The Pickled Addition That Gives Egg Salad A Serious Texture Upgrade

Egg salad: the deli favorite that's either enticing or nauseating for hungry workers at lunchtime. Either you love the creamy texture of mayonnaise swirled with chopped hard-boiled eggs, or you turn away at the sight of it. But how can this polarizing, protein-packed, easy lunchtime meal get an upgrade for all to enjoy? If you want your egg salad to go from lifeless to inspired, you're going to have to create some excitement for the palate by playing with texture. 

Just as texture is important for creating a high-quality green salad, so, too, is it important to add a textural element to your egg salad. The best way to do so is by using an ingredient that also adds a tangy flavor punch: pickled celery. Ordinary celery is crunchy, but can often have a watery, bland taste. With pickled celery, your egg salad gets all the benefits of the crunch while also receiving a boost in bright flavor.

You may be able to find pickled celery at a specialty grocer or farmer's market, but it's not as commonly available as regular pickles. Luckily, all it takes is vinegar, water, salt, and a bit of sugar to pickle your own celery at home. The celery can be pickled in as little as an hour, but give it overnight or one full day to really get briny. If you don't want to wait until the next day to make your egg salad, you can start the celery pickling right away and leave the jar of brine and celery to get to work while you start boiling eggs.

If you want your celery to pickle especially quickly, dice it up really tiny. This will also help the pickled celery permeate every bit of the egg salad once you mix everything together. Luckily, your jar of pickled celery should last up to a week, allowing you to create endless crunchy egg salad lunches or top your salads or sandwiches with the tangy veggies.

There are plenty of unexpected ingredients you can add to your egg salad in addition to pickled celery to bring a unique texture or taste. To further enhance your pickled celery egg salad, toss in other pickled ingredients like pickled onions for a vivid crunch. Stay on the pickle theme by adding sprigs of dill on top for a burst of fresh flavor. If dill is too powerful for your liking, fresh flat-leaf parsley is another great herb choice for garnish.

Egg salad is very fatty, with all the richness coming from the mayonnaise and cooked egg yolk, and pickled celery contrasts that. But if you want to build upon the creaminess, there are different ingredients packed with healthy fats, such as avocado, that you can bring to the egg salad party. Take a classic egg salad recipe and kick it up with seasonings that'll silence any naysayers claiming egg salad is bland. 

Cumin and chili powder can create a deep savoriness with a kick of spice. Or, complement a common egg salad ingredient, mustard, with another zingy ingredient: horseradish. No matter your choice of ingredient, remember that less is more, here. You can taste test along the way to see how the flavor balance pans out. With pickled celery, your egg salad can deliver a crisp, fresh crunch while brightening up this otherwise one-trick pony of a meal, taking egg salad from boring to brilliant.