Vegan And Regular Mayonnaise Are Actually Quite Similar

Mayonnaise is a pretty simple condiment, even if it's not the easiest to make at home. Mayonnaise is made with just a handful of common ingredients, including oil, eggs, salt, and vinegar or lemon juice. From there, it's a matter of combining the ingredients in such a way that you transform an oily, eggy liquid into a fluffy, creamy sandwich spread. But beyond this step, which requires either a lot of elbow grease or some special equipment, mayo is simple.

Because mayo is such a basic condiment, the differences between vegan and regular mayonnaise are minimal. The only ingredient swap needed is with the eggs (which means even if you're not vegan but you have an egg allergy, you can enjoy a very close duplicate of regular mayo when you buy the vegan alternatives). Beyond the eggs, you can expect your vegan and regular mayonnaises to be more or less the same, whether they're store-bought or homemade. Of course, different brands will use different vegan egg substitutes, so you may find that you prefer one brand over another because of this.

So what are popular brands using as the egg substitute in their vegan mayonnaise? Trader Joe's has a vegan mayo spread and dressing that uses "chickpea broth" as its egg substitute. Chickpea broth is just code for aquafaba, the cloudy liquid you'll find in the bottom of any can of chickpeas that is used in a variety of vegan recipes. Sir Kensington's vegan mayonnaise also uses aquafaba, as does the Chosen Foods vegan mayo, with a little dash of faba bean protein powder, too. The popular product Vegenaise goes way back as one of the very first vegan mayos on the market, and it uses brown rice syrup and soy protein as its egg substitute. Hellmann's, a favorite traditional mayo brand, makes a vegan offering with a "modified food starch" product standing in for the eggs and made from potato and corn.

If you're looking for a vegan mayonnaise that will stand in for traditional mayonnaise in all your favorite recipes or just on a sandwich, you won't have any shortage of options to choose from — but you may have to do a little taste-testing to find the brand that fits your preferences.