What Is Sir Kensington's Fabanaise?
Sir Kensington's built its name on "fancy" condiments in glass jars, and its vegan mayo was one of the earlier mainstream attempts to solve a genuinely hard problem: mayonnaise is an emulsion that traditionally depends on egg yolks to hold oil and water together. Instead of eggs, Fabanaise uses aquafaba — the starchy liquid left over from cooking chickpeas — as its emulsifier. It's the same trick home cooks use to whip vegan meringue, applied to a condiment jar.
The name "Fabanaise" (fab + aquafaba + mayonnaise) still shows up on some retailer listings and older jars, but Sir Kensington's, now owned by Unilever, has folded the product into a broader "Vegan Mayo" lineup that includes Classic, Avocado Oil, Chipotle, and a vegan Special Sauce. The recipe and positioning are the same regardless of which label you find on the shelf: an egg-free mayo aimed at people who want something that behaves like real mayonnaise, not a thin salad dressing standing in for one.
Ingredients
The Classic Vegan Mayo's ingredient list is short by mayo standards: sunflower oil, aquafaba (water, chickpeas), distilled vinegar, salt, organic lemon juice, organic kombu seaweed, and white pepper. The Avocado Oil variety swaps some or all of the sunflower oil for avocado oil, and the Chipotle version adds peppers and spices on top of the base formula.
A few things stand out. First, there's no added sugar in the Classic version, which separates it from mayos that lean sweet to mimic the flavor egg yolks would normally provide. Second, kombu seaweed is doing quiet work here — it contributes glutamates that add a savory, faintly "eggy" depth without using eggs. Third, the ingredient list is soy-free and gluten-free, which isn't true of every vegan mayo on the market (some use soy protein or soybean oil as a base).
If you're checking a jar in a store and the label looks slightly different from what's described here, that's not unusual — Sir Kensington's has reformulated and rebranded this product more than once since it launched. When in doubt, always read the actual ingredient panel on the jar in front of you, or run it through the spvegan.com ingredient checker before buying.
Why Aquafaba Instead of Soy or Pea Protein?
Most vegan mayo brands lean on soy protein isolate or pea protein to replicate the emulsifying job egg yolks normally do — proteins that unfold and wrap around oil droplets, holding the mixture together instead of letting it separate into a puddle of oil and vinegar. Aquafaba works through a similar mechanism, but it's a byproduct rather than an isolated, processed protein. Every can of chickpeas produces liquid that usually gets poured down the drain, so using it here is partly a texture solution and partly a food-waste story Sir Kensington's leans into in its marketing.
There's a practical upside beyond the sustainability angle, too: aquafaba is naturally soy-free and doesn't carry the beany aftertaste some people associate with pea-protein-based spreads. That's a meaningful chunk of why this particular mayo can market itself as soy-free and allergen-friendly while still nailing a thick, spoonable texture — something older egg-free mayo attempts often struggled with before aquafaba became a mainstream ingredient around the mid-2010s.
Where to Buy It and What It Costs
Sir Kensington's Vegan Mayo is distributed widely enough that you shouldn't need a specialty health food store to find it — it shows up at Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger-owned chains, and on Amazon, typically in 12 oz jars (older "Fabanaise" branded jars sometimes came in 16 oz sizes at select grocers). Pricing varies noticeably by retailer and region, with mass grocery chains generally running cheaper than specialty or online-only sellers, so it's worth price-checking Target.com or Walmart.com against your local Whole Foods before committing to a jar, especially if you're planning to use it regularly rather than just trying it once.
If a store near you doesn't carry the Classic version, the Chipotle and Avocado Oil varieties are sometimes stocked instead depending on regional distribution — all three share the same aquafaba-based, egg-free formula, so any of them will work as a drop-in vegan substitute in recipes calling for regular mayonnaise.
Is Sir Kensington's Fabanaise Vegan?
Yes — Sir Kensington's Vegan Mayo (Fabanaise) is vegan. There are no eggs, dairy, honey, or other animal-derived ingredients anywhere in the formula. The emulsification job that egg yolks normally do is handled entirely by aquafaba, and retailer listings for the product list it as Certified Vegan and Non-GMO Project Verified. It's also labeled gluten-free, soy-free, and keto-diet certified, which is a fairly unusual combination of claims for a condiment to stack.
One caveat worth flagging: because Sir Kensington's makes both vegan and non-vegan products (its classic egg-based mayo is still on shelves too), it's worth double-checking the jar you're picking up. The vegan version is clearly labeled "Vegan Mayo" or "Fabanaise" on the front — it won't say "Classic Mayonnaise" or picture an egg. If you're buying online and the listing photo is small or outdated, zoom in before adding it to your cart.
Nutrition Facts Comparison
Per 1 tablespoon (15g) serving, here's how Sir Kensington's Vegan Mayo stacks up against three other widely available vegan mayo brands.
| Product | Calories | Total Fat | Saturated Fat | Sodium | Sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sir Kensington's Vegan Mayo (Fabanaise), Classic | 90 | 10g | 1g | 95mg | 0g |
| Just Mayo (Eat Just) | 60 | 6g | 0g | 95mg | 0g |
| Follow Your Heart Vegenaise, Original | 80 | 9g | 0.5g | 70mg | 0g |
| Chosen Foods Vegan Avocado Oil Mayo | 90 | 10g | 1.5g | 95mg | 0g |
Sir Kensington's sits right in the middle of the pack calorie- and fat-wise, essentially tied with Chosen Foods and noticeably richer than Just Mayo, which uses less oil per serving and comes in the lightest of the four. None of these brands add meaningful sugar, so if you're comparing on that axis alone, it's basically a wash — the real differences show up in fat content and, more importantly, in how each one actually tastes and performs.
Taste and Texture
This is where opinions on Fabanaise get more divided than the ingredient list would suggest. The texture is legitimately close to real mayonnaise — thick, glossy, and spreadable straight from the jar rather than runny or gel-like, which is a real accomplishment for an aquafaba-based emulsion. It holds up in a sandwich without soaking through the bread and folds smoothly into potato salad or slaw dressing.
Flavor is the more debated part. Traditional mayo gets a distinct tang from egg yolks combined with vinegar and lemon, and some tasters find Fabanaise misses that sharper, slightly sulfurous egg-yolk note — instead landing a bit milder and, in the Classic version, slightly sweeter than expected for a product with zero added sugar. That makes it work well in dishes where you want creaminess more than punch, like potato salad, coleslaw, or as a base for a dip, but it can taste like it's missing something if you're using it plain on a BLT and expecting the exact profile of Hellmann's. The Chipotle variety gets more consistently positive feedback, since the added spice covers over any gap in tang and gives it a clear flavor identity of its own.
If tang is your top priority, it's worth doing a side-by-side taste test against Vegenaise, which tends to lean more acidic, or Just Mayo, which has a cleaner, more neutral profile. Palates vary enough on this specific point that it's genuinely hard to predict which one you'll prefer without trying it yourself.
Fabanaise vs Other Vegan Mayo Brands
| Product | Emulsifier Base | Soy-Free | Added Sugar | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sir Kensington's Vegan Mayo | Aquafaba | Yes | No | Potato salad, dips, sandwiches where mild flavor is fine |
| Just Mayo | Pea protein | Varies by version | No | Lighter everyday sandwich spread |
| Vegenaise (Original) | Soy protein | No | No | Tangier flavor, all-purpose cooking and baking swap |
| Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Mayo | Pea protein | Yes | No | Avocado-oil-only diets, richer texture |
The clearest differentiator for Fabanaise isn't flavor — it's the aquafaba angle. If reducing food waste and avoiding soy and pea protein-based emulsifiers matters to you, it's one of the few widely distributed mayos built that way. If you're mostly chasing an exact stand-in for traditional mayo's tang, Vegenaise is the more common recommendation among longtime vegans, and it's worth reading our full vegan mayo roundup for more head-to-head detail across brands.
Who Should Buy Sir Kensington's Fabanaise
This product makes the most sense for people who want a soy-free, gluten-free mayo with a genuinely mayo-like thick texture, and who aren't fixated on replicating the exact tang of egg-based mayo. It's a strong pick for potato salads, slaws, sandwich spreads mixed with herbs or spices, and dips where creaminess matters more than sharpness. The Chipotle version is worth seeking out specifically if you want more flavor personality straight out of the jar.
It's a less obvious choice if you're a mayo purist chasing an exact 1:1 replacement for classic Hellmann's on a plain sandwich, or if you're specifically trying to avoid all oil-based condiments for health reasons — at 10g of fat per tablespoon, it's not a "light" product, and it doesn't try to be.
Final Verdict
Sir Kensington's Fabanaise nails the texture problem that trips up a lot of vegan mayo — it's thick, spreadable, and doesn't separate or feel gloopy. Where it's more of a mixed bag is flavor: it's milder and slightly sweeter than traditional mayo, which some people will genuinely prefer and others will find underwhelming compared to a tangier competitor like Vegenaise. The short, recognizable ingredient list and the soy-free, gluten-free, Non-GMO Project Verified credentials are real advantages if those things matter to you.
Rating: 7.5/10 — a well-made, texture-accurate vegan mayo that's easy to recommend for cooking and dressings, slightly less of a slam dunk if you're after an exact classic-mayo flavor match.
