Veggie Might: Golden Delight Egg Salad

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

Moms and dads of the world, I salute you. This past week, I played host, tour guide, and shepherd to my 12-year-old nephew, L (not to be confused with his brothers, 10-year-old L and 7-year-old L). After six days of museums, baseball games, comic book stores, and nonstop kid chatter (Aunt Leigh…Aunt Leigh…Aunt Leigh…), I am slain.

But we had a great time. It was L’s first trip to New York City since he was 2 or 3, so we had much to do. Between trips to Chinatown and the Museum of Natural History, we even managed to squeeze in a few home-cooked meals.

My initial concern—vegetarian guardian, omnivarian charge—was never an issue. He accepted all my at-home meal suggestions, and he ate meat when we ate out.

L’s pretty handy in the kitchen too. For dinner one night, we made pasta with tomato sauce and garlic bread. While I made the sauce, L doctored the bread himself, melting the butter in the microwave, mixing in the garlic powder, and basting the bread with garlic: his method, not mine.

We had a drizzly picnic in Central Park on Saturday, with good pals T, J, and our own dear Kris. I decided to take veggie wraps based on this recipe from Healthy. Happy. Life. I found via The Kitchn, using hummus instead of vegan cream cheese. L happily helped cut veggies, but wasn’t crazy about the hummus. “It tastes off,” was his complaint. But he scarfed down samosas that Miss T brought from Jackson Heights, and later some baba ganoush I made. I was so proud of his expanding tastes.

That evening L asked if we could make egg salad to take to the baseball game the next day. His mom mentioned egg salad was one of his favorites. We had two flour tortillas left from our veggie wrap assembly line, and there were four eggs in my fridge. Perfect.

Once our hardboiled eggs were cool, I asked L to grab the rest of the ingredients while I chopped. He easily found the mustard and mayo, but couldn’t find the pickle relish—because I didn’t have any.

“You could chop up a pickle,” he suggested. No pickles either.

“Why don’t we use a shallot and some parsley,” I suggested.

L was skeptical. He didn’t know what a shallot was, and, to him, parsley was just for garnish.

“Trust me,” I reassured him.

All mixed together, L gave the pepper mill a few final twists and we had egg salad. Then the moment of truth: would he eat it?

“Aunt Leigh, this egg salad is awesome!”

I smiled, bursting inside at my victory.

The next morning, we wrapped up our egg salad in flour tortillas and snuck them into Yankee Stadium. (Turns out, sneaking is unnecessary. The guy in line behind us had what looked to be a week’s worth of groceries for a family of four.)

For the rest of the trip, L told everyone about the egg salad. “…And there was no pickle relish, so we (suddenly it was our decision) put in shallots and parsley and it was awesome.” Then came the moment of deepest pride; he asked if we could name it.

“Aunt Leigh, our egg salad is so good we should name it and you should write about it.” I got a little teary.

Here were some of the rejected (by L) names:
Double L Egg Salad
Homerun Egg Salad
Hell’s Kitchen Egg Salad
City Girl/Country Boy Egg Salad

And the winner:
Golden Delight

“Golden Delight sounds like a Chinese restaurant dish,” I said.

“But Aunt Leigh, it’s yellow—golden, and it’s delightful,” L defended.

I couldn’t argue with that logic. Plus, he said visiting Chinatown was the best his part of his trip whenever anyone asked, so it seemed doubly apropos.

Golden Delight Egg Salad will go down in history as the best egg salad ever made by a 12-year-old kid and his auntie for sneaking into a baseball game. The recipe below was slightly modified to keep it within the H parameters of the CHG guidelines. I had this version for lunch today, and it’s just as golden and delightful.

Now I need a nap.

Golden Delight Egg Salad
serves 4 (approx. 2 tbsp/sandwich)

2 whole eggs (hard boiled)
2 egg whites (hard boiled, yolks removed)
1 shallot clove, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp mustard
1 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise
salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste

1) Place 4 eggs in pot of water. Water should be enough to cover eggs Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil rapidly for 15 minutes.

2) Cool eggs in an ice bath for 15 minutes.

3) Finely dice shallot and chop parsley.

4) Chop eggs into desired sized pieces.

5) Combine all ingredients into medium mixing bowl and stir until creamy.

6) Serve on whole grain toast with spinach and tomato, or in a whole wheat tortilla. Blow the minds of your young relatives.

Approximate Calories, Fat and Price per Serving
86.5 calories, 6.75g fat, $.34

Calculations
2 whole eggs: 140 calories, 9g fat, $.50
2 egg whites: 32 calories, 0g fat, $.50
1 shallot clove: 15 calories, 0g fat, $.10
2 tbsp fresh parsley: negligible calories and fat, $.04
1 tbsp mustard: 9 calories, 0g fat, $.02
1 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise: 150 calories, 18g fat, $.16
salt to taste: negligible calories and fat, $.02
fresh ground pepper to taste: negligible calories and fat, $.02
Totals: 346 calories, 27g fat, $1.36
Per serving (totals/4): 86.5 calories, 6.75g fat, $.34

Posted in: Eggs,Mains,Sides,Vegetarian