This quick and easy garlic aioli makes a delicious dairy-free sandwich spread or dipping sauce for French fries, nuggets, or veggies. Vegan aioli is made without eggs or dairy in just minutes with a few simple ingredients.
We love this plant-based garlic aioli and my family has a hard time choosing between this or vegan chipotle mayo, creamy horseradish sauce, and vegan tartar sauce on our sandwiches.
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❤️ Why make this recipe
If you have never had garlic aioli before, it's similar to mayo but flavored with lemon and garlic. It makes regular mayo seem boring.
I love this dairy-free garlic aioli on vegan turkey sandwiches, vegan bologna sandwiches, or used in seitan burgers, vegan chicken salad sandwiches, or chickpea salad sandwiches instead of mayonnaise. It also makes a great dipping sauce for tofu fries, fried zucchini, fried cauliflower, or vegan chicken nuggets.
🧾 Ingredients and substitutions
- Light Olive Oil - use light olive oil, extra virgin olive oil will have too strong of a flavor and overpower the garlic.
- Soy Milk or Ripple - plain unsweetened soy milk or the original Ripple has the best taste. It must be one of these two types of plant milk or it will not work the same. You need enough protein in the milk to make the mayo emulsify and become firm. (Make sure to use plain soy milk, not vanilla. You can also use plain soy milk with sugar added, but I find that it makes the aioli a little sweet)!
- Salt - for flavor.
- Garlic - you must use fresh garlic cloves for the best flavor. You can use garlic powder in a pinch, but fresh is best.
- Lemon Juice - for flavor and acidity to mix with your fat and protein and cause it to emulsify. You can use lime juice, but it will change the flavor.
- Apple Cider Vinegar - for additional flavor complexity and as an acid to mix with the oil and protein and make the aioli emulsify.
You can make vegan garlic aioli one of 2 ways. The easiest 2-minute method is to mix vegan mayo with minced garlic and lemon juice. The other way is to make it from scratch in a blender by combining soy milk with oil and spices.
🔪 Helpful tools
- High-Speed Blender - If you are making garlic aioli from scratch. You can also use a stick blender.
🥄 How to make vegan garlic aioli
Step 1 - Add 1 cup light olive oil, 1/2 cup plain cold soy milk,2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 4 cloves peeled garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to your blender and let it sit for about 2 minutes. (This will start to curdle your milk).
Step 2 - Turn the blender to high for 30 seconds, stop and scrape the edges then blend again for 30 more seconds.
How to make super easy vegan garlic aioli
Mix 1 cup of store-bought vegan mayonnaise in a medium-sized bowl with 4 cloves of minced garlic and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. (You can mince the garlic and add it to the bowl or you can put the mayo, garlic, and lemon in a blender and blend until smooth.)
👩🏻🍳 Pro Tips
- You must use either soy milk or Ripple milk for the aioli. I have tested every type of plant-based milk in this recipe and they are the only 2 with a high enough protein content to emulsify the aioli.
- You need to measure carefully or your garlic aioli will not set up properly.
- It will continue to firm up in the fridge.
🥡 How to store dairy-free aioli
Vegan aioli will keep well in the fridge for up to 1 week in an airtight container.
🌟 More vegan dips and spreads
- Vegan Honey Mustard
- Dairy-Free Buffalo Sauce
- Vegan Honey Garlic Sauce
- Garlic Cilantro Sauce
- Vegan Garlic Butter
📌 Be sure to follow me on Pinterest for new vegan recipes!
📋 Vegan aioli recipe
Vegan Garlic Aioli
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup light olive oil or any other neutral-flavored oil
- 1/2 cup soy milk (plain unsweetened) or Ripple for soy-free
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or lemon juice)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 4 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add 1 cup light olive oil, 1/2 cup plain cold soy milk,2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 4 cloves peeled garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to your blender and let it sit for about 2 minutes. (This will start to curdle your milk).
- Blend on high for 30 seconds.
- Scrape the edges and blend again for 30 seconds.
Notes
- You must use either soy milk or Ripple milk for the aioli. I have tested every type of plant-based milk in this recipe and they are the only 2 with a high enough protein content to emulsify the aioli.
- You need to measure carefully or your garlic aioli will not set up properly.
- It will continue to firm up in the fridge.
Nutrition
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Click the stars above or leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you!
Thank you Monica
Hi Monica,
If you need more emulsifying power miso is a great place to start. I make my own, though store bought will do.
Also things like sesame paste and mustard can provide more of the same, but with flavors that don't fit everywhere.
Cheers!
Great to know, I'll have to give that a try.
Delicious as always! Thank you 😊
Jen