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Wild Garlic Mayonnaise
You just could chop up some wild garlic and stir it into shop-bought mayonnaise – but it won’t have the luscious texture and rich flavour of this homemade version. It’s whipped up in seconds in a food processor, but even by hand it will take barely ten minutes to make. For best results by either method, your eggs and oil should be at room temperature.
Use only leaves of wild garlic, or a mixture of leaves and buds as you prefer: the buds will give a punchier result. You can also alter the flavour of the mayo by using different oils: extra virgin olive oil will make it peppery, deep green and thick. Cold-pressed rapeseed oil will make it golden and richly nutty. Sunflower, groundnut or a mild olive oil will give a lighter texture and cleaner flavour.
- Small bunch of wild garlic (about 50g)
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 250ml oil (olive, groundnut, sunflower or rapeseed oil as you prefer – see above)
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice, plus extra to taste
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
TO MAKE BY HAND
- Rinse and dry the wild garlic. Chop it roughly, then pound to a paste with a pestle and mortar. Set aside. Take a smallish mixing bowl and sit on a lightly dampened tea towel to stop the bowl slipping around as you whisk. Measure out your oil and have it ready in a jug.
- Put the egg yolks and mustard into the bowl and whisk to combine. Continuing to whisk, trickle in a very fine stream of oil, beating the mixture together until the oil is used up and you have a firm, glossy mayonnaise. Beat in the crushed wild garlic leaves and the lemon juice, then taste for seasoning and serve.
TO MAKE IN A FOOD PROCESSOR
- Rinse and dry the wild garlic. Chop it roughly and set aside. Measure out your oil and have it ready in a jug. Put the egg yolks, mustard and lemon juice into the bowl of the processer and pulse a few times to combine.
- With the motor running at medium speed, trickle in a fine stream of oil, until the oil is used up and you have a firm, glossy mayonnaise. Drop in the wild garlic leaves and pulse a few times to mix them in. Taste for seasoning, and serve.
Notes
If at any point the mixture curdles (it will begin to look like oily scrambled eggs), beat in two to four teaspoons of warm water until the mayonnaise emulsifies, then resume beating in the oil.
Credits
Recipe by Wild Food UK; development and photos by Otherwise
1 comment for Wild Garlic Mayonnaise
Great recipe. I’ve been using it in sandwiches and it’s delicious. I followed the food processor recipe and added the oil in the slowest trickle I could manage, over about 5 minutes. It didn’t curdle. I let it run for a long time after adding the garlic leaves so it was as smooth as possible.
I initially thought that 50g of leaves would be too much, as it was about 30 leaves. Not what I’d call a “small bunch”! I added them gradually and tasted frequently, and I did end up using them all.