Simple to make with just a few ingredients, homemade mayonnaise is a healthy alternative to store-bought. The best part is, you can vary the taste to your own preferences.
We use this mayo on sandwiches, when we make deviled eggs, for my creamy dill salmon, and for my ranch dressing. It’s a staple I hate to be without!
Homemade Mayonnaise
Healthier than storebought.
Prep Time10 mins
Total Time10 mins
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 283kcal
Ingredients
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup light olive oil (it's light on flavor, not fat)
- 1/4 cup sunflower oil or avocado oil
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- salt to taste
- whey optional
Instructions
- Let your eggs come to room temperature or let them sit in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes before starting. (I've found that this helps my mayo succeed every time, though skipping this step is usually fine as long as you follow step 2.)
- Separate the whites from the yolks. (you can save the whites for something else) and blend the yolks for one to two minutes. I use my blender on the lowest speed though some people use an immersion/stick blender with good success.
- Add the lemon juice or ACV to the eggs if you like a mayo with just a touch of zing.
- Pour both of your oils together in a measuring cup with a spout and begin slowly pouring it into the blended egg yolks, while the blender is still running. You'll want a very thin stream, especially as you first get started, but can slowly start pouring just a bit faster as it begins to emulsify. (it normally takes me just less than a minute to pour all of the oil in)
- Once the oil is completely in the egg yolk mixture and emulsified, pour/scoop it into a bowl and add salt to taste.
Notes
Tips:
If it doesn't work (emulsify) the first time, pour it out into the measuring cup, start with a few new egg yolks and instead of pouring in fresh oil, use your previous attempt. It will be more yellow from the yolks, but the flavor will be about the same.
Some people also like just a touch of sugar in it as well, which can also help wean family off store-bought mayo.
The addition of mustard is a common one, but I hate (like really don't like) mustard. Every once in a while I'll add a bit of Dijon mustard to the mix if I'm using it for deviled eggs or potato salad, but I normally leave it out. Adding about 1/2 tablespoon of whey to the mixture will ferment the mayo. Just add it to the egg yolks as you begin blending and let it sit out for a few hours before refrigerating. Source your eggs from a well-trusted farmer as these egg yolks will remain raw. I would have a hard time using store-bought eggs for this, but I trust the safety of my eggs. You can also use this basic mayo as a base for dips, adding in your favorite seasonings. (adding taco seasoning would be great to use for Mexican dishes, etc)
If it doesn't work (emulsify) the first time, pour it out into the measuring cup, start with a few new egg yolks and instead of pouring in fresh oil, use your previous attempt. It will be more yellow from the yolks, but the flavor will be about the same.
Some people also like just a touch of sugar in it as well, which can also help wean family off store-bought mayo.
The addition of mustard is a common one, but I hate (like really don't like) mustard. Every once in a while I'll add a bit of Dijon mustard to the mix if I'm using it for deviled eggs or potato salad, but I normally leave it out. Adding about 1/2 tablespoon of whey to the mixture will ferment the mayo. Just add it to the egg yolks as you begin blending and let it sit out for a few hours before refrigerating. Source your eggs from a well-trusted farmer as these egg yolks will remain raw. I would have a hard time using store-bought eggs for this, but I trust the safety of my eggs. You can also use this basic mayo as a base for dips, adding in your favorite seasonings. (adding taco seasoning would be great to use for Mexican dishes, etc)
Nutrition
Calories: 283kcal | Protein: 2g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 146mg | Sodium: 6mg | Potassium: 14mg | Vitamin A: 3.9% | Vitamin C: 0.3% | Calcium: 1.7% | Iron: 2.5%
It did take me a few tries to be able to make this without fail. And to honest, my old blender worked better for this than my new and expensive Vitamix! (gah) What you want is for the egg yolks to blend on low without the blender surging. You can also make it with a whisk, a bowl, and your own elbow grease – it just takes a bit longer to emulsify, but works just the same.
Also – the more yellow your yolks, the more yellow your mayo will be!
Donielle Baker
owner and editor of Natural Fertility and Wellness at Natural Fertility and Wellness
I believe women can learn how to heal their bodies & balance their hormones through natural methods. An advocate for natural health, I have a passion for nourishing/real food nutrition and natural living. My personal background includes both infertility and miscarriage and I started Natural Fertility and Wellness in 2008 in order to share all of the information I found helpful in my journey to heal from PCOS and overcome infertility.
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This sounds a little more complicated than my recipe. Mine takes about 2 min. start to finish. The longest part is pouring the ingredients into the jar 😛 I used a stick blender. It takes about 20 seconds to add the oil/finish the mayo.
http://voogtrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/05/homemade-miracle-whip.html
@Mary @ Homemade Dutch Apple Pie, Nope! Same process, just different ingredients! 🙂 (I loathe mustard…..blech!) And you know, I’ve tried it once or twice with my stick blender and it just didn’t work well at all. I wish it did, because it can get slightly messing getting it out of the blender!
Also? I love how everyone’s mayo recipe is different. It really goes to show how we all begin making our food to our families preferences! Which I think is fantastic – instead of accepting the flavor of processed foods.
I have great, super-easy replacement for mayo! It doesn’t really taste like mayo, but it is natural, delicious and SUPER-EASY! (I’ve spread the word to all my heath-conscious friends – so I figured I’d share here, too!)
The only ingredients are avocado and greek yogurt (full fat, please!).
Depending on how much you will use at a time, use half an avocado and 1 tablespoon of greek yogurt. Mash up the avocado first, to a creamy consistency, then add the yogurt. It has the consistency of mayo, but so much better!!!
@Danielle, Yum! I do something very similar for a dip or topping for mexican dishes. That does sound delish on sandwiches. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
This looks wonderful and easy! I have been so afraid to try, I guess I just needed someone to hold my hand through the process. I will definitely be trying this soon!
How long does this keep?
@Lindsey, I’d say a few days to a week. If you lacto-ferment it, it will last a bit longer.
I’ll offer a little constructive criticism….”The olive oil that you see on the supermarket self advertised as “light” or as “Extra Light” olive oil contains the exact same number of calories as regular olive oil and is a mixture of refined olive oils that are derived from the lowest quality olive oils available through chemical processing. These oils are so bad that cannot be consumed by humans without refining. These types of oils also contain significant portions of other lower cost oils such as Canola and Hazelnut oil which have virtually no flavor of their own. They may contain some extra virgin or virgin olive oil (1% maximum). The term “light” or “extra light” refers to the lighter color, fragrance, and flavor obtained by an extremely fine filtration and refining process and not to the amount of calories that the oil contains. We recommend to our customers to stay away from these products because they are industrial products of very low quality.”
Extra virgin olive oil would be far superior in terms of health. If your like me though, it does take some getting used to the robust flavor. I was determined to stick with it and now and I really love it!!
@Josee, Ah yes, I foget about that pesky stuff from the supermarkets. 🙂 I’ve been buying mine through co-ops and directly from the source for so long that I forget not every ‘light’ oil is as good as what I use.
Thanks for the reminder!
just an aside, beware note:
coconut oil in mayo is GROSS. i tried it half and half and we cud barely tolerate it on tunafish or chicken salad. i threw out half of the recipe 🙁 next i did 1/4 to 3/4 and still BLECH. it sits lonely and unused anymore in my fridge… i knew i didnt want EVO in it already, very strong. sigh…im going back to canola oil with something healthful for the other half and at least im not eating soybean oil like the storebought is.
I agree with you, I’m not a fan of coconut oil in my mayo! Plus, it hardens a bit too much when refrigerated.
I’d recommend sunflower oil, it’s what I use and has a super light flavor like canola does. I also get a good quality light olive oil that I like from a local co-op group.
I know this isn’t really conventional but it worked for what I needed. I used half expeller pressed coconut oil (no coconut flavor) and half melted but cooled butter. We ate it right away so I’m not sure how it would be refridgerated. It was all we had in the house. Next time, I’ll probably try the sunflower oil and butter.