Egg Salad with Dill Pickles (No Mayo!)
This tasty egg salad with dill pickles is an easy high protein lunch to have throughout the week. Chopped hardboiled eggs, diced dill pickles, and a flavorful cottage cheese sauce give you a creamy cottage cheese egg salad recipe that is delicious on its own or served as a sandwich!
I’ll admit to you that I am a recent egg salad lover convert… but I think a lot of this switch comes down to how my egg salad is prepared.
While traditional egg salad is made with sweet relish and coated in a tangy mayonnaise sauce, something about the sweetness of the relish with the hardboiled eggs simply never worked for my taste buds. I’m also not a huge fan of mayonnaise… another adjustment that needed to be made.
Instead of skipping egg salad all together, I chose to come up with my own recipe that skips the relish and substitutes the mayo. What did I end up with? This deliciously easy pickle egg salad recipe!
Coated in a dijon mustard cottage cheese sauce, this cottage cheese egg salad is full of chopped hardboiled eggs and diced dill pickles (instead of the relish!) giving you the perfect savory bite. Plus, one serving of this egg salad has almost 20 grams of protein!
Delicious on its own or served as a sandwich on a piece of whole wheat bread, you’ll love having this egg salad with pickles prepped and ready in your refrigerator. Let’s get to the recipe!
Why you’ll love this pickle egg salad recipe:
You’ll love having this pickle egg salad in your refrigerator because it is:
High protein: Loaded with 8 hard-boiled eggs and a high protein cottage cheese sauce, one serving of this dill pickle and cottage cheese egg salad has almost 20 grams of protein.
An egg salad without mayo: You’ll never know the mayonnaise is missing when you coat your egg salad in this high protein cottage cheese sauce instead. Cottage cheese is a fantastic substitute for mayonnaise and adds protein, calcium, and other nutrients to your recipe.
Made with dill pickles: Hold the relish and keep your egg salad savory by filling it with diced dill pickles and a little bit of pickle juice instead! The chopped pickles not only add crunch to this dill pickle egg salad, but they also add the perfect amount of salty flavor.
Meal prep friendly: Enjoyed cold, this pickle egg salad is a great recipe to prep on a sunday and enjoy throughout your week.
Perfect for summer! Egg salads are a classic summer recipe that make their appearance as a summer BBQ side dish or picnic entree. Bring this dill pickle egg salad to your next event and wow your guests!
Only 8 ingredients: This pickle egg salad only calls for 8 ingredients… and most of them are seasonings! It’s a super easy recipe to plan for and have prepped and ready to go.
You’re going to love this pickle egg salad! Now let’s get into the simple ingredients you will need to make it:
Ingredients you’ll need:
This pickle egg salad recipe only calls for 8 ingredients:
Hardboiled eggs: The base for egg salad is hardboiled eggs that are roughly chopped. I made my own hardboiled eggs by boiling eggs for 12 minutes but you could also buy pre-boiled eggs to make this recipe even easier.
Dill pickles and pickle juice: The key to this tasty pickle egg salad is the chopped dill pickles and subtle addition of pickle juice to the cottage cheese sauce. You can add your pickles to taste and enjoy the subtle crunch and salty flavor they add to your egg salad.
Cottage cheese: Using cottage cheese as the base of your sauce helps achieve a creamy a delicious no mayo egg salad. Making your egg salad with cottage cheese is also a great way to achieve a high protein egg salad and this one has almost 20 grams of protein per serving.
Seasonings: Dried chives, garlic powder, and some pepper is all you will need. This recipe doesn’t call for salt because cottage cheese is a bit saltier than mayonnaise is.
Dijon mustard: Dijon mustard is another classic ingredient that you will find in most egg salad recipes. We will blend the dijon mustard into our cottage cheese to give you the most delicious, high protein cottage cheese sauce sauce
That’s it!
Step by Step Instructions:
1) Roughly chop your hardboiled eggs until they are the consistency you like in your egg salad. Place your chopped eggs into a medium mixing bowl.
2) Finely dice your dill pickles and add them to your chopped hardboiled eggs. Reserve some of the dill pickle juice to use later.
3) Now, we will make the cottage cheese sauce by adding the cottage cheese, dijon mustard, pickle juice, and seasonings to a blender cup. Blend until smooth, moving the cottage cheese mixture down by the blender blades as needed.
4) Add your sauce to your pickles and hard-boiled eggs and mix until well combined. Top your pickle egg salad with dried chives and freshly cracked black pepper and serve cold. Enjoy!
Swaps, substitutions, and serving suggestions:
This cottage cheese egg salad with pickles is one of my current lunch obsessions because it’s easy to make and can be modified to your own tastebuds. Here are a few suggestions:
Change how you serve it: I recommend serving this pickle egg salad on whole wheat toast with some spinach for a high protein lunch recipe. You can also mix it into a salad, serve it in a wrap, or enjoy it on its own for a low carb, high protein recipe option.
Swap your seasonings: While the dried chives should remain, you can swap out your garlic powder and pepper for other flavor additions like paprika, everything bagel seasonings, and more.
Use sweet dill pickles: Miss the sweetness of the relish? You can use bread and butter dill pickles in your pickle egg salad instead! This will add a little bit of sweetness but keep the crunch of chopped pickles.
Add more cottage cheese: This cottage cheese egg salad recipe is creamy and delicious but you could add even more cottage cheese sauce by using a full cup of cottage cheese instead of the half cup that is called for.
And more! Make this recipe your own and tag me on instagram with any fun ideas you come up with!
Recipe FAQ:
How long can I store this egg salad sandwich for?
This recipe can be prepped and stored in an air tight glass container for 3 to 5 days making it the perfect meal prepped lunch to have in your refrigerator.
Do I have to use cottage cheese?
This cottage cheese egg salad recipe has a great option to keep on hand to skip the mayo but preserve the traditional texture of egg salad. If you want to skip the cottage cheese, simply add back in the mayonnaise and adjust to taste!
How do I hardboil an egg?
The base of egg salad is chopped hardboiled eggs that you can make on your own or buy pre-boiled from the grocery store.
For hardboiled eggs at home, simply bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil then gently add your eggs and boil your them for 11-12 minutes. Remove the eggs from the boiling water, run under cold water to halt cooking, and peel once they are cool enough to touch!
Other lunch recipes you will love:
Looking for other lunch ideas? I have a few on my blog that I think you will love:
Grinder Salad Wrap
High Protein Egg Bites with Kale and Mushrooms
Sweet Potato Ground Beef Bowl
Easy Avocado Cottage Cheese Toast
Egg Salad with Dill Pickles (No Mayo!)
This delicious egg salad with dill pickles is an easy high protein lunch to have throughout the week. Chopped hardboiled eggs and diced dill pickles are combined then coated in a flavorful cottage cheese sauce for a tasty egg salad with no mayo that is delicious on its own or served as a sandwich!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Peel your hardboiled eggs then roughly chop them and add them to a medium mixing bowl.
- Finely dice your dill pickles and add them to your hardboiled eggs.
- To a blender or blender cup add your cottage cheese, dill pickle juice, dijon mustard, and seasonings then blend until creamy and smooth. You may need to shake the cottage cheese sauce down near the blender blades to help it blend thoroughly.
- Add your cottage cheese sauce to your egg salad and mix until everything is well coated. Top with dried chives and cracked black pepper and enjoy it on its own or serve it on whole grain toast!
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Hey! I’m Lauren
I’m a Registered Dietitian and busy toddler mom committed to bringing you delicious, nutritious, and easy-to-make recipes!