I love egg salad, but whenever I eat it, I can’t help but feel guilty. My guilt probably stems from the fact that I’d never sit and eat more than two hard boiled eggs, but I would eat several heaping servings of egg salad without a second thought. I have the same difficulty saying no to avocados, but, as I mentioned when I wrote about avocados, I’ve just decided not to care.

One day though, something magical happened. I was at a catered party and they had the most delicious egg salad on little toast rounds: just egg whites and avocados. It had all the simple creaminess of egg salad, but felt much lighter and cooler due to the lack of yolks. And absolutely no guilt, though maybe there should have been, as I easily downed a dozen of them.

I’ve been dreaming about this salad ever since and last night, I set out to make some hard boiled eggs and like a fool, wandered into another room and forgot about them for half an hour. When I got them off the heat, I realized that the yolks would be too chalky and grey to enjoy. Luckily, I also happened to have some perfectly ripe avocados on pause in the fridge. The accident created the perfect scenario to try this recipe, as I don’t usually have egg whites on their own. I’m reserving the less-than-desirable yolks for another project.

Clearly I didn’t invent the recipe below, but it’s definitely something that is getting added to my repertoire whenever I happen to have the ingredients on hand.

Recipe: Egg White Avocado Salad

Makes 6-10 servings

• 8 extra large hard-boiled eggs, yolks removed (~2 cups chopped into 1/2-inch pieces)
• 1-2 Hass avocados, (~1 cup chopped into 1/2-inch pieces)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (to taste)
• 1 tsp salt (to taste)
• sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper (to taste)

1. Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Gently stir, until the avocado softens and begins to lightly coat the egg white pieces.
2. Serve on a cracker, a small piece of toast, on broad slices of another vegetable (red bell pepper perhaps?), or just enjoy with a spoon.