This recipe was meant to come out in my new book later this year but I decided to gift it to you all early because, well, things have gone a bit to sh*t. It could actually be my favourite recipe of all time; the holy grail of all things garlicky and creamy. Seriously, everyone goes nuts for it. I no longer use store-bought mayo – this stuff is inexpensive, lightning-fast to prepare and goes with just about anything. Smeared on sandwiches and burgers, served alongside roast potatoes or veges, dolloped on just about any type of dinner for a creamy element, used as a dip for chips…safe to say we go through it at an astonishing (even slightly worrying) rate of knots. Make a double batch if you have a few people in your family – one batch won’t last long enough.
Before you ask…
- I’ve tried this recipe with other plant milks and it doesn’t come out as lush, so I really recommend you use soy. Try and find one that says ‘creamy’ on the label (I use an organic one).
- People have used cow’s milk with success (blue top or UHT milk would work best) – but soy is amazing and it’s all I use. Evaporated milk would probably work too now that I think about it!
- You can use another neutral oil like sunflower, rice bran or safflower – even light olive oil. Don’t try making this with extra virgin olive oil, the flavour will be overpowering. However you can substitute ¼ – 1/3 of a cup of if you like the flavour. I never recommend canola oil for anything, as it’s so refined and bleached – but if it’s all you have for now, by all means use it – desperate times!
- It keeps for about a week in the fridge (I will be VERY surprised if there’s any left by then).
- The flavour gets better as time goes on.
- If you don’t have fresh garlic you can used crushed from a jar – normally I’d never ever say that, but we are in the middle of a pandemic so I’m yielding :)
- Don’t worry if you don’t have both lemon juice or vinegar – one of the other will do, start with 1 tsp and add to taste.
- The mixture thickens up almost instantly using a bullet or a stick blender (AKA immersion blender). A high-speed or regular blender will do, it just takes a bit longer. Unfortunately, a food processor just doesn’t really cut the mustard. The method for these is below.
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Ingredients
1 cup grapeseed oil (or sunflower oil)
½ cup creamy soy milk (organic is best)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ tsp fine white or black pepper
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)
Method
BULLET
This is the easiest and quickest way. You don’t need to crush the garlic clove for this one. The most important thing to remember here is not to shake it up first, or it won’t emulsify.
Place the oil, soy milk, mustard, salt, garlic and pepper into the bullet cup, twist the base on, then very gently turn it over and place it on the machine. Let it sit for 30 seconds so it separates out into layers. Whizz for a few seconds, or until it turns thick and creamy.
Remove the lid and stir through the lemon juice and vinegar.
STICK BLENDER
Place the oil, soy milk, mustard, salt, garlic and pepper into a tall, narrow container. Your stick blender may have come with one, or use the big cup of a bullet blender, or any tall plastic container or jar (about 1 litre capacity).
Let the ingredients sit in the container for 30 seconds to settle.
Stand the blender so that it sits firmly at the base of the container, and turn it on without moving it for about 5 seconds. As the mixture starts to emulsify, gently move the blender up and down to combine the ingredients.
Add the lemon juice and vinegar, give it a stir, and that’s it!
REGULAR BLENDER
Add all ingredients except the oil, vinegar and lemon juice to a blender and turn on to a medium speed. Slowly drizzle in the oil in a very thin stream until it’s all used up (make it very thin and slow at first, then you can speed up as you get past half-way) – the mixture should thicken and emulsify into a nice creamy aioli by the end.
Stir through the vinegar and lemon juice to taste.
STORAGE
Transfer the aïoli to a clean glass jar (or airtight container). Keeps in the fridge for a week, if you’re lucky that is! It doesn’t freeze well though.
