Healthy Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe | Hellman’s Mayo Copycat
Homemade mayo couldn’t get easier than this simple immersion blender method! If you like Hellman’s but want a healthier, homemade version, give it a try!
A homemade mayonnaise recipe is something I’ve been wanting to try for a while now, but for some reason it seemed super intimidating. So intimidating that I put it off for months. I’m happy to say, it’s actually really easy and takes less than 5 minutes to whip up a batch. Bye-bye store bought mayonnaise!
I’ll be honest, I tried a lot of different mayo recipes and they were all gross! None of them had much flavor and they all just tasted like oil. We love Hellman’s, so I was looking for a traditional mayonnaise recipe as close to that as possible. I finally just played around with a recipe until I got it to taste good.
Be sure and keep reading below the recipe for some FAQ’s and info on why mayonnaise made with avocado oil is a healthy option.
This post may contain affiliate links which means that I make a small commission at absolutely no extra cost to you. See my full, boring disclosure here.
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Ingredients you’ll need for homemade mayonnaise
- In a pinch, don’t be afraid to make some substitutions. Lime juice, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, and white wine vinegar are all subs you can try and you may even like them better than the original!
You’ll also need:
Highly Rated Immersion Blender
Wide Mouth Pint Jars
*note: If it’s your first time making this recipe, I would recommend starting with 1/2 the mustard and vinegar and adding it to taste. As I was making it, I was doing side by side tasting with Hellman’s and it tasted just like it to me. But I never realized how mustardy/vinegary Hellman’s Mayo tastes by itself. You can follow the recipe with 1/2 the amounts and then add more in small amounts with a spoon at the end to reach your personal preference.
*If you want your mayo to taste like classic Hellman’s Mayonnaise, you’ll need to use a tasteless vegetable oil like canola oil (don’t recommend). Even with avocado oil, it still has a different taste simply because of the mild flavor of the oil. The type of oil will definitely influence the taste of the finished mayo.
How To Make Healthy Mayo With An Stick Blender:
*note: it’s best to use a jar that your immersion blender just fits into with not much extra space on the sides. For a single batch I use a wide mouth pint jar and it works perfectly. For a double batch I’d probably use a wide mouth quart jar.
- Put your egg in the bottom of the jar
- Add your cup of oil and the rest of the ingredients on top of the egg.
- With your hand blender on the very bottom of the jar, start blending and let it sit on the bottom for a few seconds before you start raising it to the top.
- After about 10 seconds, slowly start raising the immersion blender to the top of the jar. If it seems like it’s not completely mixed all the way you can pulse up and down a few times after you’ve gone to the top.
- Taste and adjust according to how you like it. Makes 1 cup of mayo.
- Store in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. I highly recommend dating your storage container.
Organic Avocado Oil
Print The Homemade Avocado Oil Mayo Recipe:
Healthy Homemade Avocado Mayonnaise
Equipment
- immersion blender
- wide mouth pint jar
Ingredients
- 1 whole egg, room temperature – as fresh as possible
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon classic mustard
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1 cup avocado oil
Instructions
How To Make Homemade Mayo With An Immersion Blender
- Put your egg in the bottom of the jar.
- Add all of the other ingredients on top of the egg.
- With your immersion blender on the very bottom of the jar, start blending and let it sit on the bottom for a few seconds before you start raising it to the top.
- After about 10 seconds, slowly start raising the immersion blender to the top of the jar. If it seems like it’s not completely mixed all the way you can pulse up and down a few times after you’ve gone to the top.
- Taste and adjust according to how you like it.
- Store in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. I highly recommend dating your storage container.
Notes
How Long Does Homemade Mayo Last?
It’s typically recommended to use your homemade mayonnaise within 2 weeks of making it. I highly recommend dating the top of your storage container after you’ve made your mayo so you’re not left guessing when you made it.
Need ideas for how to use up extra mayo before it spoils? Try it in chicken salad, potato salad, creamy salad dressings, or add some fresh herbs for a delicious herbed mayonnaise.
Can You Make Mayo In A Regular Blender?
It is possible to make mayonnaise in a regular blender but certainly not as easy and fail-proof as the immersion blender method.
If you do decide to go the blender route, start the same way with your egg and other ingredients on the bottom, turn the blender on, and add your cup of oil in a very slow, steady stream. Be extra sure that your ingredients have time to all come to room temperature before starting.
Is It Safe To Eat Homemade Mayo?
Homemade mayo does contain raw eggs so the question sometimes comes up if it’s safe to eat. Honestly, I’m completely comfortable with eating raw eggs because I’m using the fresh eggs that were laid that day or the day before. I wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable using eggs from the grocery store as they’re much older by the time they make it to the consumer.
If you’re not comfortable with the whole raw egg thing, you can use a pasteurized egg from the grocery store to instead. It’s definitely a personal decision and I can’t sit here and promise you that you won’t get sick from using raw eggs in your mayo.
Is It Cheaper To Make Your Own Mayonnaise?
Honestly, that’s going to depend on what kind of mayonnaise you typically buy verses what kind of oil you choose to make your mayo from. If you normally buy the cheapest mayo on the shelf but get a more expensive, but healthy, oil like avocado or olive oil to make your homemade mayo then no, it probably won’t be cheaper.
Which leads us to our next question:
What Is The Best Oil For Homemade Mayonnaise?
The best, in my opinion, is a very light oil that doesn’t influence the taste of the mayo while still being healthy. After all, the health benefits are one of the big reasons that I choose to make foods from scratch rather than just buying everything pre-made from the store. I really don’t want to be feeding myself or my family tons of preservatives or inflammatory oils and unhealthy ingredients.
Avocado oil is a popular choice for making mayonnaise from scratch, and for good reason too! It’s actually a very healthy oil but super mild so it doesn’t impart a stronger flavor like some olive oils would. My next top choices would be walnut oil or MCT oil since they both have many health benefits as well but are mostly tasteless.
That being said, a light olive oil could be another good choice but you’d want to use a really light flavored one to keep it from being an overpowering flavor.
Other Healthy Oils You Might Consider:
- walnut oil
- light olive oil
- extra virgin olive oil (stronger flavor)
- liquid coconut oil (mct oil)
The above affiliate links are for a food co-op called Azure Standard. If you’d prefer Amazon, good organic options would be: walnut oil, extra virgin olive oil, mct oil, avocado oil.
Check out these 2 articles from Healthline and The Farmer’s Almanac about the health benefits of avocado oil if you’re not sure why you’d want to add it to your diet.
If you really want your mayo to taste like the classic Hellman’s, you’ll have to use a tasteless vegetable oil but I prefer getting the health benefits from an oil like avocado oil, even though it does impart a slightly different flavor.
Troubleshooting Mayonnaise Fails
Making homemade mayo appears to be hit or miss from things you read online but mine turned out great from the get go. Here are some tips:
- Make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature. This is the most important step for successful mayo!
- Use a very light tasting oil.
To attempt to save failed/oily mayo:
I’ve never had a failed batch when making this recipe and following the #1 tip of having all of your ingredients at room temperature. But, if you do, you can try the method below to try to save it.
Put a fresh, room temperature egg yolk in a new jar. Then add the failed mayo, room temperature, on top. Start with the immersion blender on the very bottom as before and slowly raise it to the top while blending.
The biggest thing is, don’t give up. It seems, sooner or later, everyone will have a bad batch of mayo for no apparent reason!
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Avocado oil is probably a good choice for some reasons, but Hellman’s uses soybean oil. I avoid Avocado oil because it has such a very high omega 6 content. As for the raw eggs, apparently many people are not aware of how vinegar kills bacteria. If there is no odor or discoloration to a freshly cracked egg there is not much chance that anything can be wrong with it and vinegar keeps it well under refrigeration. I am looking for a mayo-recipe that works well with a Keto diet. In that effort, avoiding “vegetable oils” is a requisite. There is certainly strong evidence that seed oils cause problems in the human body. Not room, nor appropriate here , to get into debate about Keto, standard American Diet, and the carnivore diet. I am looking for that flavorful Keto compatible mayo.Let me point out that there are now several mayo brands and recipes that are built around animal fats and on coconut oil one I have found. Contrary to what many believe the way most animal fat is rendered makes the oils very light with almost no under-taste of the animal from which it is obtained. For example, if you have ever tasted bacon fat that was from bacon cooked in a broiler pan. The bacon is not in the oil generated during the frying process. The drains away taking little of the bacon flavor. The “sugar” cure is not soluble in the fat. The special bacon cooking trays produce almost a distilled oil. And the same can be said about Duck fat (which is a liquid at room temp). There are some very good duck fat recipes for mayonnaise!
My mind is blown! I’ve been working on eliminating unhealthy fats that sneak into our diets through dips, dressings, and oils, especially when eating out. I didn’t have classic Mustard on hand, so I used good old Coleman’s powder mustard instead. Dumped everything in the jar exactly as measured ( I trusted your taste buds!) and used my immersion blender. For the oil, I used melted Coconut oil that doesn’t have a taste, compared to most coconut oils that have the coconut taste. It blended so easily and the taste is EXACTLY like Hellman’s. I also love that it required no sugars, and it is all-natural! Thank you for this great ‘new favorite’ recipe! Now I don’t know how it will harden if the fridge, but I’m hoping since it is an immersion blend, the coconut oil won’t harden. Crossing fingers! If it does, I’ll most likely swap it for another healthy alternative.
I’m so glad you liked it! I did many trials and side by side taste comparisons to get it just so. I thought it was great but my husband still didn’t like it…oh well, I guess you can’t win them all.
Debbie, you may find that Medium Chain Triglycerides obtained from the coconut oil is easier to work with as it is liquid at room temp. Avoid the MCD oils that are mixture of th MCD Coconut oil and palm, or other oils. Those other oils take away from the quality and benefits of the straight MCT oil. Oh, the MCT imparts NO latent taste of coconut, the same as the solidified standard coconut oil.