If you gave up on egg salad on squishy bread twenty years ago, this is your sign. Smoked pimentón, white miso and chili crunch go into the dressing, caramelized shallots and a little more chili crunch go on top, and the chives were the last of mine from the garden.
Ingredients
The Dressing
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp white miso paste
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp chili crunch
- ¼ tsp bittersweet smoked pimentón
- 1–2 tsp salt, to taste
- Black pepper
The Salad
- 8–10 eggs, hard boiled
- ½ cup carrots, finely diced
- ⅓ cup green pepper, finely diced
- ¼ cup scallions, sliced
- ¼ cup fresh chives, chopped
- ⅛ cup fresh parsley, chopped
To Finish
- 6–7 shallots, thinly sliced and caramelized
- More chili crunch
Instructions
- Boil the eggs. Hard boil them, cool them all the way down, then peel and chop.
- Caramelize the shallots. Slice them thin and sauté them slowly in oil until deep golden and sweet. You want them soft with a little bite left — not fried hard, not raw. Set them aside to cool.
- Whisk the dressing. Mayonnaise, Dijon, miso, vinegar, olive oil, chili crunch, pimentón, salt and pepper, all whisked together until smooth before it goes anywhere near the eggs.
- Cut the vegetables small. Carrots and green pepper finely diced, scallions sliced thin. Everything wants to be small enough to catch in a spoonful.
- Combine. Add the chopped eggs, carrots, green pepper, scallions, chives and parsley to a bowl.
- Dress it. Pour over as much as you like and fold it through so everything is coated. You may not need all of it.
- Finish at the table. Pile the caramelized shallots on top and spoon over a little more chili crunch, right before it gets eaten.
Use pimentón de la Vera if you can find it — it is smoked over oak, and it is the only thing in here doing the smoke. Plain Spanish pimentón is sun-dried and will not get you there. The shallots go on at the very end, or they disappear into the dressing instead of sitting on top where you can see them.