Creamy Egg Salad with Bacon & Avocado

Sometimes a dish is inspired by a single perfect ingredient. Or in our case, a dozen. This week we were delighted to have sourced a carton of fresh beautiful brown eggs from a local Amish farm cooperative. These are not our everyday supermarket eggs...coming from free range chickens, their deep yellow yolks and rich creamy whites called out for a meal that would let them star. While our ideas ranged from creme brulee to omelets, hollandaise sauce to meringues, we finally landed on the humble egg salad.  This Creamy Egg Salad with Bacon and Avocado is sumptuous and smooth, with smokey crisps of bacon adding textural contrast, and the avocado giving a cool velvety finish. This is decadence on a plate, with the eggs in center stage. It is as easy to make as it is satisfying.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black cracked pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or fresh garlic clove crushed
• 1/4 cup fresh chives, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon prepared Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (approximately half a lemon)
• 3-5 strips bacon (depending on your preference), cooked, cooled and crumbled
• 1 avocado, sliced

Steps:

1. Hard boil the eggs by your favorite method. I put eggs into a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, put a lid on the pot, take it off the heat and let sit, covered for 12-16 minutes (longer time for larger eggs). Run cooked eggs under cold water and remove the shells. Roughly chop the eggs.

2. Gently mix together chopped eggs, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, garlic, chives, mustard,  lemon juice and bacon.  Taste, adjust seasoning to your preference.

3. Mound on top of your favorite bread (we used Paul's new Honey Oat Bread, post to follow), top with avocado slices and enjoy!