Whether you cook them yourself or buy hard boiled eggs at the grocery store, they provide a big boost of protein and an easy portable snack. But how do you use hard cooked eggs besides eating them out of hand or deviling them?
We’ve rounded up over a dozen delicious recipes that use hard boiled eggs. Choose from salads, snack boards, bistro boxes, sandwiches, and wraps to use up leftover Easter eggs or add some excitement to this week’s meal prep.
Prep & Storage Tips
Cooking hard boiled eggs is a fairly easy process. You can hard cook eggs in the air fryer or food processor or in a pot of water on the stove. Alternatively, several stores, including Costco and Trader Joe’s sell hard boiled eggs ready to go.
- Don’t cook more eggs than you can reasonably use in the next week.
- It’s important to plunge the cooked egg in ice water straight away in order to stop the cooking process and prevent green yolks.
- Store the hard cooked eggs in a dish in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Never let the eggs stand at room temperature for longer than two hours total. This means they should not be used in Easter egg hunts or left for hours on the table while the kids are dying them.
- Peeled and chopped hard cooked eggs can be frozen, but with a caveat. The texture of frozen cooked egg whites does change. In my opinion, they become rubbery. Test the strategy with one egg and see how you like it. If it passes your taste test, proceed to freeze chopped hard boiled eggs for future salads and sandwiches.
- Alternatively, egg yolks tend to freeze with better results. Separate the egg yolks from the whites, place in a ziptop freezer bag. Remove all the air and store in the freezer. These can be added to salads or used in sandwiches as a spread, mixed with mayo.
FAQs
Yes. Hard boiled eggs will decay like other food. Store them in the refrigerator and use within a week of cooking.
Like other prepared foods, hard boiled eggs should not be left at room temperature for longer than two hours.
To make easy peel hard boiled eggs, cook them in an electric pressure cooker. If that isn’t possible, use older eggs, ie those closer to their best by date, and be sure to plunge the eggs in an ice water bath immediately after cooking.
Serving Suggestions
Hard boiled eggs are delicious
- quartered or sliced in main dish salads or chopped for side salads, like potato salad
- as a mayo-based spread or sliced and layered with other ingredients in sandwiches
- tucked into lettuce or tortilla like wraps
- served on snack trays
- deviled with mayo and spices
You can also use hard boiled eggs in Scotch eggs or even meatloaf!
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MaryP
I have found a fool-proof way of hard boiling eggs that are easy to peel. It is a known fact that the fresher the eggs are, the harder they are to peel. I have done this with eggs still literally warm from the chicken, and they peeled like a dream. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the eggs (I use a spoon), boil for 12 minutes. Move the eggs off the heat and let set for 3 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water. Crack the shells all over before starting to peel. If you are using jumbo eggs, increase the boiling time by a minute or two.