Healthy, Delicious Homemade Mayo Recipe (Whole30)

Okay. I’m not a mayo fan. I basically never eat mayonnaise on anything or in anything, except one or two things, like Crunchy Dill Chicken Salad, which I love because it has grapes and celery and toasted almonds in it. Mayo isn’t something we just keep in the fridge.

But I’m doing my first Whole30 and I keep reading and hearing from others who have completed The Whole30 that “you’re not really living on the Whole30 until you’ve made your own batch of mayonnaise.”

Make my own mayo? From scratch? What?! All sorts of questions started running through my head:

How do you make homemade mayo?
Is making homemade mayo hard? It seems like it’s going to be very hard.
Do I need special kitchen tools to make homemade mayonnaise?
What ingredients go in homemade mayo?
Are there any tricks to making homemade mayo?

I was craving that crunchy chicken salad, so we were going to find out. I found a mayo recipe on the Whole30 website and decided to give it a try — it couldn’t be too hard, after all, there are only five ingredients.

Wait. Yes, it is that hard. My first attempt at homemade mayonnaise was a total and complete failure. I didn’t get mayo, I got a gross, runny mess. My ingredients never emulsified.

The next day I tried making homemade mayo again, and the second attempt was a success! My mayo came out perfectly. Hooray!

OMG, this mayo was amazing — and I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t even like mayo.

Homemade mayo doesn’t taste like store-bought mayo at all. It’s not thick, heavy, and globby. It’s creamy, light, and fluffy, and it has a rich flavor. At this point, I was angry with myself for not making a larger batch and slightly irritated we didn’t do Whole30 sooner, just so I would have found this recipe sooner

How To Make Homemade Mayo

I don’t know why I thought making my own mayonnaise would be so difficult. Yes, my first attempt was a disaster, but my second attempt was perfect, and once I figured the tricks out, it’s easy.

There are only five ingredients in this delicious mayo recipe: light olive oil, an egg, salt, mustard powder, and lemon juice. That’s it. Healthy, clean, and simple.

Making the homemade mayo is all about how you add the ingredients.

Combine 1/4 cup olive oil and the egg, sea salt, and mustard powder in a small but tall container. (I used the container that came with my stick blender, but a tall cup would work too.)
Blend the mixture together until it begins to emulsify and thicken up.
While the stick blender is running, slowly drizzle in the remaining cup of olive oil.
After you’ve added all the oil and the mixture has emulsified, add lemon juice to taste, stirring gently with a spoon to incorporate.

Tricks To Get The Perfect Homemade Mayo

There are some tricks to getting your mayo to come out perfectly — and they are critical! These tricks mean the difference between a runny, soupy, gross mayo fail and light, fluffy, creamy mayo success.

Mayo Trick 1: Choose a light-tasting, light-colored oil; preferably one low in polyunsaturated fat. An olive oil that is too strong will make your mayo taste too heavy and weird. Skip the extra-virgin olive oil and go for a light option.

Mayo Trick 2: All ingredients must be room temperature. This is mainly in regards to the lemon and the egg. Both need to be at room temperature with the other ingredients, so you’ll need to plan ahead. I left my lemon and egg out on the counter overnight. Yes, you can do that.

Mayo Trick 3: Use the right blending tool and container. The ingredients in the first step don’t create enough mass for a blender to be able to actually blend them together. The best kitchen tools to use are a stick blender and the container that came with it. Using a tall narrow container makes the ingredient mixture deep enough to blend and the stick blender fits in almost anything, even a tall glass. Plus, it’s easy to clean up!

I use this Kitchenaid Stick Blender and love it, but my friends swear by this Cuisinart Stick Blender.

Mayo Trick 4: Pour the remaining olive oil into the mixture slowly Pour so slowly that you’re totally and completely bored, your arm begins to hurt, and you’re ready to give up. The slower you pour, the thicker the mayo.

Mayo Trick 5: Add the lemon juice at the end. First make sure your homemade mayo emulsifies properly. Once the mayonnaise has thickened up, add the lemon juice — as much as you prefer — and mix it in. The more lemon juice you add, the thinner your mayo will be.

Causes of Homemade Mayo Fail

I mentioned my major mayo fail that never emulsified and just became a gross, runny mess.

I tried to use my Vitamix to make mayonnaise and that was almost laughable. The olive oil, egg, mustard powder, and salt in the first step didn’t even fill the Vitamix container up to the blades. So I had to transfer everything to a different, smaller container that would give the mixture enough depth to make it work with my stick blender.

Then I began adding my olive oil and added it too quickly. I didn’t want to just stand there forever, but apparently that’s what needs to happen.

I was bummed out and did some reading and A LOT of other people experience mayo fails, so that made me feel better.

Homemade mayo fails are common and they’re always for the same reasons:

You used a heavy olive oil, like extra virgin olive oil and it hijacked the flavor and texture of the mayo. If you don’t have a light olive oil on hand, don’t give into temptation and use the EVOO.
You used an egg or a lemon out of the refrigerator and it’s not emulsifying properly. All ingredients must be at room temperature. If they’re not, your mayo won’t come our right.
You tried to use a blender or food processor, the ingredients didn’t create enough mass to reach the blades, so you just added more olive oil now. Nope. Don’t even try it. This is an immediate mayo fail and you won’t be able to recover from. Use a small container and a stick blender.
You poured the olive oil too quickly, the ingredients aren’t emulsifying, and you’re just blending a runny soupy concoction.You must pour the olive oil in slowly. So slowly you think you’re going to claw your eyeballs out from boredom. If you can’t run your stick blender and pour at the same time, make someone else pour for you. I made Brian pour while I blended.
You added the lemon juice too early. This is science, but many of the homemade mayo fails I read about while troubleshooting my own fail was because the lemon juice was affecting the emulsification process. Just be safe, do yourself a favor, and add it at the end.

If you haven’t noticed, most of the homemade mayo fails come from taking shortcuts with the recipe instructions. If you follow the instructions, have room temperature ingredients, use a light olive oil and a stick blender, pour slowly, and add the lemon at the end, you’re going to get the perfect homemade mayo.