For one thing, I like to make as many foods from scratch as
I can. I don’t always have the time anymore for homemade cheese or homemade
toaster pastries, but the “vegannaise” recipes I’ve seen just require some
blending (and then cleaning the blender, of course.) For another thing, I liked
making a whole egg version of mayonnaise using an immersion blender, but I’m
not always confident about the safety of raw eggs, no matter their source. Most
of the time, the eggs I choose to buy have a good record of
salmonella-less-ness, but I’d feel uncomfortable serving my raw-egg mayo to
someone else. Finally, and most importantly, I was really, really curious about how much this soy-based stuff could taste like
real, old fashioned mayo.
As it turns out, this recipe makes a sauce/spread that
tastes surprisingly like the homemade egg-based mayonnaise I made before. Wow!
Like, really a lot like it. I’m quite happy with this. My vegannaise was a bit
runnier than store-bought mayo, but so is my egg-based mayo. I’m okay with that
because its texture still allows it to serve just fine as both a base for salad
dressings and a sandwich spread.
I’ll probably be happily making this pretty regularly. I’ve
already used it to make a chickpea salad (kind of like chicken salad or tuna
salad, but made with chickpeas) that I’ll have to tell you about soon, and an
aioli for dipping roasted sausages and vegetables. (For the aioli I made a
garlic-salt paste that I mixed into some of this mayo along with minced fresh
chives and a few grinds of black pepper.) I’ll probably use the rest to make coleslaw
out of a chunk of leftover cabbage.
No, I’m not going to go completely vegan on an every-day
basis. Perhaps I’m better described as a bit ve-curious, and I’m okay with
that. Especially when I can so easily and tastily replace something that makes
me kind of nervous to eat. As for things like tofurkey and soy-rizo: sorry, I’m
just not that into you.
Vegan Tofu “Mayonnaise”
Adapted from Howto Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark
Bittman
6 ounces firm (or extra-firm) silken tofu
¼ cup canola oil1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
1. Combine all ingredients in a blender. Process at medium
speed about 1 minute. Stop the machine and test for smoothness. If the mayo is
smooth, you can taste for seasoning and adjust as needed. If it needs more
processing, scrape the sides of the container and continue to process until
very smooth and creamy, then adjust the seasonings.
Makes a scant cup. Use as you would egg-based mayonnaise.
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