This Mediterranean Egg Salad Packs A Protein Punch

Plain egg salad, made from nothing more than boiled eggs and mayonnaise, is a relatively inexpensive source of protein (depending on the price of eggs), and it's also a great way to use up your Easter leftovers. Still, it can get kind of boring after a sandwich or two, so many home cooks like to add extra ingredients to their egg salad. Here developer Kate Shungu is going with a Mediterranean-inspired flavor profile, using red onions for crunch supplemented by kalamata olives and sun-dried tomatoes. As a bonus, she stirs in some cottage cheese to provide yet more protein.

Shungu enthuses, "I love all the flavors and textures in this egg salad." She also tells us "I especially love how easy the eggs are to peel," since she steams them rather than boils them. In her opinion, this technique is a "game changer" since the shells come off much more easily without leaving shell fragments everywhere. Easy to prepare and flavorful, too, Shungu feels this salad makes "the perfect light lunch to keep you fueled all afternoon."

The base of this salad is eggs and cottage cheese, while red onion, kalamata olives, and sun-dried tomatoes provide some Mediterranean flavor. Additional ingredients include dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt, dill, and parsley.

Fill a large saucepan with 1 inch of water, and place a steamer basket inside.

Bring the water to a boil, then carefully add the eggs to the steamer basket.

Cover and set the heat to medium. Let the eggs steam for 12 minutes.

While the eggs are cooking, prepare a large bowl of ice water.

After the eggs have cooked, carefully remove them from the steamer basket and place in the ice water until cool, about 5 minutes.

Tap each egg to crack the shell, then peel the shell away from each egg. Discard the shells.

Chop the eggs into ½-inch pieces.

In a large bowl, stir together the cottage cheese, Dijon, lemon juice, and salt.

Fold in the chopped eggs, red onion, olives, dill, parsley, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Serve the egg salad on its own, or on pita with green leaf lettuce

There are a number of different ways you can change this recipe to suit your own preferences, beginning with the cottage cheese. If you don't care for its lumpy texture or simply don't have it on hand, plain Greek yogurt is also quite high in protein, although you might want to strain it before using to make for a less watery salad. You could also boost the salad's protein content and keep with the Mediterranean theme by adding crumbled feta cheese.

The herbs, too, can be changed to suit your preferences. Don't like dill? Double up on the parsley or go with different herbs such as basil or oregano. (Dried ones can be substituted if you don't have fresh, but use a bit less due to the more concentrated flavor.) You could also use a different type of olive, swap out the red onion for yellow, white, or green, or add some chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, or pepperoncini to the mix. As for serving the salad, it can go with crackers or any other type of bread — brioche, rye, sourdough, etc. — or even a croissant in place of pita.

The reason steamed eggs tend to be easier to peel than their boiled counterparts is because the steam is able to penetrate the shells to some extent. This helps to loosen them up so they slip off without too much chipping. Steaming also allows for gentler and more even cooking than boiling water. What can you do if you don't have a steamer basket, though? In this case, you can utilize a sort of semi-steam technique where you put the eggs in a pot filled with half an inch of boiling water, then cover the pot and proceed as per the recipe.

There are also various other tips and tricks that can make for an easier-to-peel egg. One of these, favored by Jacques Pépin, involves pricking the raw eggs with a thumbtack before cooking. Another, preferred by Gordon Ramsay, is to crack the eggs before chilling them in cold water. Finally, there's the much-hyped egg-peeling tape hack that had a moment on social media not too long ago. It seems to work pretty well as long as you have sufficient tape to spare.