Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Vegan Mayonnaise

Years ago I tried some vegan mayonnaise at great expense.  I was revolted and threw it away, not something that I have done more than three or four times in my entire life!  I love mayonnaise.  Well, I don't LOVE mayonnaise, I just like the things that are made with mayonnaise.  Mostly.

In thinking back, I first became enamored of mayonnaise when I was in high school and went to babysit the children of one of my heroes. I did not know his wife much BUT before they left she gave me carte blanche with their refrigerator and cupboards.  The kids were already asleep and I had a book ready to dig into.  I happened to find a big bag of luscious salty Wise potato chips.  I had just heard about "dip" (you need to realize we lived in the sticks of Vermont where trendy just did not exist at that time.  I had not yet even had pizza, if you can believe that!) and found a bottle of mayonnaise in the refrigerator which looked more or less like the dips I had seen at a function.  I dipped in.  It was love at first sight.  How very, very sad.  That took me firmly onto the road to poor health that I am trying to get off now.

Having said the above...(and hypocrite that I am) when I saw a recipe for vegan mayonnaise that only used a bowl, six ingredients, and an immersion blender, I really just had to try it. It was SUCCESS!!!

This vegan mayonnaise was very quick...maybe a minute, maybe a little more...and it turned out very good with the one exception I will tell you.

This recipe started at LovingItVegan.com.  I just went there to grab the URL and almost totally got deflected from this blog post!!  The first thing I saw was a recipe for vegan peppermint patties. Next was moist cornbread and chocolate mousse and, and, and...Well, you get the point. I yanked myself away to write this post, but you might want to go see Alison's work!  I know I will go back there.  I mean "Shamrock Shake" and "Vegan Crepes"?  What is not to like?!!

Vegan Mayo the way I made it: (note-ALL ingredients need to be at room temperature!  Don't fail on this warning.)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon maple syrup

Put all these ingredients in a medium bowl (I used my Pyrex 4-cup measuring bowl) and blend with your immersion blender until thick and ready to go.  Really, it does only take a minute or so.  All other mayonnaise recipes I have ever used called for dripping in the oil one drop at a time so the mayonnaise would not "break" when added to the egg.

This worked so well.  The original recipe called for 1 Tablespoon maple syrup.  That was WAY too much for my taste even though I do love maple syrup.  After all, I am from Vermont, the home of the best maple syrup!!  At least, my father used to make many gallons of that liquid gold every late winter/early spring which we used liberally on our Sunday morning pancakes my whole growing up years.  Our son now makes maple syrup on a different scale.

May I say that I will probably not use any maple syrup in the mayonnaise the next time I make it.  I do not see the need for sweetness in everything...except in communication with family and friends! 

This recipe is one of those "try it, you will like it" sort of recipes.  The only caveat is that if you were thinking that this mayonnaise was going to be good for you, disappointment will set in almost immediately when you realize that mayonnaise is oil.  Any other white guck you make without oil is not mayonnaise, does not taste like mayonnaise, and is really an abomination.  The only way to make this, or any, mayonnaise healthy is to rarely eat it.  Because I liked this so much, I realize it will not be something I will make again until we are having a function that requires mayonnaise on it.

Having said this last...this is so worth it!