Egg Salad and Cucumber Sandwiches

Waiting for med school decisions. Checking email every thirty minutes. Not obsessed (obsessed). Cooking more: six meals in six days, each a different prayer. MawMaw Shirley called Thursday: "Stop checking your email." I said I was not. She said, "I can hear it in your voice." Her superpower: detection of anxiety through telephone acoustics.

Meal four was this one — egg salad and cucumber sandwiches — and I chose it specifically because it asks something of you. You have to peel each egg slowly. You have to dice the celery small enough to matter. There’s no rushing it without it falling apart, and some part of me needed a task that would punish impatience, because I was drowning in it. MawMaw Shirley would approve: she always said the foods worth eating are the ones that make you pay attention while you’re making them.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

6 large eggs
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 stalks celery, finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh chives, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 slices sandwich bread (white, whole wheat, or sourdough)
1 English cucumber, thinly sliced into rounds
4 leaves butter lettuce (optional)

Instructions

Hard-boil the eggs. Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan and cover with cold water by one inch. Bring to a full boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for exactly 10 minutes. Transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water and let sit for 5 minutes before peeling.
Chop and mix. Peel the cooled eggs and chop them into small, roughly even pieces — not too fine, so there’s still some texture. In a medium bowl, combine the chopped eggs, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, celery, and chives. Stir gently until just combined.
Season carefully. Add smoked paprika, then season with salt and black pepper to taste. Stir once more and adjust any ingredient to your liking. The egg salad can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored covered in the refrigerator.
Assemble the sandwiches. Lay out 4 slices of bread and divide the egg salad evenly among them, spreading it to the edges. Layer cucumber slices over the top, slightly overlapping, then add a lettuce leaf if using. Top with the remaining 4 slices of bread and press gently.
Cut and serve. Slice each sandwich in half diagonally. Serve immediately for the best texture, or wrap tightly in parchment and refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Nutrition (per serving)

Egg Salad and Cucumber Sandwiches — Six Meals, Six Prayers While Waiting on the Rest of My Life