This healthy homemade ranch dressing is made with Greek yogurt. It’s delicious and has a clean ingredients list. Plus, it’s super easy to make!
Why bother with making this healthy homemade ranch dressing? Well, if you’ve ever looked at the ingredients list of a typical commercial ranch dressing, you were probably horrified.
The ingredients list for Kraft ranch dressing, for example, includes soybean Oil, sugar, modified food starch, monosodium glutamate, xanthan gum, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, and calcium disodium EDTA.
Kraft’s questionable ingredients may not come as a huge surprise. But even Annie’s organic ranch dressing contains canola oil, sugar, and xanthan gum.
There’s really no need to buy ranch dressing. It’s so easy to make your own homemade ranch dressing from scratch, using wholesome ingredients. So there’s really no excuse not to. Scroll down for my basic recipe for tasty and healthy homemade ranch dressing.
Using Greek yogurt as the base for ranch dressing
I make ranch dressing using Greek yogurt rather than buttermilk, for the simple reason that I always have Greek yogurt in the fridge, and rarely have buttermilk. So I use Greek yogurt, and dilute it with some water, especially if I use the ranch dressing in a salad. If I use it as a dip, it’s perfect without any added water.
How to serve homemade ranch dressing?
The most obvious use is for dipping fresh cut veggies. You can also dilute it with more water and make it into a tasty salad dressing. I often serve it when I make baked buffalo wings or buffalo chicken. We all like it better than blue cheese dressing.
What about leftovers?
This homemade ranch dressing keeps in the fridge for about 5 days. So I tend to make a batch about once a week. Stir it each time you use it, and add some water if it’s too thick.
PS. Another recipe that’s very easy to make at home and avoid unwanted commercial additives is Greek yogurt tartar sauce.
Homemade Ranch Dressing
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup plain full-fat Greek yogurt (I use Fage 5%)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (not table salt)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup water, optional
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, dried dill and black pepper.
- Serve as a dip with fresh-cut veggies.
- If you want to use this as salad dressing, mix in water to thin it out - start with 1/4 cup water.
