Ditch the bottled dressing, with its questionable ingredient list and sketchy nutritional profile. Healthy homemade ranch dressing is totally doable!
Making ranch dressing for the first time may sound like a chore, but once you gather up what's needed and tackle it for the first time, you'll be glad you did! It's so much more flavorful, for starters. We know it can be so hard to find ranch dressing without a long list of ingredients, this recipe will show you how to make healthy homemade ranch dressing with a clean ingredient list.
How to Make Homemade Ranch Dressing
It's pretty simple. Gather Greek yogurt, plain, and a list of ingredients easily found in your pantry or after a quick trip to the grocery store. Dried parsley, chives, and dill give it that signature herbal taste, and lemon juice and white rice vinegar add some acidity and flavor. Seasoned with salt and pepper, along with onion and garlic powder, this ranch dressing is so easy. You'll wonder why you never made it before.
Substitutions and Alterations
Make this recipe vegan by using a non-dairy plain yogurt.
Use fresh herbs instead of dried ones. To adjust the amounts, aim for a tablespoon each of roughly chopped parsley, dill, and chives. And then let the food processor do the rest of the work.
If you don't have white rice vinegar, which tends to be a little sweeter, try using white wine vinegar or up the amount of lemon juice. Alternatively, you can try apple cider vinegar, but that won't be as sweet. However, just keep in mind that if you do make adjustments with the vinegar type, taste the dressing. Course correct the flavor if needed. Eventually, you'll have a recipe you'll love.
You can also try this tasty Jalapeno Ranch recipe!
How to Store Healthy Ranch Dressing
Once you've prepped this dressing, keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. We like storing dressings in glass jars with lids. Label it with the date and contents if you've a habit of letting foods go awol in your fridge. It ought to stay fresh for about 5 days. After that, it might start to develop a funny smell. But again, you've seen how easy this is, so it will be a snap to whip it up again.
We don't recommend freezing this dressing. It's not a good scene.
What Do I Do With Ranch Dressing?
We know you'll want to toss it in your salad, or maybe use it for Buffalo wings or chicken tenders. Ranch dressing is great to dip your favorite veggies in it (carrot and celery sticks?). But there are plenty of other ways to enjoy it. Use it in the following recipes:
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Meal Prep
- Whole30 Compliant Chicken Bacon Ranch Meal Prep
- Bacon Ranch Chicken and Veggies Foil Packets
Out of ideas but not out of dressing? Ranch dressing happens to be great drizzled over cooked chicken breasts or pork chops. Just thin it out a little bit with water. We wouldn't judge you, either, if you happened to dip some potato wedges or French fries in that ranch dressing. (Can't knock it till you've tried it!)
Equipment
- 1 Food Processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried chives
- 1 teaspoon dried dill
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon water or more as needed to achieve desired consistency
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into a magic bullet or food processor and process until combined and smooth.
- Serve as a dip or dressing (just add more water to thin out to desired consistency.
Notes
Nutrition
Tips for Storebought Ranch Dressing
If you'd rather just buy the dressing yourself, this is the brand we'd recommend because of its pronounceable ingredient list and friendliness to paleo meal prep.
What do you like using ranch dressing for? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
