Veggie Recipes: Healthy Egg Salad with a Sweet Dressing

Eggs are a great food to keep you filled up, they're full of protein and so versatile. Cholesterol and eggs have had a bit of bad press, but its really not a big issue as eggs are so low in saturated fat - they're full of good stuff.

I'm not cool with any animal exploitation but if you buy from small local farmers and make sure they're free range then everyone, chickens included, are winners. If you check for the British Lion Quality mark then the eggs have met the highest food standards too, yay!

I feel like a bit of a cheat calling this a recipe as its so so easy and really versatile. It's more of a framework that you can build upon, and swap around different ingredients to suit your taste and cupboard supplies. Go wild!

To make the salad (feeds two) you need:

-A tin of kidney beans, or another type of pulse, butter beans are another personal favorite

-1/2 a mug of peas, or any other veg.

-A mug of pasta. You could also use couscous, quinoa etc

-1 grated carrot

- 2 eggs (hard boiled, but you could mix in scrambled egg, or plop a poached egg on top)

- 1 tomato, or any other fruit or veg.

-A handful of grapes. They add a little sweet kick which you could also get with kiwi.

-A sprinkle of crushed walnuts, but any nut or seed would be cool.

'Method'

Start of by hard boiling your eggs. I used a snazzy egg boiler, but simmering the eggs in boiling water for 10 mins works just as well :)

While the eggs are cooking put the pasta on to boil. This normally takes about 8 mins, but go with the cooking instructions on your chosen type.

After about 4/5 mins, add in the kidney beans (after rinsing them with cold water) and peas.

While everything's cooking you can make the salad dressing.

You need: a teaspoon of olive oil, a dash of lemon juice, a sprinkle of black pepper, a pea sized amount of french mustard, and a small amount of honey or sugar to taste.
Then all you have to do is mix it up and voila.

Then back to the salad:

When everything's cooked drain the pasta, peas and beans, and add in the tomato, grapes, carrot, and walnuts. Add the salad dressing and toss.

Gently hit the eggs on the side to crack the outside of the shells all the way around. Then you can peal it off really easily and slice the egg. Add it to the salad.

You could arrange all the different bits in nice grouped sections and make your salad super instagram worthy, but I think its nicer to have everything mixed together, with the dressing evenly spread throughout.

Then you're done! Eat straightaway, or pop everything in a tupperware and you've got yourself a super tasty packed lunch.

Let me know if you think of any nice variations! :)

*British Lion Eggs asked me to make a healthy recipe with eggs, and kindly gave me the egg boiler in return. 'Recipe' etc, all my own.