Vegan Aquafaba Mayo

I love veganaise brand. I’ve bought it for years and have loved it for years. In fact, I never liked mayo before I went vegan a decade ago, and really only ever fell in love with ‘mayo’ because of veganaise.

Butttttt it can be expensive, especially in Northern Ontario. Not to mention that when you live 45 minutes away from the nearest store, sometimes it’s nice to be able to whip some up yourself.

I’ve tried a few versions of this recipe, and once you get the hang of this it is really a quick and easy way (and cheap!) way to make mayo. But I’ve failed quite a few times doing this — the cool thing about failing is that I have some advice for you on how to not fail!

• Oil: Don’t use extra virgin olive oil, once emulsified it becomes bitter and tastes like garbage. Just don’t. I can vouch for doing this with  Canola, Sunflower and Safflower and it turning out super well.
• Temperature: If it is warm in your house, put the oil in the fridge/freezer/snowbank for a while to cool down. Cold-ish oil emulsifies better (not frozen, just a bit below room temp).
• Aquafaba: Not all Aquafaba is created equal! I strongly prefer chickpea aquafaba (I also use more chickpeas than other legumes, so I often have it around), and even then the thickness of the AF is going to vary. It should be fairly thick to of the can, if it is not you may need to reduce it in a saucepan until it has a nice thick consistency reminiscent of egg whites. This is a bit of judgement question, if in doubt just reduce it a teeny bit until it’s a bit thicker by simmer over low heat until reduced to 3/4 or 2/3 original volume AND THEN COOL IT. Again, we don’t want warm AF here.
• Lemon Juice / Vinegar – Adjust the lemon and vinegar (usually ACV) to how tangy you want things, think mayo vs. miracle whip. Also, I live far from a store, and sometimes I don’t have lemons. Those days I use ACV. If you are using the mayo for a certain recipe (like Caesar Dressing) all lemon might be nice. Similarly, if you are making something like Asian Wafu sauce, rice vinegar might be a good choice. I’ve included my fave combo below. Plain regular white vinegar is also fine.
• Patience: If you have met me in real life, I am a very high energy bouncing off the walls type. But when I make this recipe, I channel my inner zen sloth something and go slowly,  because if you rush this it will not emulsify and it will suck and you will angrily throw liquidy mayo into the sink. Or at least I assume… 😇

I have made this with a high powered blender, a fancy ass food processor and an immersion blender.

I highly recommend the immersion blender, it just works better, is less messy (i.e., does not cover the cupboards in mayo splatter) and is less mess. I also find my success rate is generally much better of getting a nice thick mayo.

1/4 cup (prefer Chickpea) AQUAFABA

1-2 TBSP lemon juice or vinegar my go to combo:

• 1 T lemon juice
• 1-2 tsps apple cider vinegar

1/2 to 1 tsp salt

1 T sugar  or 1/2 T agave

squirt of whole grain dijon  (about 1/2 tsp)

Combine the above in the bottom of a measure cup or whatever

PROTIP: make sure the immersion blender fits in the thing you’re dumping all your ingredients into.

But Shauna! It’s so thick already! Do I rly need to go slow!???

Yes. Listen to Auntie Shauna. If you can’t pour a nice thin stream of oil because it’s too thick, you can add about a tbsp at a time and process and repeat or else it will thin out as you add more.

Look at this nice thick mayo:

TROUBLESHOOTING:

Why isn’t my mayo thick?

Great question, imaginary reader!

Could be because you went too fast, your oil was too warm, or maybe you’re just having a bad day – life happens also!

Don’t angrily throw it out! Simply pour some of that liquidy stuff into a second measuring cup, pop it in the fridge to make sure it is nice and cool and chill take a breath. If you have a dog, they definitely want a belly rub.

Now that you and your liquids mayo have both chilled a bit, pour a little more Aquafaba (about a tablespoon or two) into the bottom of your big measuring cup, and blend it up a bit and get it foamy, now pour your chilled liquidy mayo in slowly slowly SLOWLY. The stream of liquid should be very small, like maybe a piece of twine or yarn.

It should thicken right up 🙂