Click here to go straight to the recipe
I took my older daughter MK back to university in Canada last week, where we saw my mum and sister. Michelle had made aioli and gave us a jar. We loved it!
An emulsion of olive oil and egg yolks, aioli has the consistency of homemade mayonnaise, but with loads of garlic and, unlike mayonnaise, no egg whites. Also, the mayonnaise recipes I’ve read call for vegetable oil, or a mix of vegetable and olive oils. This calls for olive oil only. These differences result in an almost addictive substance. I have nothing against mayonnaise, but I would never scarf down half a jar of it. I pretty much did that after I made this (and had snapped a sufficient number of pictures for my post).
You can use aioli as a spread or dip. It tastes fantastic with my sourdough crackers. But I have to admit that although this turned out very well, Michelle’s was better. She used freshly harvested garlic from her garden and freshly laid eggs from her hen, The Chicken. My ingredients were fresh, but not that fresh.
Michelle found this recipe in The Silver Palate Cookbook. I halved it, thinking we couldn’t eat it all. Also, I didn’t want four egg whites on my hands. Egg whites mean meringues. And I can’t have piles of those sitting around.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
Directions
Yields a scant 1 1/2 cups
1. Put the garlic, lemon juice, egg yolks and salt in the bowl of a food processor.
2. Run while slowly drizzling in the olive oil. Aioli will thicken up as you add the oil. If necessary, continue to process to thicken.
3. Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate. The mayonnaise recipe I use recommends storing that for up to week and this is similar. So seven days seems like a good guideline.
Zero waste
I’m very lucky to have access to several stores with good bulk bins. That makes zero-waste and plastic-free cooking fairly easy. I just have to organize my jars and cloth bulk bags for my purchases before I leave for the store.
I bought the olive oil for my aioli in bulk at Whole Foods in a glass jar I brought. The eggs came from the farmer’s market and the vendor reuses cartons, so I return those to her. The salt was originally in a box, but it’s almost gone and I have a jar of bulk salt I’ll use next. I bought the garlic and lemon without packaging. The lemon did have an annoying sticker on it, but I save those for little decorating projects.
Aioli
Yields a scant 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
Directions
1. Put the garlic, lemon juice, egg yolks and salt in the bowl of a food processor.
2. Run while slowly drizzling in the olive oil. Aioli will thicken up as you add the oil. If necessary, continue to process to thicken.
3. Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate. Eat within about seven days.
A classic! I love the bulk olive oil, too. Never seen that!
I’ve bought bulk olive oil at another store, but it’s out of the way so I don’t get there often. I was pretty excited to find this 🙂
That looks awesome! Yumm. Thanks for sharing it.
Ooh, that is a must-try!
This sounds delicious, and I love the desk decoration 🙂
Thank you! I was thinking of your olive oil as I wrote this post 🙂
A similar vegan may recipe: DIY mayo using cashews, hemp or olive oil, & more FYI in case of interest http://www.robinskey.com/hemp-oil-mayonnaise/ I tried making this more than once and the way I did it, it turned out too liquidy for me but am not super experienced in the kitchen. Maybe it needed more cashews or less liquid than I used (I was trying to replace the garlic & onion powders with ACV & coconut sauce) http://www.robinskey.com/hemp-oil-mayonnaise/
Oh my goodness, sounds delicious!
It is! I have just a smidgen left. I’ll have to make more this week.
A classic but it sounds heavenly. And I imagine, I good dip to add to my armoury a/ to use up my homegrown garlic and b/ to cheer the spirit as the days shorten again!
It is heavenly, especially with homegrown garlic. This is definitely going into my repertoire.
Wow sounds luscious. ..you always come up with healthy and yummy dishes and just amazing…love it… 🙂
Thank you. And aioli is healthy, with its olive oil and omega-3 rich eggs, despite the (incorrect) information we’ve been told in North America, that fats are bad. This is super easy to make too 🙂
I make home made mayo all the time, but have never done aioli. Now you’ve inspired me! Oh – I also do this faaaaabulous blue cheese sauce, which I’ll have to post the recipe for. It’s very more-ish 😉
I think you’ll like it. Please post your blue cheese sauce and ping me when it’s up! That sounds awesome!
I made this yesterday and it is really good! Thanks for the idea.
Yay! I’m so glad you tried it and like it. I need to make more. I have only about a tablespoon left and lots of veggies from the market yesterday that are crying out to be dipped in aioli.
Such perfect timing to find this recipe! We’re just back from holiday in Spain and have been eating lots of it. Tastes of holidays 🙂 thank you!
You’re welcome and thank you for the comment. This is a very easy way to bring back a taste of your trip. I hope you had a nice time 🙂
Bulk olive oil is a great idea! I usually buy the big tin at Whole Foods and decant into smaller glass jars but this would be even better. Maybe I should suggest it on their bulletin board… PS, meringues, yay!!! Do it, do it, do it! 🙂
My Whole Foods carries it but it hasn’t always. Another Whole Foods far from me carries all sorts of liquids, including cider vinegar! I’m never in that area so I’m trying to make vinegar. For this I need lots of apple peels, so I’ll have to make apple pie. The things I do for self-sufficiency 😉 Meringues too…I hope your suggestion works. Good idea!
And welcome back from your blogging break 🙂
Looks delicious, but I am allergic to eggs, any substitute?
I found this, which doesn’t have eggs: http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2014/02/dairy-free-egg-free-aioli.html
I haven’t tried it but it sounds delicious. I like the sound of the cashews. My daughter makes nice sauces with them.
I have just looked up how to make this recipe without a food processor. It seems a pestle and mortar will work fine. I’m planning on making this for a tapas style supper tomorrow evening…
Ohhhh, that’s wonderful. I imagine people have eaten aioli for centuries after all, well before the advent of the food processor. I hope you have time to blog about your supper. You sound like a great cook. I would love to see pics. (No pressure though…) Enjoy!
The aioli was excellent!!! What a revelation: so simple, so quick & so much better than anything pasteurised in a jar. I’ll be blogging about it. I served it with my tahini-free falafel, crudités and fresh tomato & thyme savoury biscuits. So as not to waste the egg whites I had to make meringues – which will last the week. And to think some folks think making your own food is a hardship… 😉
Thank you for letting me know. This aioli is a revelation. I love to see the looks on people’s faces when they try it. They’re so surprised at how incredibly delicious it is. I look forward to reading your blog about yours. Will you please ping me here or on Twitter when you post it? Making your own food is a joy 🙂
This was sooo good and turned out great in my potato salad. It was a big hit. AND I made some for people to put on their burgers. Yum yum. 🙂 Thanks so much again for the recipe and all your great tips and solutions for a better future!
I’m so glad you liked it. Someone else had suggested potato salad and I bought the potatoes to make some, but haven’t done it yet (and have eaten some of the potatoes, so not so many left…). I hadn’t thought of burgers either. That all sounds so good! And thank you for the nice compliment. I really appreciate it 🙂
[…] used Anne Marie’s recipe but halved the amount of olive oil when I did the cup to ml conversion. This was partly due to […]
[…] dishes included aioli, using The Zero Waste Chef’s recipe and homegrown garlic, served with crudités, including our carrots; hummus, once again complete […]
[…] used Anne Marie’s recipe but halved the amount of olive oil when I did the cup to ml conversion. This was partly due to […]
[…] dishes included aioli, using The Zero Waste Chef’s recipe and homegrown garlic, served with crudités, including our carrots; hummus, once again complete […]
Hi! I found your blog yesterday and I’m studying it by heart! Love it! I am from Barcelona, Spain, and, please, let me collaborate: The real name of this sauce is “all i oli” which is a Catalan name that means “garlic and oil”. My mum makes the best in the world lol!! The original recipe takes this two emulsified ingredients but we all make it with eggs because is much easier. Try to do the real one!!
Thanks for the info. So “all i oli” is just oil and garlic?
Yes! here’s a couple of recipes, one in English and the other in Spanish for you to have an idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cqujW6gv5k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4A7smLTnro
Big hug!
Ada
Thank you Ada 🙂
Love all i oli! Yes it is 2 ingredients the original recipe! My dad used to make with a mortar and only olive oil and garlic 😊 thanks for this very useful blog!