<p>Food-grade emulsion gels have attracted increasing interests over the decade, owing to their better storage stability, unique rheological property and controllable biological fate. However, to obtain emulsion gels, complicated steps are required and the droplets in emulsion gels are generally micro-sized. In this work, a novel food-grade strategy to fabricate stable nano-sized emulsion gel in one step using soy protein as sole emulsifier was proposed by introducing maltodextrin before emulsification. The emulsion was prepared at low oil fraction (<i>Φ</i> = 0.1) and low protein concentration (<i>c</i> = 1.0 wt%) and exhibited small average size (~ 230&#xa0;nm), uniform size distribution and low flocculation index. Moreover, the obtained emulsion exhibited high stability against freeze-thaw and oxidation. Upon storage, the liquid emulsion prepared in maltodextrin enriched system transformed to emulsion gel spontaneously and was independent of emulsion droplet size and oil fraction. The strength of emulsion gel relied mostly on maltodextrin concentration, followed by protein concentration. Through the incorporation of maltodextrin, a kind of emulsion gel with small droplet size and low oil content was facilely fabricated in one step. The findings would be of importance not only for extending the knowledge about the fabrication of emulsion gels, but also for the development of novel, eco-friendly and sustainable emulsion gel for food, cosmetic and medicine formulations.</p>