My Korean Mom’s 1-Ingredient Upgrade for the Best Egg Salad
Try it once and you'll never look back.
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“My mom makes the best...” is a common thing food writers say. I reserve the right to make this claim just once: I'm not exaggerating when I say that my mom makes the best egg salad.
Oftentimes when I went to a friend’s house for a playdate when I was younger, I was served an egg salad sandwich—it's easy to make and a winner for adults and kids alike. I accepted and ate the sandwich with gratitude, but I still have a vivid memory of them always lacking something compared to the ones my mom fed us at home.
After I moved away and started cooking for myself, the egg salads that I made were good but never amazing. I prodded my mom for her recipe and was surprised when she revealed her secret: My mom adds diced apples to her egg salad. This simple upgrade makes her egg salads a tiny bit sweeter, more balanced, and gives them some needed texture.
How To Add Apples to Your Egg Salad
My mom's upgrade can improve any egg salad recipe. All you need to do is incorporate the apples into your egg salad, just like you would add other ingredients like diced celery, chopped red bell pepper, or bacon.
How much apple you add is a matter of taste. For a big batch of egg salad, say eight eggs, my mom uses one big apple. Simply add enough to achieve the sweetness and texture you like.
My mom typically uses a sweeter variety of apples, such as Gala or Fuji. You could go for Honeycrisp, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, or Pink Lady apples. If you want to use up the fruit you already have on hand, that works too! This isn't rocket science.
Here's my mom's tip for preparing the apples: You're going to make a salt water bath using a ratio of one teaspoon of kosher salt for every cup of water. For a large apple, you'll need one cup of salt water.
Then, peel the apple and cut it into 1/4-inch cubes. Add the diced apples to the salt water to soak for about 10 minutes, drain well, and mix into your favorite egg salad recipe.
My mom told me to tell you to resist the temptation to rinse the apples after you soak them in the salt water. The mild salt flavor that lingers on each piece will help season the egg salad even more in the best way possible. The salt brine also prevents the apples from browning too quickly.
Though I suspect you'll eat all of your egg salad with apples right away because it'll be delicious, if you have leftovers, store it tightly covered and refrigerated for up to five days.
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4 More Egg Salad Recipes To Try
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