Why you’ll love this homemade aioli
Once you make aioli from scratch, store-bought mayo starts to feel like a compromise. I’ve made countless mediocre aioli recipes that required store-bought mayo, and I always wondered what restaurants were doing to make their chipotle mayo or or their garlic aioli so much better, and I’ve finally found the answer.
Make it completely from scratch. Instead of using store bought mayonnaise as the base for my aioli and other sauces, I simply throw a few extra ingredients into a cup and blend it with my immersion blender. The immersion blender does all the work and it comes together in seconds.
It makes a creamy, thick sauce that you could literally eat with a spoon. It’s that good. It only takes a few minutes to make it and you can use it in so many different ways.
More dairy free condiments: homemade tartar sauce / homemade cocktail sauce / dairy free ranch dressing / spicy sushi sauce
Ingredient notes:
- Egg – Eggs are the base of the aioli, room temperature is key so the aioli comes together smoothly.
- Dijon mustard – The mustard helps with the emulsification process, which means it helps the oil and liquid mix without separating.
- Garlic – Feel free to leave this out if you want to make a basic mayonnaise.
- Oil – This is the body of your aioli. Use a neutral-flavored oil (like vegetable or canola – NOT extra virgin olive oil) so it doesn’t overpower the other ingredients. It helps with emulsifying and gives that silky texture.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Melissa’s tips & tricks
- Layer in the right order. This is key to getting the emulsion right. Eggs first, then oil. The blender pulls the eggs up through the oil as it moves.
- Work slowly. Start at the bottom of the cup and slowly pull up. Moving it too fast it.
- Room temperature eggs only! Set them out at least 15 minutes before you want to make your aioli – or place them in a bowl with warm water for a few minutes.
How to fix broken aioli:
If your aioli turns out thin or runny instead of thick and creamy, it has broken. This usually happens from moving the blender too quickly or over-blending. Here’s how to fix it:
- Blend less. This is more of a preventative measure, but once the aioli comes together, stop immediately. Over-blending can also cause it to break.
- Add an extra egg yolk. Pour the broken aioli into a new cup, add a fresh room-temperature egg yolk to the bottom, and slowly pour the broken aioli over it. Blend again, starting at the bottom and working your way up slowly.
Ways to use this aioli recipe: Make the best homemade tartar sauce of your life, drizzle it on patatas bravas, use it on tacos instead of sour cream, make ranch dressing, top your favorite quinoa recipe with some extra flavor, or serve it as a dip for crispy potato wedges.
Frequently asked questions
Don’t use your extra virgin olive oil for homemade aioli. It has way to much flavor and will completely over power any flavors you might want to taste. I made this mistake the first time, and I had to throw the whole thing away. Try a light oil like canola or light olive oil. I always use canola oil because that’s what we normally have at home (other than extra virgin olive oil).
Even though making homemade aioli is really easy, you can break it. This is done when you over whip the eggs. They lose their structure and the whole thing turns into a runny mess. If this happens to you, simply add an extra egg yolk and blend again – for the shortest amount of time possible.
This recipe should keep for about 4 – 5 days when stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Because it contains raw egg, it’s important to keep it cold. Don’t leave it out for more than 1 hour at time.
They’re very similar but not exactly the same. Traditional aioli is made from garlic, oil, and lemon, while mayonnaise typically uses oil, egg yolk, dijon mustard and lemon juice. With that being said, most modern aioli recipes (including this one) are essentially a garlic mayo.
2 Minute Homemade Aioli
Ingredients
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 garlic cloves, or 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 cup neutral-flavored oil
Instructions
- Layer the ingredients. In the bottom of large cup, start by cracking the egg and adding the separate yolk at the bottom. Then layer, the mustard, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Then, slowly pour the oil over everything so it’s layered on top.
- Blend. Start with your immersion blender at the bottom of the cup where the eggs are, and start blending. Slowly work your way up to the top, until ingredients are combined and thick.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
How would you make mango habanero aioli? Can you use a hand blender instead
This worked great for me. I have a top notch immersion blender so I had no issues. Thickened right up. I added extra garlic and lemon because I love those flavors. I used avocado oil as I thought it might make it a smidge creamer.
I used it in making a pineapple, purple onion, gouda cheese and picked beet burger. It got rave reviews from my wife.
I highly recommend this. It does make quite a bit.
Hello!
I was so excited to come across your recipe as I was trying for the first time to make Aioli. The same ingredients you specify…..didn’t work, it came out too runny. Then I thought maybe use the same method to prepare hollandaise sauce over warm bath but this also didn’t work. Luckily I have a recipe book of sauces around the world and thought I should look up their ingredients and method. I found out that they use yolk of boiled eggs, which makes sense for the egg yolk you suggest.
Anyway, I have already prepared this and cooked it over warm bath. So I decided to just mix this with mayonnaise and it came out ok.
This just gave me a task of perfecting aioli.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Thanks for sharing your tip! I’ve never heard of using boiled egg yolks, but if that worked for you, that’s awesome! I don’t think it’s a traditional mayonnaise ingredient though.
Perfect! I was looking for a base for a jalapeño aioli and this was the perfect amount. After blending it I threw in some diced jalapeño and blended it again. Worked out beautiful.
Just made a 1/2 recipe in a small little blender. Added fresh basil. It was perfect and only took a few minutes. Next time I think I’ll do 1/2 olive oil and half grape seed oil and add chives to the fresh basil. Served it with crab cakes.
Thank you thank you! Perfect recipe, so easy and quick. The only things that would have made it better were if I had roasted my garlic.
I made it exactly as stated. Remember she said to use canola oil NOT olive oil.
The technique to make Aioli or Mayo is to just a narrow cup that your immersion blender just barley fits into and starts from the bottom. Smooth, Creamy every. Single. time. Perfect Recipe as written!
Should have read the comments before I made a large batch of what amounted to garlic flavored oil
This recipe is a winner.
I’ve used it a lot. Everytime a success. I put all ingredients into a large coffee mug add ingredients except the mustard as i like whole grain and stir in it at the end.
Yay thank you!
So easy, and impossible to ruin if you do exactly how the recipe suggests.
Used a hand blender (UK) and it turned out perfectly! Why have i never tried this before?! Delicious and soooo easy!
Excellent recipe, thank you! I did use two cloves of garlic and juice of half a lemon as I couldn’t be bothered with the spoons and we like garlic.
For those struggling, I have found that Downshiftology provides an excellent explanation of this technique for achieving foolproof emulsion with the stick or immersion blender. https://downshiftology.com/recipes/how-to-make-homemade-mayonnaise/
Once you get the technique down, a world of these kinds of sauces opens up with never having to drizzle oil over minutes again!