Egg White Salad
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This healthy egg white salad recipe is a protein-packed and low-fat take on traditional egg salad! It’s creamy, smoky, and makes the best sandwich filling. 14 grams of protein per serving.
Swapping my eggs for egg whites is always an easy option when I’m trying to watch my calories or monitor my fat intake. If you’ve tried my egg white omelette or spinach egg white wrap, then you’ll know that it all comes down to how you cook and flavor them. This egg white salad is no exception, and I think I may like it even more than the traditional one that uses yolks.
The secret is layering in bold flavors. Roasted red peppers and pickles add tang and texture, while a swirl of Greek yogurt keeps it creamy (and boosts the protein). Even my partner, the resident egg salad purist who JUST came around my cottage cheese egg salad, now prefers this one.
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love this egg white salad
- Perfect for making ahead. I like to make a big batch over the weekend and enjoy ready-made meals for the next 3-4 days.
- Customizable. The sauce and the boiled egg whites go well with several proteins and veggies. I often add leftover chicken, fish, boiled macaroni, or veggies from the fridge, and I am happily surprised with the result!
- Versatile. I love this recipe because it goes as easily in a lettuce cup, wrap, toast, or sandwich. So, based on your appetite and restrictions, make your own combination!
Key Ingredients
This isn’t the full list, but some notes on the main ones. I’m including some tested substitutions, too.
- Boiled eggs. Finely chop the egg whites and set them aside. For a quick boiled egg hack, use my microwave method or air fryer method.
- Hamburger pickles. I call them mini flavor bombs! Don’t you love it when you get a bite of tangy pickles in your salad? Yum! I used a no-added-sugar kind, but any will do.
- Roasted red peppers. You can roast your bell peppers in the oven or use store-bought roasted red peppers if you’re lazy like me! Chop them finely for the salad.
- Greek yogurt. I tested full-fat and non-fat, and while the former added richness, the latter worked perfectly fine. If you’re feeling a little indulgent, use mayo instead. You could also try using light sour cream, too.
- Pickle juice. If you have pickles, you have the pickle juice (getting the most out of your pickle jar!). You can use a mix of lemon juice and vinegar if you prefer.
- Spices. I used a mix of cumin, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes to give the salad some smoky and spicy flavors.
How to make an egg white salad
Step 1- Mix the chopped ingredients. Combine the chopped egg whites, cucumbers, pickles, and roasted peppers in a large mixing bowl.
Step 2- Make the sauce. Mix Greek yogurt, pickle juice, and spices in another mixing bowl. Taste and adjust salt, seasoning, and heat to your liking.
Step 3- Combine, chill, and serve. Pour the ‘sauce’ over the egg mixture and mix until uniformly combined. For the best texture, let the salad chill for 30 minutes.
Ways to change things up
Confession: I’ve made this salad many different ways to see which would stick with my partner (I’m easy with how it’s served). These have been some great tweaks:
- Play around with the dressing. You know what goes great with Greek yogurt and cucumber? Mint, lime juice, and pomegranate molasses! Or go with chives, scallions, and mustard for a tried-and-tested, no-fail sauce.
- Add different veggies. I have so many fantastic substitutes – capers for pickles, celery for cucumbers, and sautéed onions for roasted peppers. Substitutes aside, cherry tomatoes and avocados taste phenomenal in this salad!
- Add more protein. I love adding smoked salmon, tuna, leftover chicken, tofu, or white beans to increase protein content.
Storage instructions
Cover in a sealed container and refrigerate the salad for 4 to 5 days. If you notice changes in the consistency and texture, toss it away and make a new batch.
Frequently asked questions
To avoid rubbery egg whites, don’t overcook them. I find 8 minutes to be the perfect boiling time for boiled eggs (using the stovetop method).
Yes, you can. For a dairy-free alternative, I like using mashed avocado or hummus. The only downside is that it’s not great to meal prep them this way, so enjoy it fresh.
✅ Nutrition reviewed
Nutrition information has been reviewed by registered dietitian Felicia Newell, MScAHN, RD, CPT.
Egg White Salad
Ingredients
- 6 boiled eggs yolks removed and chopped finely (feel free to keep in)
- 2 hamburger pickles chopped finely
- 1/4 large cucumber chopped finely
- 2 tablespoon roasted red peppers chopped
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon pickle juice brine the pickles are in
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes adjust to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt adjust to taste
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg whites, cucumbers, pickles and roasted red peppers and set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine the Greek yogurt, pickle juice with all the spices and mix well. Taste to make sure it’s salty enough and spiced according to your spice level.
- Pour the ‘sauce’ over the egg mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Allow to sit for 30 minutes in the fridge to ‘marinate’ and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
More delicious egg recipes
- Turkish eggs
- Fried eggs (over easy, over medium, over hard)
- Frittata
- Crustless quiche
- Sous vide egg bites
Originally published June 2015
I surprised myself with this one, thank you for the recipe. It was great.
Thank you for the feedback Henry, hopefully you can try a few more recipes too!
No need to chop pickles. Just buy relish and then the pickles are already chopped for you. I always put a bit of relish in my egg salad.
Well this is perfect for me. So healthy and so nutritious. Amazing.
My experience with Trader Joe’s is that the store has great dried fruit, nuts and a few other items, but their packaged stuff is way too salty and not all that tasty. I’m not surprised that your copycat is way better than the original. (Besides, you made it so of course it’s delicious:)
Actually, that’s a great point Laura- I stocked up on their dried berries and they are SO good!
Dear Arman, This egg salad looks wonderful! I love the idea of using the Mezzetta peppers. My Trader Joe’s is not too bad…I am usually able to get in and out when I need to. My one complaint is that it’s a little out of the way for me. When I find myself heading up in that direction, I usually stop in for a few things- like those chocolate covered espresso beans! Have a wonderful day my friend, Catherine
Hi Catherine! I am obsessed with those espresso beans and it’s so sneaky of them to keep it right beside the counter!!
This looks SO GOOD! I have never had TJ’s egg salad but, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to! Glad I have some hard boiled eggs in my fridge, because I am trying this today!!
Please do Deanna- It’s delicious! 🙂
Love the remake! I love Trader Joe’s– but there are only certain things I will buy there. The brown rice pasta is great, the nut butters, bags of nuts/dried fruits, greek yogurt… the premade food items are mostly lacking 🙂 Convenient, but I’m with you– I want GOOD food, not just convenient food. I’ll make it myself!
Sounds like NYC needs another few Trader Joe’s. Obviously people like it, so open another 3. Business idea for you, Arman? We had one in every part of the city in Portland, and while it was always busy, it was certainly never like that!
aahaha I love that business idea- In fact, I’m going to a trade show this weekend where the CEO of TJ’s will be talking!
Our Trader Joe’s doesn’t have lines out the wazoo because my little city is teeny tiny (compared to NYC). I looove egg salad!! P.S., are you still unable to comment on zee blog? If so, I must get in touch with the blog tech people.
It worked! 🙂
I would totally love this salad. Great mixture of spices! My Trader Joe’s recently got an uplift so they expanded and the lines sort of disappear…parking is another story 🙂
Oh dang! But… I need to move out of Astoria…silly 45 minute subway ride to the Union Square one!
When I come visit you one of these days, you’ll take me to TJ’s… okie? I keep meaning to visit it, but never manage to end up there when I’m in the space. And my tolerance for spice is like -10. I’m a wimp.
YESSSS. I would suffer the lines for you.
This looks like something I could eat all day everyday. However I do think the persians invented this dish because as you mentioned last time, Salad Olivier ;). I feel bad for taking trader joes for granted now, I hope the line waiting will end someday!
Thanks Niki- That or I should move to California!
Hi Arman! This is the first time I’ve been on your site and I have to say your experience makes me so sad…I love Trader Joe’s! I love the samples you get when you go in, the fact that there (supposedly) aren’t any GMO products, the customer service, etc. It’s shocking to me that the traffic they get hasn’t encouraged corporate to just open another. I’m also sad that your experience with healthy blogs hasn’t been good! You obviously haven’t tried my recipes ;p
I’ve never seen this Egg salad before at TJ’s but your take on egg salad is pretty awesome! The yogurt sounds so refreshing! Perfect for lunch.
Hi Michaell- I definitely have had positive experiences there but this one just was way packed but it was my own fault (i picked the busiest one in NYC). This would be great for lunch!
Holy wow. Gotta try this! The nearest TJ’s isn’t very close to me so I only make the trip about once a month!
Please do, Paula!
Arman, yet another fantastic recipe all around. What I love about this particular recipe are two ingredients in particular: the pickle brine and the marjoram.
Obviously both offer different benefits to the recipe re: taste, but still very intriguing additions we’re going to have to add to our own egg salad.
Though I must admit we’re also yolk fans here… don’t hate us 🙂
Not hating at all- I love adding the yolks but wanted the copycat to be accurate 😀
This is why I don’t go to Trader’s Joe. Actually it’s not close and Nature’s Bin is and they rock all on their own. This salad sounds delicious with the yolks of course. 🙂 The addition of pickle brine is genius. Give it up (yo!).
I would go to Nature’s Bin purely for the name.
Pickle brine = deliciious.
Ugh you are not making me excited about visiting TJ’s when I get to the US. I have spent more than enough time in London queuing for things!
If it wasn’t for work, I would have bypassed it lol!
The ranchero egg whites look really good. I’m hoping there will be a chive egg white copycat recipe as well! I have no idea where the Trader Joe’s are located around my area except for my beloved childhood store. I wouldn’t say they’re packed, but those that shop there ONLY shop there. It’s pretty funny to see some of the regulars.
Haha the chive one, simply swap out the chilli and add chives and extra sea salt 🙂
What chili? There aren’t any in the recipe… do you mean the cumin or the red peppers or am I missing something? I just found your site, thank you for the great recipes!
Eeee it must have edited out- Add a dash of cayenne pepper/red pepper flakes 🙂
There is a Trader Joes about an hour away from me and it has been steady whenever I have gone. Honestly, I have only bought cookie butter there because I love my home grocery store of Wegmans. The cookie butter did not disappoint and they had SAMPLES everywhere. That is a win-win for me at any store 🙂
I wish we had a Wegmans here. I hope you did enjoy the samples!
i never make egg salad because i never make hard boiled eggs. however… i do like both, so i should change that!
Do it…this is delicious!
I live in between 4 Trader Joe’s but no matter which I go to, at whatever time, is usually crowded! I try to avoid Saturday afternoons in the winter though – the worst.
Okay, I need to move to your suburb.. 4 TJ’s!!!!! PS- promise email tomorrow- These two days have been killer.
As is my usual response whenever anyone in the world mentions Trader Joe’s: WHY IS IT NOT IN CANADA.
LOL. At least you guys have other products!
Still laughing at TJ’s signs for “checkout this way.” Thankful to be living in the suburbs (come come come). I can tolerate a little bit of spice. A drizzle of sriracha is ideal, because anything more than that makes me cranky since it prevents my taste buds from tasting the actual food. My mom on the other hand can eat Thai chili peppers raw. Okay.
OMG. Seriously, we could barely get in! I WANT TOOOOOOOO.
Reason #111104930 your mum is more awesome than you 😉
This looks amazing! I like whole eggs more than egg whites though 🙂
So do I- But this was a copycat recipe so I kept it to the original! 🙂
I am keeping the yolks in and will sub my mayo for the yogurt and I know I will love this! Thanks for another awesome recipe. We need to make plans to actually eat together soon!
YESSSS. Do it. And YES! when your back from Seattle, it’s ON!
Oh my goodness! I am so sorry for your terrible Trader Joe’s experience! The one by me is usually busy during the weekends but not usually during week days. Did you like the cookie butter? If you ever go to TJs again, I highly recommend their chicken chili lime burgers and kettle corn.
And ranchero does sound very cool 😉
I loved the cookie butter but the cookie butter cookies even more! 😀
Our Trader Joe’s can definitely get crazy, too. I remember when it first opened (last year I think?), it was right around the holidays. They also selected probably the worst location ever. It’s right near a big mall on a road where the traffic has always been stupid bad. Maybe that’s good for them…but it sure keeps me from wanting to ever go down there as I kinda like having my car in one piece after I go grocery shopping. Call me selfish. Haha. You can also call me selfish when I eat this entire salad in one sitting…two servings yeah right! Well done, mate, well done!
LOL oh Dave. I want to see your definition of traffic lol! You can be selfish and you better eat this whole salad in one serving- Extra chilli.
I was just at the Joe’s yesterday! Honestly the locations in Austin aren’t that well known and are huge so the lines aren’t that bad. I didn’t buy egg salad yesterday so I willl have to create it on my own now. 🙂
YESSS. and use whole eggs in this 😉
Trader Joe’s lines are always out of control. You have to go before 10 am or after 7 pm I’m pretty sure or else you can expect to not be able to walk down the aisles comfortably and have to wait in the checkout lines for 20 minutes. Regardless, I still love TJ’s–I just always get there before 10 😀
Urgh. Really? Even it Pittsburgh? WHYYYYY.
I remeber this particular Trader Joe’s very well. It was my first experience with Trader Joe’s and I was so excited. A bit embarassing when I think about it 😉 We enterd rather late – 9.30 pm-ish – and the queue was maddening! Comparable to Primark Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon! I got lost – sort of – and after taking in the range of articles, we left. In California – even in busy San Francisco – it was way more resonable. I am still dreaming of the trail mix and can’t wait to get my hands on in in summer 🙂
The salads sounds really fresh and yummy. Perfect to bring for a BBQ! Though I guess I’d chop in the yolks as well 🙂
WHAT! juli….Your next experience will involve much more deliciousness!