Recipe - Honey Lime Dressing - MAYO CHALLENGE

A family member has a stellar honey lime dressing recipe that uses mayonnaise, and - since I had a butt ton of lime and lots of fresh salad ingredients, I decided that I wanted to make it.

One problem: I threw out my mayonnaise because traditional mayo is basically vegetable oil in a jar, mixed with a few egg yolks. And remember, I quit using vegetable oil.

Now, yes, there are mayo brands that use olive oil, and if you really like to use mayo, you should totally buy some! But I have, like, three recipes that call for mayo. In fact, the nearly full jar of mayo that I threw out for containing soybean oil was also over six months expired. Whoops.

Sidebar: Just because it says it's made with olive oil doesn't mean it doesn't have vegetable oil - Hellman's Olive Oil Mayo and Kraft Olive Oil Mayo, for example, are still mostly soybean oil. Read your labels.

My point is that I didn't buy the vegetable-oil-free mayo because I use mayo so seldom. But of course, now I wanted to use mayo. Of course, I could make my own mayo (and probably will at some point) but...I didn't feel like doing that last night. It was Monday. I didn't feel like doing anything except eating my honey lime dressing. But I didn't have mayo.

...But you know what I did have? A big container of whole milk, unflavored yogurt that I used to make Indian food last week.

Mayo and yogurt are kinda the same, right? They're both...creamy and white?

Original Recipe: Honey Lime Salad Dressing

4 tbsp mayo

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp honey (or more to taste)

1/2 lime, juice and zest

1/4 tsp cumin (ground)

1/2 clove garlic, crushed

Salt and pepper to taste.

I started by making this the same, but adding yogurt instead of mayo, and tasted it

But although the flavors came through somewhat, the yogurt seemed to "swallow" the flavors of the spices more than the mayo did, so I added more of all the spices and lime juice...and viola! It was good!

I will admit, it wasn't quite the same as the mayo version, but it was very, very good. It was a little thicker than the dressing that I am used to, and I have a theory that this is because I had whole milk yogurt - this may also be why the dressing required additional spices as well.

I have the leftover dressing stored in my fridge for salads later in the week, and I'm looking forward to eating it! And bonus, I'm getting probiotic stuff from the yogurt while I'm at it!

Final (healthier) Honey Lime Dressing with Yogurt:

4 tbsp whole-milk, unflavored yogurt (having unflavored yogurt is very important)

2 - 2 1/2 tsp of olive oil (until sufficiently creamy)

1/2 tsp honey

Zest from half a lime

Juice from whole lime

1 small clove of garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp cumin ground

Salt and pepper to taste

**1/2 tsp of dill** - a random inspiration that would've worked with the original recipe as well.

NOTE: I get no benefit from anything you buy through the link to buying the mayo on Amazon. I haven't signed up for the Amazon affiliate thingy that a lot of blogs have. Maybe someday.