Oil Free Vegan Mayonnaise
This oil free, low fat vegan mayonnaise is a no-brainer healthy swap for your kitchen because it is ridiculously quick and easy to whip up, tastes rich and tangy, and has the same thick, smooth, and creamy mouthfeel as regular mayonnaise with minimal ingredients and a fraction of the calories! Just throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth - done! Now you can eat mayonnaise to your heart’s content, guilt-free. Spread it on sandwiches and burgers, dip your fries in it, or use it as a base for other sauces and dips.
I’ve tried other homemade vegan mayonnaise recipes and the flavor just hasn’t cut it for me. This one is tangy, a bit eggy (despite no eggs in the recipe), and well balanced. I’ve never met someone that loves mayonnaise as much as my husband does (yes, he will use it as a dip) and this recipe is husband approved! I’m very happy to have an alternate that I can feel good about him using by the spoonful.
HEALTHY MAYONNAISE
Store-bought mayonnaise is made with a base of oil and eggs, or just oil for vegan versions. Both are high in fat and calories, likely not made with high quality oils, and aren’t ‘health promoting foods.’ In regular mayonnaise, oil is emulsified into a thick, creamy substance. In this recipe, we’re completely omitting the oil (and eggs) and replacing it with silken tofu which is already thick, creamy, and silky…hence no need for oil! Despite rampant misconceptions about soy, it is a very healthy food to incorporate into your diet (see what Mayo Clinic has to say about it here) so I much prefer it as a base for this mayonnaise. Silken tofu has a higher water content than regular content so it’s calorically dilute making this recipe very low in calories, very low in fat, and actually a decent amount of plant based protein if you want to go crazy and add a ton of mayonnaise to a recipe!
Let’s compare store bought regular mayonnaise, my favorite store bought vegan mayonnaise, and our oil-free vegan homemade mayonnaise:
Hellman’s Real Mayo
Ingredients: soybean oil, water, whole eggs and yolks, vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, calcium disodium EDTA, natural flavors
Calories: 90 per tablespoon
Total Fat: 10g per tablespoon
Protein: 0g per tablespoon
Hellman’s Vegan Dressing & Spread
Ingredients: canola oil, water, modified food starch (potato, corn), distilled vinegar, less than 2% of: sugar, salt, lemon juice concentrate, sorbic acid and calcium disodium EDTA, natural flavor, paprika extract
Calories: 70 per tablespoon
Total Fat: 8g per tablespoon
Protein: 0g per tablespoon
Oil Free Vegan Mayonnaise
Ingredients: silken tofu, white vinegar, lemon juice, salt, sugar, yellow mustard, kala namak
Total Fat: 0.3g per tablespoon
Calories: 8 per tablespoon
Protein: 1g per tablespoon
…or you can eat the entire recipe for the same calories as 2 TBS of regular mayo, and get 25g of protein while you’re at it!
THE RECIPE
Oil Free Vegan Mayonnaise
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender, or use an immersion blender, and blend until smooth.
- Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
Notes
- You can use a refrigerated silken tofu or a different brand, but you might need to adjust the quantities of the other ingredients if you use a larger or smaller block of tofu.
- The sugar in this recipe is very minimal; feel free to adjust to your taste or leave it out entirely. I used coconut sugar because it's what I had on hand, but white sugar or something like agave would work as well.
- Kala namak gives the mayo a sulfuric, "eggy" smell and taste which makes it an even more convincing replacement to real mayonnaise, but it is optional.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
8.42Fat (grams)
0.28 gSat. Fat (grams)
0.04 gCarbs (grams)
0.37 gFiber (grams)
0.01 gNet carbs
0.35 gSugar (grams)
0.19 gProtein (grams)
1.07 gSodium (milligrams)
82.98 mgCholesterol (grams)
0 mg