I’ve never been much of a fan of jarred mayonnaise (I avoided it like the plague throughout childhood), but homemade versions–whether you call them mayonnaise or aioli–are something else entirely. Luscious, rich, and deeply flavorful, homemade mayonnaise makes everything from sandwiches to vegetables to appetizers irresistible.
My only problem? The raw eggs that deliver mayonnaise’s signature unctiousness. It is, of course, a problem for anyone who excludes egg from their diets, but even if you do eat eggs, eating raw eggs is equally scary and gross.
Recipes for egg-free mayonnaise abound. Jaymi Heimbuch over at Mother Nature Network, has a terrific review of 3 vegan mayonnaise recipes, but all three contain soy. Moreover, her “winner” (i.e., most like real mayonnaise) uses tofu. All fine, but what if you’re avoiding soy?
I am thrilled to present my solution, one you have never see before now: egg-free, dairy-free, soy-free mayonnaise made with chickpea flour! All humility aside, it is the best ever vegan mayonnaise.
Why chickpea flour? When combined with water and some heat, chickpea flour is a fantastic egg substitute. Once combined with other traditional mayo ingredients (oil, mustard, lemon), it yields a velvety spread that you would swear is the real deal.
My essential recipe is easily tweaked in, oh, a million ways with various herbs, spices and other combinations. I’ve included my two favorites: a French-inspired aioli and an extra lemony mayonnaise.
Enjoy! I would love to hear if you give this a try!
Best Ever Vegan Mayonnaise (soy-free, made with chickpea flour!)
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 6 mins
- Total Time: 21 mins
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 6 tablespoons (45 grams) chickpea flour
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1–1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2/3 cup neutral-flavor vegetable oil
- pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Whisk in the chickpea flour and salt. Cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Reduce the heat to medium-low; cook, whisking, for 4 to 5 minutes longer, until thickened. Transfer mixture to a smal, heatproof bowl; cover and refrigerate until cold.
- Transfer the cold chickpea mixture to a food processor or blender. Add the oil, lemon juice, mustard, and cayenne; process until blended and very creamy. Transfer to a sealable jar or other covered container.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. Use as you would any other mayonnaise or aioli!
Notes
Variations:
Aioli: Use extra-virgin olive oil for the oil and add 2 small cloves garlic, mashed into a paste, when blending all of the ingredients in a blender.
Lemon Mayonnaise: Increase the lemon juice to 2 tbalespoons and add 1-1/2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon zest when blending all of the ingredients in a blender.
- Category: condiment
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tablespoon
- Calories: 43
- Sugar: 0.1 g
- Sodium: 47 mg
- Fat: 4.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 0.9 g
- Fiber: 0.6 g
- Protein: 0.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
It is amazing! First attempt at home-made vegan mayo, and I didn’t like the store-bought ones I had tried before. Both my partner and I (not vegan, doing veganuary) loved it. Chickpeas taste slightly eggy, so the mayo smelled slightly of eggs. I made it with sunflower oil.
★★★★★
Oh wow, that is some seriously great praise (especially the partner approval!). Don’t worry of the mayo separate a bit over time, just re-whisk with a fork for a few seconds and it will be smooth once again.
I’ve searched and searched for a good vegan mayo recipe…and yours is amazing! Thank you so much! I used organic canola oil, and it turned out superb!
★★★★★
So glad that it works for you, Sheryl!
I had my 8 year old daughter help me make this mayo today. We cheered and high-fived when it turned out! It tastes so good! We made ours with avocado oil. Neither my dad nor I can have soy and I can no longer find Just Mayo anywhere. Other brands are so expensive. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Whoohoo! That makes me so happy, Kelly! I love that your 8-yr-old daughter helped, too :). I am 100% with you re: the cost of mayo alternatives in stores. Hooray for homemade!
This is so good! I make this all the time and even double the recipe now because my family loves it so much. And what a saving off commercially available mayo substitutes.. Thanks for such a perfect, simple recipe!
Demelza, that is so wonderful to hear! I love saving $ on food, especially items like condiments (nearly fainted recently at the cost of an avaocado mayonnaise at a high end grocery store. Did not buy!).
Thanks for taking the time to write! xo
Thank you! I recently found out I am highly allergic to eggs! This is a life saver!
You are so welcome, Leigh!!!
I will not waste everyone’s time by saying “the recipe looks good,” or “I can’t wait to try it.” Why bother with a non-review?
I DID try it, and was amazed at how quick, easy, and tasty it turned out.
I did make a couple of changes/additions to more closely follow the ingredients on my favorite, plant-based, but-no-longer-available “JUST Mayo.”
Instead of lemon juice, which I don’t normally have, I used half as much organic apple cider vinegar.
Again, to mimic my favorite, I added 1/8 teaspoon of organic garlic powder, and completely eliminated the mustard. I’ve not seen mustard on any commercial mayonnaise labels.
And, literally, a pinch of black salt, which imparts the sulfurous flavor of eggs. It smells awful for a second or two, but the “aroma” goes away and you are left with a hint of egg flavor – just like traditional mayo.
I am finding that during these difficult times, products I have always used are disappearing or being changed in a manner that I do not like, which is why I will now make all of my own mayonnaise. I make all of my own bread, coconut oil-based baking mix, and pretty much everything else – even Rice-A-Roni and Ramen Noodles (my own flavor packet).
I am grateful to have found this excellent recipe, and website.
For those of you on the fence, have no fear about making this mayo – if you follow the recipe, you will be successful.
In conclusion, thank you Camilla. You are the best!
Wow, Joe! I am overwhelmed by your review, thank you SO much!!! 🙂
I am a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. I love your site and know how much time and effort it has taken. And now, I love my homemade mayonnaise – thanks to you. Well done!
Thank you so much, Joe!
Oops. I wanted to edit my previous comment before you had a chance to see it.
Until just now, my review was based on sampling a bit of this glorious mayo on a spoon – okay, several spoonfuls. But I just made a cool, refreshing pasta salad with my new discovery. Here’s what a friend said: “Stunning!”
I’d say that’s a pretty good recommendation for this recipe.
And, if anyone else is interested, my recipe follows. Be it known that the technique is the same, just a few different tweaks to the recipe. If you like the commercial product “JUST Mayo,” you’ll love this.
1 Cup Distilled Water
6 TBS (45 grams) Organic Chickpea Flour (I weighed it out)
¾ tsp Ground Kosher Salt (measure, then grind with mortar & pestle)
1 Pinch Black Salt (about 1/16th teaspoon)
⅛ Organic Garlic Powder
2¼ tsp Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
⅔ Cup Organic Canola Oil
Again, Camilla, Thank You!
My son is vegan, we made this yesterday and it’s really good. He can’t do lemon so we used rice vinegar and we didn’t have dijon, so used plain yellow mustard. No other substitutes or changes. I’m not vegan but I’ll switch to using this for price and taste. It’s so easy there’s no excuse for paying $8 for vegan mayo anymore. Thanks for this recipe!
That’s such wonderful news, Therese! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know that the mayo recipe suits your needs 🙂 I know, I cringe at the sight of so many quality prepared basics like mayo. Cheers!
Hi! made this last night and was sooooo surprised it turned out. I used to make my own version using eggs but I can no longer have eggs. added some chilli powder and tumeric and it is delicious! thank you so much for this recipe! my local grocer is asking $8.99 for the same size bottle!!!!!
THRILLED to hear it, Karen! I know, egg-free mayonnaise can break the bank. Thanks so much for letting me know that it worked for you, Karen!
I just love it when I find a recipe like this, and want to tell everyone I know. It’s one more thing I don’t have to buy in the store. Thank you for posting this terrific mayo. I used avocado oil and added a few capers, but tarragon would also be nice. Or drop the herbs and add some miso. Lots of possibilities to make it your own.
Hi Vera,
You made my day 🙂 And now I need to go and replenish my avocado oil–sounds like a great idea to use it here! 🙂
OH my. I was convinced this would not work. The result some blubbery rubbery blob. But no. I was wrong. This is divine. Fluffy, smooth luscisousness. I had to stop myself from eating the whole jar with a spoon. Thank you so much. 🙂
Yay!I am so glad you persevered, Carla! I should put a warning that it look blobby before it all comes together 🙂
can i use orther flour like all purpose whit or not gluten ?
can i use Mustard powder inteads ?
can i add ½ of raw sugar ?
Hi Alice,
No, this recipe is definitely unique to chickpea flour, so there is no substitution. I am sure you could use mustard powder and raw sugar, but you will need to experiment; I have not tried it with either 🙂
I just made this using cornmeal that I put into my nutri bullet to make it more of a flour consistency and it worked just great!
Thanks, Camilla, for all the recipes and especially for this . I love the chickpea flour and mayonnaise. Your blog is fantastic. I am Spanish (from Spain , Europe ) and I would say that the alioli ( so called in Spain ) , is a sauce that comes from Spain (specifically in the area of the East, Valencia) , not from France.
Hi Antonia! So thrilled you love the mayo! As for the aioli: so true, I should have mentioned the Spanish aioli. My understanding was that traditional recipes (alioli) omit the egg, but I have looked and seen that some recipes do include an egg or egg yolk. It turns out that aioli means “oil and garlic” in both Catalan and Provençal. I am not sure which one came first!
Amazing mayo! Simple, fast, healthy and yummy.
Wonderful, so glad you like it, Irina!
Hello, I tried this recipe but it didnt work for me. I used light olive oil and Bob Red’s Mill chickpea flour. The flour and water mixture after refrigerated was pretty solid. I blended everything until it was well mixed. It was runny, however, and in the fridge it started to separate. Any idea what went wrong? I really want to try this recipe again. Perhaps I should I add the oil slowly, like in other recipes? Thanks.
Hi Sandra! It sounds like it may have just needed more high speed blending to get it to emulsify. It will look fairly blobby until the chilled chickpea flour mixture is super-blended (aerated) to make it light and fluffy and hold together with the oil. You can reblend what you have. You might want to try electric beaters on high speed instead of a blender/food processor 🙂
I had the same problem, I reduced the oil by half and it worked much better
I just wanted to say that this mayo is fantastic. I did grind my own chick peas and not sure if the grind was fine enough anyway I added all the amounts and when cooled was really thick, put in food processor. I did add a clove of garlic, we both love it. My husband is a mayo freak so this is some feat. Will change the amount of four to 5 and see how it turns out. Thank you so much. Woohoo Helen
I’m thrilled you and your husband enjoyed it so much, Helen!!! 🙂
Thank you so much for this recipe. I can’t eat eggs, but would love to avoid soy. It’s so hard to find a recipe that takes care of both my problems. I can’t wait to try it out!
Let me know how it works for you, Amber!
Can you use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil to make the mayo?
Hi Mavette,
I’m not sure. I love coconut oil, but it might get weird when you refrigerate it (since coconut oil becomes rock hard when cold). Maybe an MCT coconut oil (stays liquid) like this would work?