This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure Policy.
There are certain vegans out there who crave bright, acidic vinaigrettes, begging for their salads to be drenched in a naturally vegan dressing. There are other vegans who eat tofu “chicken” nuggets naked, needing no pool of dipping sauce, or being satisfied with another “naturally vegan” dip, like organic ketchup or spicy brown mustard. There are other vegans still who soak and blend cashews each time they need a creamy touch to the lemon-garlic sauce adorning their kale-and-seitan bowls, perfectly planning and scheduling this long-term endeavor.
I am not one of them.
When we visited the Netherlands when I had just turned fifteen, there was a moment of simultaneous enlightenment and gloat. My ketchup-loving family had to pay for little packets of the sweet, red dip, whereas mayonnaise flowed from the taps like the fountain of youth, pooling in the creases of wax paper sandwich wrappers for dipping french fries.
“Ha!” I exclaimed, finally smug. “I told you I’m not weird for liking mayonnaise, or coating my fries in it. This stuff’s has been around for ages, and you are the weirdos. And the grossies. The weird gross weirdo-grossies”. (I was fifteen, so I didn’t say “shit” to my family [yet], but there was most definitely some puerile name-calling.
I said all that to say this: I freaking love mayonnaise, and ranch dressing, and honey mustard (“honey” mustard, these days), and chipotle aioli, and all things creamy and tangy and right in the world. I deeply resent that at [non-vegan] restaurants I must default to overly-vinegared dressings I attempt to order a vegan salad and that I’m stuck with barbecue sauce for my dipping practice. But I also dislike paying $23.99 for a bottle of Veganaise.
OK, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but this tofu mayo is really a godsend. It’s creamy and tangy to your own tastes, but it’s oil-free, making that chipotle aioli or vegan ranch dressing totally guilt-free. Because it’s lacking heaps of canola oil, it doesn’t taste quite like the jiggly jarred stuff, but it works beautifully in recipes or as a dip.
This isn’t even much of a recipe! It’s more like, “here’s a thing and there’s a thing, put them together et voilà” but it’s so worth having in your back pocket. I used it to make a sriracha mayo dip for some tofu “chicken” nuggets (recipe coming soon!) and as a base for a mind-blowing lemon-garlic sauce for our, yes, kale-seitan earth bowls, loaded with sautéed zucchini and hummus. I originally made the recipe many, many (, MANY) moons ago, stirred in a bit of garlic powder to an ungarlicked batch, and used it as a dip for some baked sweet potato fries.
Make this. It’s so yum, and such a great beginning to any number of creamy vegan dishes.
Tofu Mayonnaise (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 12 oz silken tofu like Mori-nu, firm, excess water drained
- juice of 1/2-1 lemon
- 1 clove garlic if you prefer a less pungent, spicy garlic flavor, use garlic powder to taste after mayo is blended, minced, optional
- 1 teaspoon salt to taste
- 1 tbsp splash unflavored non-dairy milk optional
- 1 tbsp other optional ingredients: Dijon mustard to taste, start with about 1/2 teaspoon
Instructions
- Blend tofu and garlic (and optional Dijon mustard) in blender until smooth. Add lemon juice, to taste, and blend. Add non-dairy milk your desired consistency. Season with salt to taste.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tag @40aprons on Instagram and be sure to leave a review on the blog post!
Never Miss A Meal!
New Recipes Straight To Your Inbox
A curated selection of our most recent recipes, delivered straight to your inbox once a week.
Leave A Review
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Just FYI, I tried putting all ingredients in my jar & using the immersion blender ~ it worked beautifully! Easy-peasy & delicious! Thank you, again!
Fantastic!
Can this ‘mayo’ be made using the immersion blender method? This seems equally easy, but I have a hard time ‘losing’ what remains in bottom of my Vitamix. Thank you for all the great recipes & techniques!
I totally get it! I think the immersion blender would work, or try a food processor. My favorite for scraping out every last bit!
Hi! I am very fascinated with tofu right now and I am looking at tofu recipes to incorporate in my diet! So, of course, I am new to the tofu world. Now, I have a general question that can apply to this recipe and other tofu recipes out there: Is it possible to substitute silken tofu to regular tofu? Is there a significant difference other than texture? For example, this is obviously a sauce, so it would be better to make it with silken tofu (as common sense kicks in) but can’t you get similar results as regular tofu? Let me know your thoughts! ~nice blog!
Welcome to tofu world! 😀 you’re right. Silken is best used for textures and creamy recipes. However if you use a firm silken tofu, you can cube it up and use it in soups and things like that. If you’ve ever had tofu in your soup at a Thai restaurant that’s usually what they do! “Regular” tofu is best used as a sort of meat “substitute”, although I have seen it occasionally blended up to replace something or other in baking from time to time (a lot of eggs usually, or just a general denseness). But for this recipe you definitely want to use silken! It’s what makes the texture so, well, silky smooth! I hope that helped 🙂 thanks for reading my blog and commenting!
Yummmmm! I love my mayo extremely garlicky! I want to try this recipe with roasted garlic!
That sounds so good! We too love extremely garlicky mayo. Even pungent raw! Mmmm
How long does the tofu mayo last in the fridge?
Well, there’s two answers for that. The first what I’ll recommend to you, which is one week in an airtight container. The second answer, however, is what I would do for us at home: at least ten days or two weeks! Just depending on how it looks and feels after some time. But I’m just like that.. Ha! On the record, I’d say a week, though. 🙂
the only thing I need to eat this with is a spoon. or small shovel.
May I join you in this endeavor? I have a couple ladles in my kitchen..