Making your own mayonnaise puts you in charge of the ingredients. This recipe can be made in under one minute!
Food is our Fuel
I love the connection that we can have with our food. Food is our fuel. Without the proper fuel in a car, it cannot run and without the proper fuel in our body, our body, though much more strong and resilient than a car, will eventually be sick and not run like it should.
In the fast paced world that we live, everything is about speed and convenience. In order to healthify our bodies, we need to slow down and take care of ourselves.
When I first read about a friend of mine making her own mayonnaise, I thought she was crazy. Why would I spend time making something that someone else already perfected!? I eventually discovered that soybean oil and sugar are not perfection, especially for the ailing tummies that I was caring for in my home.
And so like a crazy person, I decided to make my own mayonnaise as well. And guess what? It isn’t hard or even complicated. It requires minimal ingredients and it will last for about 2 weeks in your fridge. Once you have mastered a healthy mayonnaise recipe you can make all sorts of other healthy things! So empowering! You should do it too. We can be empowered together.
Preservatives
The other beef I have with store bought mayo comes from this lovely story. My mother-in-law has a best friend and some relative of her best friend, I’m pretty sure a grandmother, leaves her opened jars of mayo on her pantry shelf. Gross, right?
Well, she leaves them on her shelf because they don’t go bad. Preservatives, lots and lots of preservatives, that is why she can leave her opened jar of mayonnaise on her shelf.
Some of you might think that is awesome. I, however, do not. When you make this new mayonnaise recipe to make you feel empowered, don’t leave it on your pantry shelf, because REAL food does go bad. Put it in the fridge folks and feel happy inside.
Egg Free?
If you have egg issues, there are eggless mayonnaise options out there. I made a version of this exact recipe, with milk in place of the egg. It worked amazingly well. I tried it with almond milk but it did not thicken up like it did with the regular milk. (See notes below)
Choosing the Right Oil
Let’s chat about soybean oil. You will find soybean oil in most processed foods. Soybean and vegetable oils are pretty much the same thing. Vegetable oil can have a mixture of oils but typically it is mostly or all soybean oil. Crisco is soybean oil.
Soybeans are healthy, right? So soybean oil is too? So much in the food industry has to do with processing and price. Soybean oil is overly processed so that it can have a long shelf life. It is also one of the cheapest oils available, which is why so many food companies use it.
Soybeans are also a GMO crop. If you don’t know much about that, do a little research. They are changing our food industry and it is something we need to pay attention to.
To sum it up, conventional soybean oil is not the best oil to use. Good healthy fats are so important for our body but bad fats can wreak havoc. Conventional soybean oil falls under the wreaking havoc category. Making your own mayonnaise puts you in the driver seat. Choose the oils that you know are good for you. See recipe notes for more oil info.
The Recipe
I went to a nutrition class years ago and this recipe was from the instructor. I have tried different recipes but I always come back to this one.
It is simple and delicious.
This recipe comes together so quickly but you do need a few specials tools. You need a wide mouth pint jar and an immersion blender.
You can make it in a Bosch with wire whisks but the immersion blender version is very simple.
It is super helpful to bring all the ingredients to room temperature, specifically the egg. I have made it without remembering this step and it usually works but the times it has failed, the egg hasn’t been at room temperature. Just a warning.
When I first started making this recipe, extra virgin olive oil was too bitter for me but now that my tastes have adapted, I don’t mind the extra virgin olive oil flavor. I have done 100% extra virgin olive oil and we don’t mind it at all but often I do half extra virgin olive oil and half light olive oil. You can totally do all light olive oil, especially if this is your first venture into homemade mayo. I prefer to use organic. You can also use avocado oil.
Simple Homemade Mayonnaise
2 egg yolks or 1 whole egg (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups good, healthy oil
*Beginning with all ingredients at room temperature is important for emulsifying.
Start with a clean, dry, wide mouth, pint jar. Add egg or egg yolks. Add salt, mustard powder, honey, lemon juice and vinegar. Slowly pour in the oil. Put the immersion blender in the jar, all the way to the bottom. Turn on the blender. Slowly pull the immersion blender up toward the top of the jar. You will feel some resistance. That means it is working. Continue to pull it up until it reaches the top of the mixture. That’s it. You should have a beautiful jar of mayonnaise! You are a miracle worker.
You can also mix this in a Bosch. For some reason the Bosch method doesn’t always work for me, but if that is all you have, it is worth a try.
In a Bosch or stand-mixer, blend yolks, salt, honey and mustard with wire whisks. Combine lemon juice and vinegar in a separate bowl and add half into the yolk mixture. Place oil in a container with a pour spout that can easily be controlled. Start mixer on medium and add a slow stream of oil until the liquid seems to thicken and lighten a bit in color. Then, increase the oil flow to a faster stream. Once half of the oil is in, add the rest of the lemon juice mixture. Continue adding oil until all of it is incorporated. If you get distracted and dump the oil too quickly, the emulsion may break and get very runny. From here you can begin the process again with two new egg yolks and the broken mixture. Store in a jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. (Recipe Credit: Kara Bagley)
Tweak It Notes
- EGGS – The healthier the egg – the healthier your mayo. When purchasing eggs at the store, look for words like pasture raised and organic. Cage free still means they can be crammed in a barn. Bright yellow/orange yolks are an indicator of a healthy chicken, and have been shown to contain higher levels of vitamins A and C, and omega fatty acids.
- NO EGGS – you can use 1/2 cup cow’s milk in place of the egg. Put it in the bottom of the jar, just like you would the egg. (almond milk did not work the same as the cow’s milk)
- SALT – use a salt with minerals- sea salts, himalayan salt, Real Salt, celtic salts- to name a few.
- MUSTARD – Organic herbs are best.
- HONEY – Good quality raw honey contains important vitamins and minerals. When honey is in its raw state, meaning it hasn’t been heated above a certain temperature, it still has beneficial bacteria that can help with gut health. In this recipe, the honey is not 100% necessary. If you need to avoid all sweeteners, it is ok to leave it out.
- LEMON JUICE – Do you live in Arizona like I do? Ask a neighbor for the lemons off their tree, juice them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays. Those little cubes are perfect for this recipe. (Defrost the cube and measure out your 1 tablespoon. Don’t defrost in the microwave.) If you do not have lemons hanging on trees near your home, you can purchase lemon juice or buy lemons and make your own. Organic is best.
- APPLE CIDER VINEGAR – Another boost of healthy bacteria for digestive health, among other things. Choose a good, quality, organic version for the best benefits.
- OIL – Choose an oil for this recipe that you like the flavor of because it does come through in the final product. Start out with an organic, light, olive oil or an organic, avocado oil if this is your first attempt. After you have made it a few times, replace 1/3 c extra virgin olive oil for 1/3 c of the light oil. You can increase that amount over time as you get used to the flavor. Extra virgin olive oil that is first pressed and cold pressed is less processed so its antioxidant properties are higher than its more processed counterparts. It is a good heart healthy fat. Organic avocado oil is another great option for this recipe.
