Creamy Cottage Cheese Egg Salad made without mayo or yogurt, ready in 30 minutes, and packed with 11 grams of protein. Perfect for sandwiches or dipping!
We also love high protein cottage cheese chicken salad, avocado egg salad and chicken egg salad for a twist on the classic.
Cottage cheese egg salad is a version of my healthy egg salad. I wondered if cottage cheese could stand in for the dressing, so I decided to test. It turned out wonderful without any mayonnaise or Greek yogurt!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- High in protein: Each serving of egg salad with cottage cheese packs 11 grams of protein and keeps carbs low.
- Ready in 30 minutes: Quick prep and assembly. It can be even faster with pre-boiled eggs.
- Perfect for meal prep: Up your protein intake for the entire week by making a batch of this cottage cheese egg salad recipe to enjoy for up to 5 days.
- Flavorful: My high protein egg salad has rich creaminess with a tang and chunky texture of a traditional egg salad. I think even if you’re not big on cottage cheese, you’ll still enjoy it!
Ingredients for Cottage Cheese Egg Salad
- Cottage cheese: Use your favorite cottage cheese. I used 2% and it worked perfectly. Any low-fat cottage cheese is fine but full-fat cottage cheese will yield more creamy egg salad.
- Eggs: You will need 6 large eggs. Check out my tried-and-true methods how to make hard boiled eggs below.
- Pickles and celery: These add a refreshing crunch and tangy taste, but feel free to skip one or both if you don’t love them.
- Red onion: I love how red onion adds sharpness and a pop of color. Swap it out with white onion or green onion, if you prefer.
- Fresh herbs: Finely chopped dill is my go-to for egg salad, but parsley or chives will work too.
- Dijon mustard: Brings a delightful kick and depth of flavor that’s hard to resist.
- Spices: Just a pinch of salt and pepper does the trick.
How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs
You can cook your eggs using any method, just make sure they’re not overcooked and rubbery or undercooked and runny.
Honestly, I’ve found that both Instant Pot hard boiled eggs and air fryer hard boiled eggs have been game-changers for me over the years. They’re hands off and make peeling a breeze.
One thing I always swear by is placing the cooked eggs in an ice bath for 10-15 minutes. This not only cools them down fast but also guarantees easy peeling.
- Instant Pot: In your 6 quart Instant Pot or 8 quart Instant Pot, pour in 1 cup of water, then place the eggs in a basket or on a trivet. Select Pressure Cook on High or Manual for 5 minutes, and let it naturally release for 5 minutes before venting the pressure.
- Air fryer: Air fry at 250 F for 15 minutes.
- Stovetop: Boil eggs in a pot filled with water, ensuring they are fully submerged, for 12 minutes after the water reaches a rolling boil with heat turned off.
- Oven: Bake eggs in a muffin tin at 350 F for 30 minutes.
How to Make Cottage Cheese Egg Salad
Here’s a quick photo overview how to make egg salad with cottage cheese in just 4 simple steps. You’ll find a full recipe card below.
- Hard boil the eggs: Prepare hard boiled eggs on the stove, in an air fryer, or in an Instant Pot (my preferred method). Once cooled, peel and chop them to your desired size.
- Assemble the salad: In a medium mixing bowl, toss in the chopped eggs, pickles, celery, red onion, dill, cottage cheese, mustard, salt, and pepper.
- Stir and chill: Give it a gentle stir to blend everything together. If you’ve got a spare 10 minutes, pop it in the fridge to chill, or dive in right away if you can’t wait!
- Serve: Enjoy egg salad with cottage cheese on a toast, in a sandwich, atop a bed of lettuce, or use crackers or sliced veggies for dipping.
Tips for Best Results
- Chop eggs to your liking: I prefer them larger for sandwiches and smaller for dipping, but feel free to chop them as you like.
- For more creamy salad: Separate egg yolks from egg whites, mash the yolks with cottage cheese, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper into a dressing first. Then add egg whites along with the remaining ingredients, and mix.
- Use an egg slicer: It speeds up the process, ensuring perfectly sliced hard boiled eggs.
- Let salad chill: While not necessary, chilling lets the flavors blend, even if just for 10 minutes.
Additions and Variations
- Make it creamy: Mix in chunks of avocado. Use dark green avocados that are a bit soft to the touch.
- More seasonings: Add a pinch of curry powder, jalapeño or sriracha for a fiery kick, or sprinkle in some Italian seasoning for a flavorful peppery twist.
- Extra protein: Make it heartier and keep hunger at bay longer by adding crumbled baked bacon, Instant Pot shredded chicken, tuna, or crab meat.
- More veggies: Add extra fiber, vitamins, and taste with tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, green onions or shredded carrots.
Serving Ideas
You can serve cottage cheese egg salad in so many tasty ways, and it’s always a hit for any occasion!
A classic choice is to whip up a sandwich using bread, Greek yogurt bagel, almond flour Greek yogurt bagels or a cottage cheese bagel. You can also enjoy it open-faced on toast or as a lettuce wrap.
For a lighter twist, serve it on a bed of leafy greens or arugula.
Enjoy it as a healthy snack alongside crackers or veggies, perfect for spreading or dipping.
Or instead of mixing avocado into the salad itself, you can stuff avocado halves with the salad. It’s a delicious alternative!
How to Store
Store: Keep any leftover egg salad in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I suggest using a glass container instead of plastic, and do not freeze!
Make ahead: You can hard boil the eggs and chop the veggies ahead of time and store them tightly covered in the fridge for up to 2 days. When ready to enjoy, simply mix everything together.
Don’t freeze. Freezing will change its creamy texture and taste. Egg salad is best enjoyed fresh or stored in the fridge for a few days.
More Cottage Cheese Recipes
- Cottage cheese egg muffins
- Cottage cheese scrambled eggs
- Baked egg tortilla
- Cottage cheese flatbread
- Cottage cheese frittata
Cottage Cheese Egg Salad
Video
Ingredients
- 6 hard boiled eggs, chopped
- 1/4 cup pickles, finely chopped
- 1 large celery stalk, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons dill, finely chopped
- 1 1/4 cups cottage cheese, I used 2%
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Make hard boiled eggs on the stove, in air fryer or in Instant Pot (my favorite method). Cool, peel and chop as large or small as you like.
- In a large bowl, add chopped hard boiled eggs, pickles, celery, red onion, dill, cottage cheese, mustard, salt and pepper.
- Gently stir to combine. Let chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, if you have time, or enjoy right away.
- Serve on a toast, in a sandwich, on a lettuce or dip into with crackers or sliced veggies.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Do not freeze.
- Make ahead: You can refrigerate all salad ingredients tightly covered for up to 2 days. Combine before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Very tasty,and I also blended the cottage cheese to make a smooth texture. Used sweet relish because I didn’t have pickles.
Great swap with the sweet relish! Blending the cottage cheese for a smoother texture is such a smart move—glad it turned out tasty! 😋
Looking forward to trying this but i usually just blend my tub of cottage cheese when i open it with an immersion blender till smooth as i don’t like its lumps and add it into things . I’m just going to add it like mayo to this recipe 🙂
That is a great idea, Debbie! Enjoy the salad!
I really want to make this but I just had my gallbladder removed in July and I can no longer tolerate egg yolks 🙁 any ideas if there’s anything I can substitute to still give it a similar taste / texture? I worry egg whites alone wouldn’t do it. Thank you!
I honestly am not sure. Egg yolks are fat, so any good fatty substitute would work. I would make with egg whites and maybe more high fat Greek yogurt than the recipe calls for. I don’t think it will be that bad or if there is another sub.
This is a favorite, I love the way it increases the volume of egg salad to something substantial. I have also scaled it down to use a single serving of one egg and then added the ingredients scaled back to that. I added Penzey seasoned salt and that took care of salt pepper and paprika additions. I am not crazy about raw onion so subbed chives. Makes a great snack mid morning. My new go to eggsalad recipe. Thanks.
Sounds delicious, Frances! I love hearing how you made this your own! Thank you for the rating!
This is my new favorite egg salad recipe! Not a huge fan of mayo, greek yogurt is ok in some recipes, but sometimes overpowering. I love cottage cheese, so this was a win win for me!! Thanks for sharing it with us!
Yay, that’s awesome! I know what you mean about the Greek yogurt. I cannot have it alone in a dressing in an egg salad, there has to be a touch of mayo but can totally go 100% with cottage cheese.
Yum!
Glad you loved this salad, Wanda!