Cheater’s Aioli
Learn how to make creamy, tangy, garlicky aioli at home with this easy recipe! You'll just need good mayonnaise, lemon juice and garlic.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 16, 2024
My husband I don’t argue about much, but we do argue about aioli. Yep, aioli. We argue about the degree to which it is similar or different from mayonnaise. I say that aioli is practically sisters with mayonnaise, while he claims that the two condiments might as well be second cousins.
This typically takes place over wine and French fries in our favorite restaurants. We ask our server, “What is aioli?” Somehow, his or her answer is always a point for both of us. I know, it’s silly.
If you ask me, aioli is quite similar to mayonnaise. They’re both made of raw eggs emulsified with oil (mayonnaise is made with neutral oil, while aioli is made with olive oil) and a little bit of acid (mayonnaise uses vinegar, while aioli uses lemon juice). Sometimes, the French add a little bit of mustard.
Aioli also contains garlic, which we agree must be included. The word aïoli literally means oil and garlic (ail is garlic in French). The most original form of aioli, which I’m hoping to taste in Provence this summer, is made only with garlic and olive oil emulsified in a mortar and pestle.
The point is that there are many opinions about aioli. I’m surely going to upset someone with this quick and dirty version of aioli that tastes just like your favorite restaurant’s. Want to learn how it’s done?
How to Make This Quick & Easy Aioli
My easy aioli recipe is made with—wait for it—mayonnaise! To make it, you simply soak minced garlic in lemon juice for 10 minutes, strain it out, and stir the garlicky lemon juice into the mayonnaise. Essentially, you’re using mayonnaise as the creamy base, and adding the most characteristic aioli flavors to it.
I learned this trick from my tahini sauce. This way, you get nice garlic flavor without any actual garlic floating around in your mayo. Minced garlic would only distract from the creaminess and could make your sauce too garlicky with time.
Watch How to Make Aioli
Uses for Aioli
Anywhere you might use mayonnaise, you could probably use aioli. Here are some ideas:
- As a dip for prepared artichoke, French fries, crispy potato wedges (shown below) or sweet potato fries
- As a sandwich spread, perhaps in lieu of mayo on my veggie breakfast sandwich
- Serve a dollop with prepared vegetables, like green beans, roasted cauliflower, potatoes or a grilled kebab
- Generally speaking, aioli plays well with Spanish and provincial French cuisine, and also on seafood, apparently
Please let me know how your aioli turns out in the comments!
Cheater’s Aioli
Learn how to make creamy, tangy, garlicky aioli at home with this easy recipe! You’ll just need good mayonnaise, lemon juice and garlic. Recipe yields ½ cup aioli; multiply as necessary.
Ingredients
- 5 medium cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice, to taste
- Sprinkle of salt
- ½ cup good quality mayonnaise (I like Sir Kensington’s), to taste
- Optional: ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
Instructions
- In a small, shallow bowl, combine the pressed garlic and lemon juice. Stir to combine and spread it into an even layer so the juice can work its magic. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes, so the lemon juice can absorb the garlic’s flavor.
- Place a fine mesh strainer over another bowl. Using a silicone or rubber spatula, scoop the contents of the bowl into the strainer, then press on the garlic with the spatula to get as much juice out as possible. Discard the garlic.
- Stir the mayo into the garlicky lemon juice until combined. Taste, and adjust only if necessary—if the garlic flavor is overwhelming, stir in more mayonnaise by the tablespoon. If you want it to taste a little more interesting, add the Dijon mustard. For more tang, add another little squeeze of lemon juice.
- Aioli will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 10 days. It will thicken up more as it chills.
Notes
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I’ll have to give the reason to your husband, both are emulsified oils which would make them second cousins, Both Garlic and Eggs contain emulsifier ingredients, and the main difference between mayo and alioli is that the emulsifying agent is egg for mayo and garlic for alioli. The original availability of Olive oil in the Mediterranean caused it to be made with it and the actual original process was with a mortar and is really tedious… while your recipie is delicious, it is more a sister of Mayo as it is garlic mayo instead of Alioli. For sure is really similar and good enough.
If you have a hand blender, try taking out the vein of the garlic cloves, add some oil, sea salt and lime juice and slowly go from bottom up following the emulsion untill everything is fully integrated. No vein makes garlic to taste smoother while it is fully egg free.
What do you think about roasting the garlic first an then adding it to mixture an blending it all together? That would give it a sweet garlic flavor that isn’t overwhelming.
Hi Marcia, I like this recipe best as written. I hope you try it!
has anyone tried this with olive oil mayo? that might be the best “authentic-ish” substitute!
Best sauce in the world. I’ve put it on just about any vegetable I can think of and suddenly I can’t get enough. Thank you for this gift of a recipe!
You’re welcome, Juliet!
Really easy to make and tastes amazing. I substituted the fresh garlic for garlic powder, also added ground black pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil.
The whole family loved it.
Thank you.
We had a lot of potatoes I wanted eaten so I tried this as a new twist. I ended up straining only about half of the garlic (I do love garlic) and used Hellman’s. We loved it! This recipe was so simple but really feels special. Thank you!!
You’re welcome, Katharine!
My go to recipe Aoili I have been making this for yonks! I make it extra garlicky when it’s for the two of us. I used to be able to purchase the fab ‘vegannaise’ here in the UK but sadly no longer. For anyone who might be reading this from the UK I now make it now with Lucy’s Vegan Mayonnaise (it’s good quality and I purchase it on Ocado) it works perfectly… I’m not vegan but don’t like egg products.
A special message for you Kate… I hope you are recovering from your sad loss of Cookie… the loss of a pet leaves a huge hole in your heart. Remember the happy times you had together and take care of yourself sending love and hugs x
ps I love your cookbook… maybe another one day!!
So good. I always wondered how to get the piece of garlic out of the sauce. Perfect. I will also try with fresh lime juice. I left out the mustard. Great basic aioli. I am going to make a bigger batch to keep in a squeeze bottle in the fridge.
There are instructions on making traditional allioli in a mortar and pestle in José Andrés cookbook Tapas. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m close. Waiting for an ordered mortar and pestle to get here. :)
I tried this Friday night, on some burgers I made for my family. They were delicious and everyone raved over the flavor. Thank you for your recipe.
Outstanding! Tonight we had oysters, fries and your aoli. My husband and I devoured it and I saved a few spoonsful for fish and zucchini tomorrow night. We love your recipes. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Carroll!
Made this with homemade mayonnaise I needed to use up. It was great on our burritos!
Love the pressed garlic and lemon.
Yummy
Thanks Kate for the easy recipe.
We had it on tortilla bread with salad and left over roast lamb.
I made this tonight (minus the mustard) and have just printed for future.
My name is Kate also, I’m 60, live in Dondingalong NSW AUS, have a little dog named Pixie, cats Mr Tiggs and ⬛ Slinky Malinky. I live on 25 acres and have tons of fruit trees. Love to cook. Will check out more of your recipes. Hi to Cookie.
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it, Kate!
Fried up my first oysters and the cocktail sause I had was not doing for me, so I went looking for a dipping sause. I found this this recipeand it did not disappoint! I used everything in the ingredients including the Dijon mustard. I only had pre minced garlic so thats what I used. Can’t wait to try it with fresh garlic next time. I would highly recommend this for fried oysters!
Delicious! Will be my go-to for any artichokes in the future, for sure. May I suggest one simple change here, aioli is actual from Catalan cuisine, not French. Love the recipes! <3
Love this recipe – using this as a dip for skinny fries, normal fries, warmed ciabatta/pannini rolls, sourdough bread rolls, prawns, sweet potato, – just anything that can be dipped!
Thank you for your review, Valerie!
I loved this recipe. Similar to my favorite ceasar dressing in that you temper the garlic in the lemon juice to “cook” it a bit which reduces the raw garlic bite. I used Best Foods Mayo made with Olive oil and added just a touch more olive oil to the recipe. Turned out great and it is our new favorite artichoke dip. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome, Pam!
What an absolute winner! Thank you for this simple but spot on recipe.
I made this for the first time last month and it was delicious. I used it on fried shrimp and french fries. I usually use a spicy cocktail sauce and since I only eat this meal once a year on my birthday so to change was a little scary. On my gosh, it was so good. I used the left over on a sandwich wrap. Again added so much flavor. I did use the mustard, I think it added something. I am going to make it again today to have in the fridge. I eat sandwich wraps for dinner a lot. I will use the garlic in lemon juice for my tahini recipe also. It is a great technique. Thanks again.
Tried your recipe…sorta.
Did modify due to I am vegan. (More on that in a minute! Spoiler…it went well…so read to the end if you require same!)
Please don’t be an omniv snob…vegan mayos are a whole lot better than they used to be.
I have subbed best foods vegan mayo in picnic potato salad…non vegans have only asked, “where are the eggs?”
But still had no problem going back for 2nds & 3rds…
Soaking the garlic in lemon juice is genius! Do not skip this step.
I went off script a bit & used jalapeno salt.
I drained liquid (am reserving garlic for a 2nd use, plenty of life & flavor yet!) & added approx 2 tbsp best foods vegan mayo. Added approx 1/4 tsp Kala namak (aka “black” or “sulfur” salt…this is a specialty item, optional but worth it, adds a deep “egg” flavor…fyi, it is not really “black”, colorwise, more a pinky-tan…) Do not use black Hawaiian salt, it is dark from mineral content, flavor is basically sea salt, best as a sprinkle, strong dark color can mess up what you’re doing….
Added approx 2 tsp nutritional yeast for color & umani.
Added approx 1 tsp of good olive oil….
In part bcuz I agreed with the hubs…aioli needs to have olive oil! Plus…this added a richness I do not think I could have otherwise achieved.
Hey, this is going on a lunch prep vegan sandwich.
Whole grain rye, peppered tofurky, mustard greens & possibly tomato…
Carrot sticks, sliced bell peppers & fruit side….
I am already looking forward to lunch tomorrow…!!!
After a couple other recipes, I tried this one and it is perfect! Very easy and delicious!
I will try it with eggs beaters, roasted garlic, olive oil. I am used to eat aoli with raw eggs while living in Spain but Americans are paranoid using it
Delicious! I made it to accompany a Spanish style rice with chorizo and it was fabulous. The garlic infused lemon juice gave it that garlicky tang without being too aggressive. This is a keeper.
Perfection! Absolutely love it. Thank you for sharing another one of your delicious recipes! :)
Whew! Potent sauce – of course, I have no reference point, so no argument in my household. Made this to go with roasted russet potato cubes (that are supposed to be Garlic roasted potatoes but the garlic chars) so we decided to serve the potatoes with aioli – perfect. Always enjoy your recipes, thanks for another winner!
Recipe looks fine to me. However…as you seem to understand the intended flavors of a genuine aioli, I suggest aioli-ish. Say second cousin twice removed?
I use this recipe a lot. Depending on what I’m adding it to, sometimes I’ll add a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Recently, I added a 1/4 teaspoon of black truffle oil. OMG, it was awesome.
Hi Kathryn, the last time I looked for a recipe I picked the 1st one I saw and made it. It is the worst tasting sauce I every ate. I hate to start over and waste the 3 items in the recipe given (1 egg, ju. of half a lemen, 1/2 or 3/4 extra virgin olive oil). Tastes horrible with too much lemon and nothing else tastes good. Is there any suggestion in just saving this sauce by adding something to make it taste better
I made this for the first time last night. My husband and two kids loved it for dipping our homemade sweet potato fries, dolloped on top of our steak and salmon, and mixed through our raw cauliflower “tabbouleh.” Absolutely delicious.
Will definitely make again.