Truffle aioli, or truffle mayo, makes a delicious dip for shellfish or vegetables. Just include truffle oil and garlic when whisking together homemade mayo!
During truffle season in Paris, fancy restaurants have five-course truffle tasting menus. And occasionally you can find black truffles themselves in the farmers' markets—for an obscene amount of money, of course. Raw truffles are fantastic thinly shaved over risotto or a creamy pasta dish for a special occasion dinner.
A more reasonably priced option for your truffle fix though is truffle oil, which gives you that same earthy, seductive flavor in a shelf-stable form. I love a bit of truffle oil drizzled over soft-scrambled eggs or tossed with steamed green beans, but using it to make your own easy Truffle Aioli is a bit of decadence we all deserve right now.
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Why Make This Recipe
- Surprisingly easy to make! This recipe combines my technique for homemade mayo with truffle oil flavoring. Though I love my Hellman’s for most regular uses, every now and then I like to make my own mayonnaise from scratch. All you need is a whisk!
- Delicious condiment for so many different foods. Use truffle mayonnaise as a dip with chilled shellfish or steamed vegetables, or serve it as a topping for a bouillabaisse or other fish stew. (Or, just smear some on a baguette slice and stuff in your mouth, as I did as soon as I finished whisking.)
🥗 Ingredients for Homemade Truffle Mayo
- Vegetable Oil: Using vegetable oil to make mayonnaise gives you the most mild flavor. Alternatively, you could use grapeseed oil or sunflower oil. If you wanted to add in some olive oil flavor, I would recommend using half olive oil and half vegetable oil so that the olive oil flavor does not overshadow the truffle oil.
- Truffle Oil: Many truffle oils are artificially flavored, and not as delicious as oil made from real truffles. You can sometimes find black truffle oil and white truffle oil at specialty grocery stores, and on Amazon (such as this white truffle oil). Oliviers and Co. also sells high-quality truffle oils and salts, and they ship within the United States.
- Egg: This recipe does include a raw egg yolk, so look for pasteurized eggs if this is a concern for you.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Whisk together 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt in a small-medium bowl. I like to use a glass bowl so you can really see what is happening.
In a measuring cup with a spout, combine 1 tablespoon truffle oil and ¾ cup neutral oil. Very slowly, begin to drip the oil into the bowl with the egg mixture, whisking constantly and vigorously.
You are making an emulsion, and emulsions are very tricky. At the beginning, you must literally add the oil drop by drop, making sure it is incorporated before adding more.
The mixture will thicken and lighten little by little at first, and then faster and faster.
Once you have added about ¼ cup of the oil, you can speed up the rate at which you are adding the oil. Continue to whisk constantly, taking a break if your arm tires. If your bowl is moving around a lot, try putting a damp kitchen towel under it.
After you have added about ½ cup, you can speed up even more until all the oil is incorporated.
If your black truffle aioli is too thick, add a teaspoon of water at a time to loosen it up to what you desire. Whisk in a clove of minced garlic and let sit for at least 10 minutes, to allow the flavors to meld.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
Truffle Aioli will keep up to 3-4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
In the past, aioli referred to a very traditional emulsion of garlic with olive oil. Today, the word aioli is used almost interchangeably with mayonnaise. Aioli usually refers to a mayonnaise (homemade or not) mixed with garlic, but is now also used to describe mayonnaise mixed with all sorts of spices or other ingredients.
Smoked paprika aioli, garlic aioli, basil aioli—the possibilities are endless. Intrigued by the idea of making your own aioli? Once you've tried this truffle aioli, you'll want to check out my Pesto Aioli, my Sriracha Aioli, and my Roasted Garlic Aioli as well!
With this recipe, I use just an egg yolk, dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon, kosher salt, vegetable oil, and truffle oil. As an alternative to the truffle oil, you could also use a grated fresh truffle. You can also start with a base of store bought mayonnaise, and go from there (see Expert Tips for more details).
Truffle aioli is gluten-free, since no flour is added. However, it is not vegan, as an egg yolk is used in the mayonnaise base. For a vegan version, you can start with a packaged vegannaise, and whisk truffle oil or fresh truffles into that.
Famous French gourmet Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin referred to truffles as “the diamond of the kitchen.” They are a type of fungi that typically grow around the roots of particular types of trees and come in two main varieties: black and white. They vary in size, some as small as a walnut and some as large as a baseball. Truffles require very specific growing conditions and are difficult to cultivate. As a result, they are extremely expensive to buy!
👩🍳 Expert Tips for Garlic Truffle Aioli
Want an easier way to make truffle aioli? If you avoid eating raw egg yolks or just really don’t want to make your own mayonnaise, you can also make truffle aioli by whisking ¾ to 1 cup of mayonnaise with a tablespoon of truffle oil, a minced garlic clove, and a bit of lemon juice.
You may find the texture to be a little looser than you prefer if you use this method, but it still works!
What about using a food processor to make aioli? If you are already a home mayonnaise-maker and are on Team Food Processor/Blender/Immersion blender, I salute you. You can absolutely use that technique with this recipe and just add in the truffle oil. Me, I seem to have about a 50% success rate with using a machine to make mayonnaise.
As a result of throwing out several machine-made attempts amid a stream of impolite words, I am now 100% Team Hand Whisk. Yes, it takes a while. Yes, your arm will tire of whisking. But it is much much less easier to mess up as you can see exactly what you are doing.
How to Use Truffle Aioli
Use truffle aioli instead of mayo to make a next-level chicken salad or egg salad dish. May I suggest this Egg Salad with Bacon recipe? Or, use it as a spread on your sandwich du jour. Blend it into mashed potatoes or serve on top of a potato frittata.
Mix it with some dijon mustard and serve as a sauce for crab cakes. Aioli makes a fantastic dip for a crudité platter, or for a bowl of chilled shrimp. Steam artichokes and dip their leaves in truffle aioli sauce to eat, or serve with Roasted Artichokes.
Or serve truffle dip with Baked Potato Wedges or sweet potato fries instead of ketchup. Toss it with steamed green beans or asparagus. In the South of France, a bowl of bouillabaisse often comes with baguette toasts slathered with aioli. It’s fantastic as is, but serving with a truffle aioli instead takes that dish right over the top.
Other Aioli Recipes
Now that you know how to make homemade aioli, it's time to try your hand at other flavors. Here are some of my favorites:
If you try this easy truffle mayo recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
Truffle Aioli (Truffle Mayo)
Truffle aioli, or truffle mayo, makes a delicious dip for shellfish or vegetables. Just include truffle oil and garlic when whisking together homemade mayo!
Ingredients
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon truffle oil (black truffle preferred)
- Up to ¾ cup neutral oil, such as vegetable oil or grapeseed oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced or grated
Instructions
- Whisk together egg yolk, dijon mustard, lemon juice, and salt in a small-medium bowl. I like to use a glass bowl so you can really see what is happening.
- In a measuring cup with a spout, combine the truffle oil and neutral oil.
- Very slowly, begin to drip the oil into the bowl with the egg mixture, whisking constantly and vigorously. You are making an emulsion, and emulsions are very tricky. At the beginning, you must literally add the oil drop by drop, making sure it is incorporated before adding more.
- The mixture will thicken little by little at first, and then faster and faster. Once you have added about ¼ cup of the oil, you can speed up the rate at which you are adding the oil.
- Continue to whisk constantly, taking a break if your arm tires. If your bowl is moving around a lot, you can try stabilizing it by placing it on top of a damp kitchen towel. After about ½ cup of oil has been added, you can speed up even more until all the oil is incorporated.
- If the aioli is too thick, add a teaspoon of water at a time to loosen it up to what you desire.
- Whisk in the minced garlic and let sit for at least 10 minutes, to allow the flavors to meld.
Notes
This recipe includes a raw egg yolk, so look for pasteurized eggs if this concerns you.
Truffle Aioli will keep up to 3-4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 5 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 382Total Fat: 43gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 37gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 145mgCarbohydrates: 0gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 1g
Nutrition information is provided as a general reference for users courtesy of the online nutrition calculator Nutritionix.
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this truffle aioli recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Hasin says
Truffle Aoli sounds like a great dip Molly. I love the different flavours going into this recipe and the extra notes are a deal of help!
Chef Molly says
Thanks Hasin! I love this recipe--it's easy but the flavor is just so yummy. So good with so many things!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls says
I really liked your idea to pair this truffle mayo with artichokes. YUM! And another good reason to be on team whisk is that it doesn't require any expensive tools!
Chef Molly says
So true! Whisks are way cheaper than food processors!
Josiah - DIY Thrill says
This delicious dip looks perfect for game day!
Jeff the Chef says
Thanks for the recipe. I really appreciate all the details.
Chef Molly says
Thanks Jeff!