Mayonnaise has always been one of my favorite condiments. But while the store-bought stuff is a convenient and cheap option, it’s often filled with unhealthy ingredients like vegetable oil and preservatives. My homemade mayo on the other hand is packed with protein and good fats, and it tastes delicious!
This mayonnaise recipe is simple to make and goes great with tuna or chicken salad. Though there are now, thankfully, some great store bought mayo options (especially this avocado oil based mayo), I still prefer the homemade version when I have time to make it.
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The Issue With Mayo
I hope by now we can agree that inflammatory vegetable oils should have no place in anyone’s diet. Seed oils like canola oil and grapeseed oil are popular neutral-flavored oils for mayo and other condiments. They’re mass-produced and cheap to use, but they come with negative health consequences.
Healthy ingredients aside, homemade mayo just tastes better in my opinion. Anytime we use clean, whole ingredients recipes have so much more flavor. And it’s easy enough to make mayo there’s really no excuse not to! It goes great with egg salad, potato salad, or as the base for aioli.
How to Make Mayonnaise
There are a few tricks to getting your homemade mayo to work, but it’s really simple once you get the hang of it. You can make this with a regular blender or an immersion blender (stick blender). It’s really important that all the ingredients are at room temperature for this recipe. Having a cold egg or ingredients that are too hot can cause the mayo to separate or not emulsify.
Another really important step is to pour in your oil super slooooowly. Like, start with a drip and pour in a thin stream. If the oil goes in too fast it breaks the emulsion and the mayo won’t thicken. If you follow these tips the recipe is foolproof, even if it’s your first time making your own mayo!
Some mayo recipes use a whole egg, but this one just uses the yolks and omits the egg whites. If you’re looking for a way to use up some of the leftover egg whites, try this egg white face mask or coconut macaroon recipe.
Homemade Mayo Ingredients
It’s pretty simple with eggs, lemon, oil, sea salt, and seasoning. Since this recipe uses raw eggs (instead of pasteurized eggs), there is a risk of salmonella if the eggs aren’t from a healthy source. I always use eggs from healthy, free-range hens in my recipes, especially when they’re raw.
You can use any oils for this, though I prefer coconut, olive, walnut, or other healthy oils. MCT oil can also be used in place of coconut oil if you don’t like the coconut oil flavor. If you don’t like a coconut flavor and prefer a more traditional “mayo taste” you can use light olive oil (not extra virgin olive oil).
Keep this recipe in mind for the next time you do a Whole 30 or similar real food diet. It’s a great source of healthy fats! Use it as the base for salad dressing or your next veggie dip.
Healthy Homemade Mayonnaise
Servings
Equipment
- Immersion blender (or regular blender)
Nutrition
Notes
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More Delicious Mayo Recipes
Mayo is really versatile and I love switching up the ingredients to make customized flavors. Here are some more homemade mayo recipes to try!
- Smoky Chipotle Mayo
- Korean Gochujang Mayo
- Sriracha Mayo
- Parsnip Fries with Harissa Mayo
- Avocado Mayo (Egg Free)
Ever made homemade mayo? If not, what are you waiting for? Tell me about it below!
I’ve been looking at mayo recipes, and was referred to yours. Others I’ve seen use the whole egg, whereas you use yolks only. Can I ask why, and what is the difference? I’m just trying to “get it all together” before I try this! Thanks so much!
Sorry…let me clarify: not “why make homemade mayo”, but “why does this recipe use only yolks whereas others use the whole egg”. And, “what is the difference in taste/texture in using yolk only vs whole egg”?
Salmonella is found mostly in factory farmed eggs, and eggs of chickens that is not pasture raised. If you read current studies, the are finding that the salmonella is actually in the egg. The chickens are too close together, they eat each others feces, and you get salmonella in the eggs. Some eggs do have salmonella on the shell. If you buy from local farmers that have pastured chickens or from larger companies that have organic pasture raised chickens, the eggs have no issues. Many egg companies, have web cams where you can watch the chickens hang out in the pastures. I buy only organic pasture raised eggs and have never ever gotten sick eating raw cookie dough, homemade mayo, cheese/egg mixture for lasagne since I taste prior to cooking, or even homemade raw eggnog. Remember, just because it says “cage free” or “pastured” does not mean it spends more than 2 minutes outside. Do your homework. You can see a great Egg Scorecard at Cornucopia.org
The may is awesome!
Thank you for posting a reference to The Cornucopia Institute’s Organic Egg Scorecard. I was able to find an excellent source of eggs from organic, pastured hens. For those living in the US, here’s a direct link… https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecard/eggs/
Hello Katie,
I am filled with pride (for the entire human race) to find a pretty young woman such as yourself who actually takes time out of her life to create healthy alternatives for her family! That is amazing; with all the lazy-way-out alternatives these days, I really make it a point to focus on people like yourself…
Keep up the good work & spread the word.
All the best,
Hope
I love this recipe.
For the Dijon mustard, what brand would be organic and not processed?
Thank you.
How do you think this would come out if I didn’t use the olive oil, and just used the coconut oil for both measurements? I have a food allergy to olive oil, corn oil, and soy, so I would like to avoid it them. So far coconut oil is my only friend.
Can I use melted butter instead of coconut oil? The taste of coconut makes me sick; I am very sensitive to it.
I would suggest another oil like avocado oil. I think butter might separate.
I was just going to ask what your thoughts are on Avacado Oil – have you ever made this mayo recipe with it? We tried olive oil, and the taste was just too strong. Seems like Avacado Oil would be perfect.
I wrote about it here: https://wellnessmama.com/23441/avocado-mayo/
I haven’t tried it yet but I was on a Cambodian island and stumbled upon an amazing French chef (which encouraged an extra 2 day stay just for an eating binge) and he made homemade mayo with cooked eggs! Hands down the best mayo I have ever eaten. I will admit it was chunky, which was weird, but he was hand mixing so I can forgive him. Anyone ever try cooked egg mayo?
oh yeah, I remember reading that someplace once. Can’t remember the reference now.
To be chunky he must have used the white and remember it should be the yolks only.
I’ll have to search for a recipe now.
Good
I know when I’ve made meringue buttercream I always heat the egg whites over a double boiler while whisking constantly. They could be heated to 160 degrees for a minute without cooking. I’m wondering if that could be applied to this recipe, but with the egg yolks? I’m definitely going to try it.
I wanted to love this recipe so much! I need ways to add coconut oil to my diet so this was perfect. But I don’t know if it’s because my coconut oil tastes a lot of coconut (I use Nutiva Organic Virgin Coconut oil) but it was disgusting. My husband tasted it too and he likes the taste of coconut oil more than me and he gagged. The good thing is this recipe made me want to make my own mayo because it’s so easy and way healthier, but also that I can only handle coconut oil in certain things (coffee, sweet things).
Alison, we found the same thing. Try using the expeller pressed, “refined”/deodorised coconut oil instead. It is, apparently, still good for you but it doesn’t have the classic coconut flavour. We keep both types in the house and save the flavorless one for mayonnaise. 🙂
I had no problem making this mayo at all. I use farm eggs as well, and though this is my first attempt with mayo we use raw eggs in smoothies for protein frequently and have never had a problem. I did use a few tablespoons of the liquid off my unsweetened Greek yogurt because I know it is healthy to do so, so hopefully with that and the lemon juice the raw eggs wont be a problem. I will say I think the olive oil I used has too much flavor for mayo because it tasted too strongly of the olive oil. I added a little more lemon juice, a little more salt and a little more coconut oil to dilute it some and that was better. Will try a very light olive next time. (If I can find one that fits all the requirements for healthy olive oil that is!)
I make this with 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk, Mothers ACV, 3/4 cup mix equal parts extra light virgin olive oil and refined coconut oil, Dijon mustard, s+p all in blender. Enough to almost fill pint mason jar and lasts for weeks in fridge. Use all organic. Comes out great.
I had olive oil that had quite strong taste, i shouldn’t of used it, the combination with coconut oil was not so grate. I love coconut oil but not in my mayo. I wish i can say it came out delicious but it didn’t, i prefer store bought organic mayo over the one i attempted to make and now im thinking to use this once i bake a chicken, so i don’t waist all this goodness.
I tried to make some couple days ago. It didn’t work out to great but all my ingredients were fridge cold. It was only half way there thick. But the taste was great. I added about 1/2 tsp ground cumin and dash of cayenne pepper. Omg it was heaven. Also instead of evoo I used grapeseed oil. Very light and neutral tasting oil.
I made this mayo with lemon juice, 1/2 light olive oil 1/2 macadamia nut oil
and my seasoning. I used my immersion blender, it came out too liquid.
BUT, I could drink this stuff. So delicious! Mac nut oil is wonderful!
So good I’m not really disappointed, but will keep trying. Try it with Mac
nut oil!!
This is a great recipe, thank you! I’ve found the key to getting it to set up is drizzling the oil in while blending at just between drops and pouring. It takes a long time but you end up with a beautiful mayonnaise that sets up flawlessly.
I love my Artisanan coconut oil! I tired a different recipe calling for only olive oil and really hated the taste so I’m wondering if I could use only coconut oil?
I have not tried that, but I bet it would work. Let us know if it works for you!
I always make my own mayo, I love it way more than shop bought. I use 2 yolks, lemon juice and a pinch of mustard powder, olive oil and a dash of sesame. The sesame tastes amazing. Funny thing is when I first started making it I would take ages dropping in the oil real slow and such. But now I find that it works best if I first blend the yolks, lemon, mustard and salt a wee bit. This is done using a hand mixer, they’re fast and you have better control. Then I put in big dollops of the oil and blend quickly moving the stick around alot…it always thickens really fast and I can usually make the mayo in a matter of 5mins. I usually pour a cup of oil into the yolks in two maybe three big dollops so no slow dripping in for me. I don’t know why this is the way it works for me when it is always mentioned to do it slowly in the recipes I’ve seen.
Any idea of what I can replace the mustard with?(allergic)
thanks
I made half of the recipe and not sure if it is correct. The color stayed dark yellow and I only tasted the EVOO even after adding more spices, dill etc. What other alterations are there and how do you get the color to be white or pale yellow?
Angelina,
I just did the same. Halved the recipe and added extra spices, salt, lemon juice. It just tastes like EVOO to me. Not exactly what I was looking for. I don’t like to use light olive oil as there is too much controversy regarding authenticity and I want to know what I’m eating.