Healthy Deviled Eggs

With so many people watching their weight and trying to eat healthier, deciding what to bring to a pot luck can be a tricky decision. No one wants to eat boring health food at a party, but fatty or highly caloric foods are eschewed by many. I’ve got the perfect solution: Healthy Deviled Eggs. With just a handful of ingredients, you can reduce the calorie and fat content considerably, making these a guilt-free treat for everyone.

How Good are Healthy Deviled Eggs?

Deviled eggs always taste amazing. But the classic recipe includes a large quantity of mayonnaise and all the oil and fat that implies. Plus store-bought mayonnaise can contain a ton of additives as well to make it shelf-stable. My version uses all the same classic ingredients for flavor, but I’m swapping out the mayo for yogurt which improves the nutritional profile considerably.

When you make this switch, each healthy deviled egg contains just 48 calories and 3g of fat. If you use low or zero-fat Greek yogurt, that will get lower still. And although the flavor is a little different, I actually prefer them with yogurt. It adds a slight sharpness to cut through the richness – exactly what you need when you’re faced with a range of delicious party food at a pot luck.

How Long to Cook Hard Boiled Eggs?

We’ve all experienced those sad, overcooked boiled eggs with their rings of grey around the yolk instead of being vibrantly yellow and beautiful. No one wants that. When I make hard boiled eggs I time it exactly instead of guessing. How long to cook depends on how big your eggs are. Mine were large and I cooked them for 10 minutes. Take a minute or two off for small or medium eggs, and add a minute or two for extra large or jumbo. But even the largest chicken egg will not need more than 12 minutes.

Start the water heating and only place the eggs in once it is boiling. Start the timer as soon as you lower the eggs into the water. Once the timer goes off, drain and immediately fill up the pan with cold water to stop the cooking process in its tracks.

Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs

The fresher your eggs, the harder they will be to peel neatly. This is one of the few recipes for which you want eggs that are NOT freshly laid. Giving them a few days or even a week for air to penetrate through the porous shells and separate the membrane from the egg a little.

Once the eggs are hard boiled, tap them lightly all over on a hard surface to crack the shells. Use a teaspoon to gently separate the shells and membrane from the boiled egg. I find this is the easiest way to remove the shell without chunks of egg coming along with it. Then use a sharp knife to slice the egg neatly into two halves.

The Filling and Accessories

Mince the capers very finely and mix with the yogurt, garlic, and mustard. Then you just pop the yolks out of the eggs and add to the mix. Some people like to use a blender to make the mix very smooth, but I like a little texture in my healthy deviled eggs. So you can just mix it all together, using a fork to break the egg yolks up if necessary. When finished, you should be left with a creamy yellow mixture.

You can spoon this into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and pipe out perfect pieces, but most of the time, I simply use a small spoon to fill the cavities of the eggs with the deviled mixture.

Transfer the eggs to the serving plate and scatter with the scallions. It doesn’t matter if some of the scallions fall on the plate instead of the eggs; in fact it will help stop the eggs from sliding around too much. Then use a small sieve or tea strainer to dust the paprika over the deviled eggs.

Storage Notes

You can eat the healthy deviled eggs as soon as you make them, but they also store and transport very well – ideal for parties! If you’re making them to take to a pot luck, store the egg whites and the deviled yolk mixture separately in the refrigerator for up to three days. Then just quickly fill the eggs and scatter over the scallions and paprika when you arrive at the party.

If you’ve already filled them and have leftovers, you can just refrigerate in an airtight container and eat within 24 hours.

More Egg Recipes

Eggs are a great source of protein, and very tasty as well. Don’t limit them to breakfast! Here are a few more recipes I’ve made where eggs are the star of the show!

• Spinach Egg Muffins
• Avocado Deviled Eggs
• Italian Baked Eggs
• Matambre

Conclusion

Try out my Healthy Deviled Eggs and see if you agree with me that the yogurt is a genius substitution to make these party favorites a healthy winner. And if you want to experiment with more unusual flavor combinations, please be my guest! I’ve previously used ingredients as diverse as avocado, gochujang, chives, tarragon, and salmon in deviled eggs, and every one of them has been great. Let me know in the comments what you decide to try out.