Are you afraid of Easter egg overdose?
Egg overdose is a real thing, something parents and teachers across the nation fear. Everyone likes to color a million eggs, but no one wants to eat them. If you cried every time someone boiled another dozen eggs to color, don’t fear. Eggs are a great source of inexpensive protein and one of those foods that can go in any direction. They are a cook’s blank canvas.
Here are a few ways to avoid choking on boiled eggs for the rest of the spring. You might decide you like them enough to enjoy them every day of the year.
Egg Salad 101:
Egg salad’s the go-to when using up eggs. Peel and chop up at least a dozen of these, keeping a container in the fridge all week. The basic egg salad has some combination of mayonnaise or sour cream and seasonings. When it comes to egg salad, I simply throw stuff in a bowl, chop, and stir. If you’re new to egg salad, here are the basic directions:
Basic No-Brainer Egg Salad
- Chop 12 hard-boiled eggs
- Add 1/2 c. mayo
- Chop and add 2 tablespoons each of onion or green onion and celery
- Add 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Mix then eat
Here are several combinations that’ll make it seem like a gourmet meal every time:
The sky’s the limit, really.
- chopped green onions, garlic, and dill
- lemon, capers, and dill
- cumin, cilantro, avocado, and tomato
- parsley, chives, paprika, and apple cider vinegar
- curry powder, cilantro, chopped onion
- hot pepper, bleu cheese, celery
What do I do with this stuff?
- Make a lettuce wrap with egg salad and romaine
- Eat it out of a bowl
- Feed it to unsuspecting company
- Make a sandwich–or twenty
- Slice veggies like cucumbers, zucchini, and radishes, and top with a spoon of egg salad
- Garnish and gift to others so you can stop eating it before June
Salads
You can make a ton of salads topped with your collection of peeled Easter Eggs.
Classic Cobb Salad features all the things you love, like bacon, chopped chicken, and yes, a whole bunch of boiled eggs. Here’s a the original recipe, developed in 1937 in Los Angeles. You can always trust Californians for good salads.
Chef’s salad are brilliant salads for using leftovers–they usually consist of cubed meats, boiled eggs, olives, cheeses, and whatever’s left over with your very favorite dressing in the world.
Spinach salad I can’t discuss eggs and salads without a hat tip to one of my favorite celeb chefs, Alton Brown and his spinach-egg-bacon salad.
Deviled Eggs
Deviled eggs are another sky’s the limit food.
Basic Deviled Eggs:
- Cut a million eggs in half. Take out the yolks, keeping the whites in tact.
- Make the filling. For a dozen eggs, mix in the following: 1/4 cup mayo, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, a tablespoon chopped or green onions, a dash of vinegar.
- Mix the filling till smooth
- Stuff the filling into the eggs. Top with something like dill, smoked paprika or anything you love.
Try out some variations–use the egg salad mixers above as a guide.
Soup Toppers
This lovely recipe is for a spring spinach soup topped with a boiled egg. You can make a simple borscht topped with a boiled egg. This delightful asparagus soup is just in time for spring. It’s topped off with a couple boiled eggs, making your “yum” factor increase while putting a dent in your pile of eggs.
If all else fails…
If all else fails and you’re sick to death of the eggs, I’ve seen some people bake them into a braided spring loaf. I never have, because I don’t want egg shells in my sandwich. Still, it looks nice. If you’re nearing egg overdose and can’t eat a single egg more, you can also use them for catapults in your class science experiment, or cheat in the field-day egg toss since the egg won’t burst when it hits the ground.
In any case, don’t suffer egg overdose. Enjoy the season, the egg recipes, and add your favorites below!