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Healthy Egg Salad – Not your standard salad!

Plate of egg salad on a pink table top with a glass of water in the left hand corner. | Hurry The Food Up

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Our healthy egg salad recipe isn’t your bog standard egg salad full of mayonnaise, ready to load into a sandwich.

We have created a unique egg salad, with slightly-soft boiled eggs, beetroot, quinoa and fresh leaves! It’s colourful, full of flavour and super duper healthy.

And it only takes 15 minutes to put together!

The base of leafy greens is wonderfully crunchy, while the beetroot adds a pop of colour and a sharp tang, which offsets the mild flavour of jammy eggs.

The very first time I tried this recipe there was something missing – I felt hungry 30 minutes later. And that’s not a pleasant feeling when you have a busy day in front of you. Something was missing.

It turns out quinoa was the key.

Quinoa gives this salad some bulk, making it more filling than a standard salad of just veggies. The feta cheese sprinkled over the top is rich and salty, the perfect addition. Couscous works just as well, too.

If your mouth is already watering at the thought of all those lovely flavours, textures and colours – wait until you hear about how healthy it is! You’ll be drooling!

The ingredients for the egg salad, including eggs, salad leaves, quinoa, beetroot, feta, oil, honey, vinegar, parsley. | Hurry The Food Up

Great EGG-xpectations for this healthy egg salad!

The ingredients in this salad could NOT get any healthier. Egg AND quinoa!? It’s a health conscious vegetarian’s dream.

Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet, and quinoa is a certified superfood and one of few plant-based sources of complete protein!

Check out our healthy huevos rancheros, for another great egg recipe, or our lentil quinoa salad, if it’s quinoa that you’re excited about!

A look at the overall nutritional data for this dish gives you an idea of what you’ll be eating.

One serving is 441 kcal, which is the perfect amount for a lunch time meal. It can be hard to make a salad that contains enough calories to constitute a full meal, as leaves and veggies tend to be very low in calories.

If we’re too low on calories we’ll run out of energy quickly and/or give in to cravings that might sidetrack our healthy eating plans entirely.

That’s one of the reasons we made this a quinoa egg salad, because the quinoa provides a good helping of calories to keep you full up until dinnertime.

A glass bowl of 4 boiled eggs in water on a pink surface. | Hurry The Food Up

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A healthy AND high-protein egg salad

The most stand out feature of this salad is that it has 24g protein per serving!! That’s basically half the average recommended amount of between 46-56g depending on your sex and weight.

Casually busting the myth that vegetarians can’t get enough protein!

The fact that this healthy egg salad has so much protein in it means that it is also a good option for anyone looking to lose weight.

Protein rich foods help to reduce the levels of hunger hormone ghrelin, making them super filling. Filling foods fend off hunger for longer, meaning you are less likely to snack between meals.

Therefore, a portion of this protein-rich salad for lunch should help you maintain a slim calorie deficit, by reducing the need to top up on snacks! There’s a reason this is one of our fave lunch ideas for vegetarians AND one of our fave protein-packed egg recipes as well!

Check out our vegetarian weight loss course if you want to learn more stuff like this about how to healthily and effectively lose weight as a vegetarian.

A plate of healthy egg salad on a pink table top witha glass of water and a small dish of pepper. | Hurry The Food Up

How to cook jammy eggs

If you don’t know what jammy eggs are, they are basically eggs that have been boiled to the point that the yolk is almost completely hard, but still a bit soft and sticky right in the centre.

The perfect egg in my opinion!

How long to boil an egg for can be something of a mystery. A seemingly simple task and yet I’m sure we’ve all peeled an egg we believed to be cooked through, only to discover that it’s practically raw.

There are many variables that can affect how long it takes for an egg to cook: size, temperature etc

However, when prepping this recipe, we worked out that a pretty safe bet is 6 minutes 30 seconds for a very soft boiled egg, and 7 minutes for a firmer but still jammy egg. Hopefully that helps!

We recommend going for firmer eggs for this healthy egg salad, as this is a salad and you probably don’t want yolk all over your leaves! But really, that’s up to you!

Enjoy!

A bowl of healthy egg salad on a pink table top with a glass of water. | Hurry The Food Up
Healthy Egg Salad
5 from 5 votes
Looking to up your salad game? Try this healthy egg salad recipe with quinoa and beets – the perfect weight loss lunch!
Diet: gluten-free
Prep Time:5 minutes
Cook Time:15 minutes
Total Time:20 minutes
Servings:2 people
Calories:419kcal
Author: Abril Macías

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Cook the quinoa according to packet instructions. We use 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa. Bring to boil, simmer, and when water has evaporated then take off heat and cover with a tea towel for about 5 minutes.
    ½ cup quinoa
  • In a small pot with boiling water add the eggs. Cook for 6 minutes and 30 seconds for a jammy egg with slightly liquid yolk in the centre or 7 minutes for a firmer yet still jammy egg. Then take eggs out into ice water to cool. Once cold, peel them.
    4 egg
    A glass bowl of 4 boiled eggs in water on a pink surface. | Hurry The Food Up
  • Meanwhile, add the thinly sliced beets to a small pot and cover them with water. The water should top the beets by ½ an inch. Add two big pinches of salt and the white vinegar. Once the liquid boils, let it simmer for 3 minutes. Immediately take beets off the hot liquid. If using pre-boiled beets then slice and leave to sit in the same amount of hot water and vinegar.
    The mixture can be discarded when you use the beets in the final step
    ½ cup beetroot, pre-cooked, 3 tbsp white vinegar
  • Mix olive oil, honey, apple vinegar and ¼ tsp salt.
    2 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp apple vinegar
  • Plate the salad with the quinoa, salad greens, beets, crumbled cheese, parsley leaves and eggs cut in half or fourths. Give the ingredients a good sprinkle of salt and black pepper. Finish the dish with the dressing.
    3 cups salad greens, 2 oz low fat feta cheese, 1 handful parsley, fresh, Salt and pepper to taste
    A plate of healthy egg salad on a pink table top witha glass of water and a small dish of pepper. | Hurry The Food Up

NOTES

Tips:
  • Cook the eggs a couple of mins longer so they’re hard-boiled, not jammy.
  • It is ideal to take for work!
 
Make-ahead? Yes, I’d prep it in the morning, then take to work. The 2nd serving can be stored in the fridge for the next day.
In love with eggs and quinoa? Try these recipes:
A Cracking Option! – Breakfast Beans and Eggs
These Eggs Are No Yolk! – Healthy Huevos Rancheros
In 4 Easy, Tasty Ways – Breakfast Egg Muffins
Plant Protein Power Couple – Lentil Quinoa Salad
Tropical Vibes – Thai Quinoa Salad

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Healthy Egg Salad
Amount per Serving
Calories
419
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
19
g
29
%
Saturated Fat
 
6
g
38
%
Trans Fat
 
0.04
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
4
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
7
g
Cholesterol
 
343
mg
114
%
Sodium
 
715
mg
31
%
Potassium
 
590
mg
17
%
Carbohydrates
 
38
g
13
%
Fiber
 
4
g
17
%
Sugar
 
7
g
8
%
Protein
 
25
g
50
%
Vitamin A
 
1342
IU
27
%
Vitamin C
 
18
mg
22
%
Calcium
 
87
mg
9
%
Iron
 
4
mg
22
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Comments
5 from 5 votes (5 ratings without comment)

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6 comments
  1. Replaced quinoa with pearl couscous–so amazing. thank you for the recipe!

    1. Ooh, nice idea, Sarah! Glad you enjoyed it and great to know it works well. Other readers may find that very useful too. Thanks for writing 🙂

  2. Ur recipe brought smile to my son’s face. He is on diet and loved this egg salad. Thankyou

    1. Glad your loved one enjoyed it!!

  3. it doesnt say what you do with the quinoa ,should i just sprinkle over salad?

    1. Ah good catch! Yes, exactly, it should be mixed into the salad before serving 🙂