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This easy homemade ranch dressing is better than anything you can buy at the store. It’s extra creamy and perfect for tossing with salad or used as a dipping sauce. Jump to the Easy Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe

Dipping cucumber into homemade ranch dressing

How to Make the Best Ranch Dressing From Scratch

This better than store-bought ranch is incredibly simple to make. If you love ranch, you must give this homemade version a try! This creamy dressing is just as easy to make as this creamy blue cheese and our homemade Italian vinaigrette (which doubles as a marinade)!

Ranch dressing made from scratch served with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber

Here’s what you will need to make ranch dressing at home:

Sour cream and mayonnaise — For the best ranch dressing, use both. A combination of sour cream and mayonnaise make the dressing extra creamy. Mayonnaise can be heavy by itself. Adding sour cream lightens up the dressing a bit. If you’re used to only using mayonnaise, try adding a bit of sour cream next time. It’s a game changer. If you’re in the mood, you can make homemade mayo, too. Here’s our no-fail mayonnaise recipe.

Buttermilk (or regular milk) — We don’t typically have buttermilk in the fridge (unless we’re making these buttermilk pancakes), but it is absolutely worth buying when making your own ranch dressing. It adds an extra creamy tangy flavor that’s tough to achieve without it. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand or would prefer to skip it, that’s okay. Use regular milk instead, and then add a touch more fresh lemon juice.

Making ranch dressing with fresh herbs

Worcestershire sauce — Not every ranch recipe out there calls for Worcestershire, but let me tell you, it’s a game changer in flavor. Don’t believe me? Leave it out when you make the sauce, taste it, and then add a teaspoon (or two) of Worcestershire sauce and see how the flavor changes.

Fresh lemon juice or vinegar — Even with buttermilk, the dressing needs a bit of lift and lemon juice or white wine vinegar does the trick nicely.

Fresh herbs — We pile lots of fresh herbs into our dressing. Add dill, parsley and chives for the best flavor. If you don’t have access to fresh herbs, dried herbs will work. We’ve added a tip in the recipe for substituting dried herbs if you need to.

Onion powder, garlic powder, salt & pepper — These give our dressing that unmistakable ranch flavor. I find that dried onion and garlic powder are better suited than fresh in this recipe.

Just a few seconds of stirring turns the dressing into a creamy and delicious mixture.

For a lighter dressing with fewer calories, you can swap the mayonnaise for light mayo and the sour cream for plain yogurt. The final flavor will be quite different, but still delicious in its own right.

How long will homemade ranch dressing last

This easy homemade dressing lasts for 3 to 4 days when stored in the fridge. I wish it lasted longer, but all those fresh herbs start to lose something the longer the dressing sits. I keep mine stored in a mason jar.

In fact, there’s a jar of it in our fridge now ready to be used in our favorite dishes. Here are a few suggestions for how to use this easy ranch dressing:

  • Skip store-bought salad dressing and use it on your favorite homemade salads. It’s especially delicious with cucumbers, carrots, baby greens, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, sweet bell peppers, cauliflower, and broccoli.
  • Make a big green salad, add a few slices of this juicy grilled chicken, some sliced avocado, and then drizzle over some ranch.
  • Add to a small bowl and use as a dipping sauce for fresh vegetables, roasted veggies (like these sweet potato fries), or anything buffalo flavored. We especially love these chicken wings and these baked buffalo cauliflower wings.

Homemade Ranch Dressing (Better Than Store-Bought)

This easy homemade ranch dressing is extra creamy and perfect for tossing with salad or used as a dipping sauce. We love using fresh herbs, but you can use dried. See the tips section below for suggested amounts. I love buttermilk ranch, so we use buttermilk to make it, but if you do not have access to buttermilk, regular milk will still make a delicious dressing.

Makes about 2 cups

Watch Us Make the Recipe

You Will Need

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, try homemade mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk or regular milk

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar

1 to 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, to taste

1/4 cup fresh dill, finely chopped, 2 generous tablespoons

1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped, 2 generous tablespoons

1/4 cup fresh chives, finely chopped, 2 generous tablespoons

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions

    Combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce in a medium bowl and stir until well blended and creamy.

    Stir in the herbs, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and black pepper.

    Taste, and then adjust with another teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce or add salt as needed. We love two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, but it is a strong flavor, so add this to your taste.

    Store, covered, in the refrigerator, for 3 to 4 days. It can technically be stored longer, but you will lose the fresh flavor of the herbs.

Adam and Joanne’s Tips

  • Substituting dried herbs for fresh: Dried herbs taste stronger when compared to fresh so use a third of the amount of fresh herbs suggested. This means that you will need: 2 teaspoons each of dried dill, dried parsley and dried chives.
  • Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste

Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size about 2 tablespoons / Calories 79 / Total Fat 8.1g / Saturated Fat 1.9g / Cholesterol 8.7mg / Sodium 105.4mg / Carbohydrate 1.1g / Dietary Fiber 0.1g / Total Sugars 0.7g / Protein 0.6g

AUTHOR: Adam and Joanne Gallagher



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