We dip, dye, paint, and glue decorative objects to their fragile shells. And then we call them Easter eggs. The quandary of Easter is that after you spent all those magical moments decorating the eggs with your children, you’ll find after the great hunt is done, no one actually wants to eat them.
So what do you do with all those coloured eggs that are just sitting pretty in your refrigerator?
Hard-boiled eggs are very versatile and can be used in a number of recipes, including appetizers, spreads, sandwiches, and more!
While eating them in egg sandwiches, potato salad, or as devilled eggs may be the traditional way, there are more creative recipes for using your leftover Easter eggs.
Try creamed eggs for breakfast. Melt two tablespoons of butter in saucepan, add equal amounts flour until it forms into a ball. Slowly add the milk and stir until the sauce thickens. Add some salt, black pepper, and chopped eggs into the sauce; continue to cook until the eggs are heated. Top onto toast.
Looking for light healthy lunch? One common use for eggs is adding it to your salads. Besides being a great addition to Caesar salad, egg mingles well with spinach. Add some sliced radishes, mushrooms and red onions to your spinach greens.
Eggs in salad are especially good when combined with bacon bits and a sweeter salad dressing such as honey mustard or French.
Enjoy your vegetables with a healthy serving of protein. But if something hot is more to your liking, then you might consider adding egg as a garnish to your favourite soup.
Besides the stand-alone egg salad, chopped hard-boiled eggs are popular in macaroni and potato salad recipe to enhance the texture.
It is also not uncommon to add hard-boiled eggs to liver pates or meat loaf to add structure.
Another way to present hard-boiled eggs is as appetizers. While most are thinking devilled eggs, for me eggs and blue cheese dip comes to mind.
The strong flavour of the blue cheese mingles well with the mild taste of the egg. A quick recipe for this dip is to combine six eggs with 3/4 cup blue cheese in a food processor. Puree the mixture and then add yogurt. This dip is great with vegetables like carrot, cauliflower and sweet peas.
Then there is the Scotch eggs, the traditional British savoury snack.
The Scotch egg consists of hardboiled egg wrapped in a minced meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs and then fried.
Traditionally these are deep fried, but the health conscious cooks have converted to pan frying in order to improve their nutritional content. .
This British culinary favourite has also crossed over to the Indian subcontinent. There, the scotch eggs are served in creamy tomato curry sauce and is a popular Indian dish called Nargis kofta. In India, the not-so-strict vegetarians rely on eggs as their protein source. Cooked eggs are included has a main ingredient into curries and rice dish.
Finally, possibly the most whimsical use of leftover hard-boiled eggs is in cookies.
Add the cooked eggs in the cookie recipe below to keep them fresh longer, and to give the middle an interesting moist yet crumbly texture.
The recipe options for using up dyed Easter eggs are many.
Be creative with your leftovers. Just remember that a hard-cooked dyed Easter egg is as versatile as a cooked one without dye, just a bit more colourful.
Egg curry
6 eggs
45ml (3 tablespoon) oil
2 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
10ml (2 teaspoon) fresh ginger, grated
15ml (3 teaspoon) coriander powder
10ml (2 teaspoon) cumin powder
5ml (1 teaspoon) turmeric
2ml (1/2 teaspoon) chilli powder
2-3 ripe tomatoes, diced
5ml (1 teaspoon) salt
125ml (1/2 cup) water
1/4 cup yogurt
2.5ml (1/2 teaspoon) garam masala
Heat oil and fry onions, garlic and ginger until soft and golden brown. Add coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli and fry for a few seconds. Then add tomatoes and salt and stir over medium heat until tomatoes are soft and pulpy. Add water and yogurt .
Cover and simmer until gravy is thick. Stir in garam masala and the halved eggs and heat through.
Double Chocolate Hard Boiled Egg Cookies
1 1/3cup bleached flour
60ml (4 tablespoons) cocoa powder
125ml (1/2cup) butter cold, cut up
2ml (1/4 teaspoon) baking soda
125ml (1/2cup)granulated sugar
30ml (2 tablespoon) brown sugar
1 hardboiled egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
45ml (3 tablespoon) sour cream
1cup chocolate chips (or chop up some leftover Easter chocolate)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In bowl of food processor, pulse flour, cocoa and butter until coarse and mealy. Add salt and baking soda and pulse again to mix. Add both sugars and egg and pulse until mealy, then add the vanilla and sour cream and pulse to mix. Dump into a bowl and stir or mash in the chocolate pieces.
Shape the dough into 4 big balls — it should stick together easily. The balls will look gross and have flecks of egg white and maybe yolk – don’t be alarmed. Bake on parchment lined insulated baking sheet for 20 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely. These cookies are best the day after they are baked.
Scotch eggs
4 eggs
225g (1/2 lbs.) ground meat
5ml (1 teaspoon) fresh ginger, grated
125ml (1/2 cup) onion, chopped finely
45ml (3 tablespoon) cilantro, chopped
5ml (1 teaspoon) salt
5ml (1 teaspoon )cumin powder
1 egg beaten
1 1/2 cup Caesar croutons, crushed finely
Oil for pan frying
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Run the meat through the food processor so the meat in very finely ground. Then transfer meat into bowl. Mix onion, ginger, cilantro, salt and cumin powder. Flatten the meat and make a patty to surround each egg. Dip the meat ball in the beaten egg. Roll in bread crumbs to cover evenly. Pan fry until golden brown, or pan fry while making sure each side is well cooked. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Cut in half and serve over a bed of lettuce and sliced tomatoes for garnish.
Madhu Badoni is a Red Deer-based freelance food writer. She can be reached at madhubadoni@gmail.com.