Classic egg salad is essentially a mayonnaise carrier with chunks of egg in it. We swap the mayo for a combination of avocado, Greek yoghurt, and medium-hot mustard, and keep exactly the creamy consistency that makes egg salad worth putting on bread in the first place.
This egg salad reliably lands on our breakfast table after Easter, when the egg basket is still half full. Eight hard-boiled eggs, one avocado, one tablespoon of mustard, and 100 g of Greek yoghurt with 10% fat. That is the whole mechanism. We do not need mayonnaise with its roughly 700 calories per 100 g, and we do not miss it either, because the avocado provides the same creamy binding with its unsaturated fatty acids and is considerably more nutrient-dense to boot.
Healthy Thermomix® Egg Salad
Ingredients 0 / 12 ✓
- 500 grams water
- 8 eggs
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 spring onions
- 1/2 bunch chives
- 1 avocado
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp medium hot mustard
- 100 grams greek yogurt
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp white pepper
Instructions 0 / 8
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1
Add water to the mixing bowl, place eggs in the cooking basket, hang in the mixing bowl and cook 16 minutes/Varoma/speed 1.
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2
In the meantime, wash and clean the peppers, spring onions and chives. Remove seeds from peppers and cut into 1 cm pieces, cut spring onion and chives into rings and set aside.
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3
Remove cooking basket and quench eggs with cold water. Rinse out mixing bowl.
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4
Cut avocado in half, remove pit and add flesh to mixing bowl.
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5
Add the lemon juice, oil, mustard, yogurt, salt and pepper, mix 5 seconds/speed 5 and set aside.
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6
Peel eggs, add to mixing bowl and chop 3 seconds/speed 3.5.
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7
Add avocado cream, bell pepper, and green onion and mix 5 seconds/reverse knife movement/step 3.
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8
Sprinkle with chives and serve.
Tip: Tastes good as a spread, or as a side dish for the next barbecue.
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Nutrition per serving
Why avocado and yoghurt replace mayo one for one
Mayonnaise is essentially egg yolk, oil, and acid. That is what makes it creamy, rich, and slightly tangy. We rebuild exactly those three axes with different ingredients. The avocado supplies the fatty creaminess, the olive oil brings the smoothness up to the right level, the Greek yoghurt adds acidity and freshness, and the medium-hot mustard provides the sharpness and stabilises the emulsion. The result does not taste like a diet substitute but like a spread with more character than the mayo original.
The order in the mixing bowl matters. We put the avocado in first, then lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, yoghurt, salt, and white pepper. 5 seconds at speed 5 are enough for a smooth cream. Anyone who blends longer or at a higher speed whips in too much air and ends up with a foamy mass that collapses when the eggs are folded in.
The eggs: 16 minutes at Varoma temperature, then a cold shock
We place eight medium eggs in the simmering basket, hang it in the mixing bowl with 500 g of water, and cook them for 16 minutes at Varoma temperature, speed 1. That is noticeably longer than the classic 8 to 10 minutes in a saucepan, because the Thermomix® cooks the eggs with steam rather than in boiling water. The steam route is gentler but takes more time. The yolk sets completely without the greenish sulphur ring forming between yolk and white. That ring is exactly the main reason why egg salad sometimes looks grey instead of fresh.
Straight after cooking we give the eggs a cold-water shock. This stops the cooking process immediately and makes peeling easier because the shell separates from the white. Anyone who leaves the eggs sitting warm will fight with the membrane underneath and tear the white. With eight eggs, that is the difference between three minutes of clean work and ten minutes of frustration.
The right speed for the eggs: 3 seconds at speed 3.5
This is the critical point where many egg salads go wrong. If we chop the hard-boiled eggs for too long or at too high a speed, we end up with egg mush, and the salad is visually dead. The rule of thumb: 3 seconds at speed 3.5 are enough for coarse pieces in which you can still tell yolk from white. Anyone who uses speed 8 or blends for 6 seconds ends up with a creamy egg paste rather than an egg salad. The visual element matters a great deal here, because a salad with recognisable yolk pieces simply looks like egg salad and not like yesterday’s sandwich spread.
We recommend taking a quick look into the mixing bowl after those 3 seconds. With particularly large eggs, there may still be whole halves left. In that case it is better to use the spatula briefly by hand than to blend again. The second round of blending is always risky.
Pepper and spring onion: deliberately kept out of the mixing bowl
We cut the red pepper by hand into 1 cm pieces and the spring onions into fine rings. The same goes for the half bunch of chives. In the Thermomix®, pepper and spring onions would immediately release water and make the egg salad watery, because the blades break down the cell walls. Cut by hand, the pieces stay crisp and only release a little liquid when served. That small amount of extra effort is what keeps the egg salad tasting just as good tomorrow as it does today.
Only at the very end do the avocado and yoghurt cream, the pepper pieces, and the spring onions go into the mixing bowl with the chopped eggs. 5 seconds using reverse blade direction at speed 3 mix everything through gently without breaking the pieces down further. Reverse blade direction means the blades turn with their blunt side leading. They push the mixture rather than cutting it. That is exactly what we need here.
What to do if the egg salad turns out too watery
This happens in three situations: an overripe avocado, too much yoghurt, or pepper that was chopped in the mixing bowl. If the salad releases liquid in the jar, we add another tablespoon of Greek yoghurt with 10% fat and a teaspoon of mustard. Both bind the free liquid. Low-fat quark would work in this situation but tastes noticeably sharper and more acidic than Greek yoghurt with fat content. We stick with the yoghurt because it does not disturb the rounded consistency of the avocado.
If the egg salad looks too dry, it usually lacks acid and salt. An extra tablespoon of lemon juice and a pinch of white pepper make the spread creamy and well-rounded again. Black pepper would be visually distracting because dark spots stand out in the pale egg salad. White pepper is not a quirk here but a deliberate choice.
How to keep the egg salad fresh for longer
Well covered in the fridge, the egg salad keeps for about two days. After that the avocado begins to turn brownish at the edges. This is not spoilage but oxidation, though it does look unappetising. That is why we add the full tablespoon of lemon juice when mixing, because the acid slows the discolouration. Anyone who wants to prepare the salad a day in advance should scatter the chives over it only just before serving. Spring onions, on the other hand, mellow overnight as they infuse, which does not cause any problems.
Freezing does not work for this egg salad. The avocado and yoghurt separate when thawing and the white turns rubbery. If there is anything left from a large batch, it is best eaten the next day or spread on a slice of oven-warm bread.
Which bread suits the egg salad and what each mustard brings to it
We like the egg salad best on dark rye bread or a hearty wholemeal loaf. The robust crumb holds the cream without going soggy. On white toast the egg salad loses its stage because the mild bread character cannot hold its own against the avocado cream. Anyone who would like a home-baked bread alongside will find our Thermomix® pizza dough as the base for a quick flatbread, or the instructions for a classic yeast loaf in our bread category.
When it comes to mustard, we are flexible. Medium-hot mustard is the balanced standard option. Dijon makes the egg salad sharper and more French in character, while sweet mustard would be too mild for us and would tip the balance of the salad. With wholegrain mustard we get small mustard seeds throughout the salad that make a real flavour impact. When we are in a hurry, we simply use whatever mustard is currently in the fridge.
Related spreads and sauces from the Thermomix®
Anyone who cannot let go of the mayo comparison should take a look at our classic Thermomix® mayonnaise. It shows how the original comes together and makes it clear why the avocado and yoghurt version is no bad swap. Leftover hard-boiled eggs can also be used to make an advocaat, which puts spare yolks to good use. Anyone who still needs Easter eggs coloured and cooked in the Thermomix® will find instructions for that with us as well.
How our egg salad stands out from other recipes
Goes well with: Baguette and tomatoes.
Our tip: Thermomix® lentil salad.
The mayo-free version from Zaubertopf® uses 120 g of soured cream with Dijon and white wine vinegar and cooks the eggs for 25 minutes at Varoma temperature. 15minutenrezepte.de uses Greek yoghurt with gherkins and arrives at 248 kcal per serving. We combine both approaches and go a step further: the avocado takes over the rich creaminess of the mayo, the Greek yoghurt with 10% fat brings the acidity, and our eggs need only 16 minutes at Varoma temperature in the Thermomix® instead of 25. That saves electricity and still delivers a completely set yolk with no grey sulphur ring.
More bread spreads and quick breakfast ideas can be found with our Thermomix® pudding for the sweet side, or our raspberry liqueur with a hint of orange if a fruity liqueur base is still missing.
