can also enjoy egg salad as a dip with freshly chopped vegetables like carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and whole grain crackers, protein crackers or grain free crackers.
Storage Directions
- Refrigerator: The best way to preserve egg salad is in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 4 days. This will keep it fresh as long as possible.
- Freezer: Yes, you can freeze egg salad but I do not recommend it. Eggs become tough and rubbery after being frozen and thawed. The flavor will also not be the same after freezing.
Expert Tips
- Do Not Make Egg Salad Too Far Ahead Of Time: Egg Salad gets a bit watery the longer it sits. If you want get a jump start on making your egg salad, you can boil your eggs 1-2 days ahead of time.
- Buy Pre-Made Hard-Boiled Eggs: Grocery stores have hard-boiled eggs already done and ready for you. Make preparing egg salad simple by purchasing hard-boiled eggs at the grocery store to save you time.
- Easy Peel Eggs: If you are boiling your own hard-boiled eggs, you can add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of vinegar to the pot to make peeling the eggs easier. Also, placing them in an ice bath (a large mixing bowl with water and ice) will make peeling less of chore!
Recipe FAQs
While it was once thought that eggs were bad for health and cholesterol, more recent scientific evidence shows that eggs are a healthy addition to a balanced diet and do not drive up LDL cholesterol the way it was once believed. This protein egg salad is made better balanced to reduce the saturated fat too by reducing the mayo and omitting some egg yolks. Healthy fat is still needed in the diet!
Whether or not something is healthy to eat is always relative to the overall dietary pattern of the individual and their health. It's not whether or not a specific food or meal is healthy, it's what else is that individual doing most of the time in their diet and what does their health look like. I tell all my clients the importance of balance and balancing meals with protein, fat and carbs to keep blood sugar stable. Egg salad is definitely a healthy meal and can fit into a balanced diet!
I do not recommend using whole eggs in place of the egg whites. This will significantly increase the calories and fat content. The recipe with the whole egg and egg whites as written has been balanced to improve the composition of classic egg salad to make it higher protein. With all whole eggs, the recipe becomes a fat salad rather than a protein salad.
More Healthy High Protein Salad Recipes
If you tried this high protein egg salad recipe or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Healthy High Protein Egg Salad
Ingredients
- 8 Eggs hard-boiled
- 4 Egg Whites hard-boiled
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt low fat, plain
- 2 tablespoons Mayo
- 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- ¼ teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Dill
Instructions
- Place the eggs in a large pot and fill the pot with water to cover the eggs. Place the pot on the stovetop and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling fiercely, set a timer for 10-minutes to boil the eggs.
- Turn off the heat and drain the water and place the boiled eggs in an ice bath with ice and water to chill. Let the eggs chill for 10 minutes.
- Peel the eggs and discard the yolk from 4 of them. Chop the hard-boiled eggs into bite-sized pieces and place them in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl minus the dill and stir while mashing the eggs until it resembles an egg salad consistency.
- Sprinkle with dill and serve over a large bed of greens or over a slice of bread.
Notes
- Serving size equals 1/3 of the recipe.
- Using Whole Eggs: I do not recommend using whole eggs in place of the egg whites. This will significantly increase the calories and fat content.
- For Easy to Peel Eggs: Add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of vinegar to the pot of water you use to boil the eggs. Also, place them in an ice bath after boiling them to make peeling less of chore!
- Timesaving Tip: You can buy boiled eggs at the grocery store if you want to skip boiling the eggs.
- Storage: Egg salad is best enjoyed freshly made. You can store it for up to four days but the salad will become more watery the longer it sits.
Nutrition
Do you boil & use 8 eggs total ( 4 whole and 4 whites only)? Or boil 12 and use 8 whole + 4 whites only? I'm confused as they are listed separately in the ingredients list. Looking forward to making this recipe!
8 whole eggs hardboiled and 4 egg whites hardboiled. 12 eggs total!
Just made this for dinner with a side salad and it was delicious!! I doubled the amount of dill and got a thumbs up from the family. Thank you for sharing Megan ♀️