Avoid processed, bottled dressings with this easy homemade Ranch Dressing. It’s delicious and made with all real food ingredients.
Do you remember mixing up ranch dressing with a dry, powdered mix when you were a kid? I was born before anyone put it in a bottle — or added like 52 million different flavors to the line, so the mix was how we rolled. I loved it for its creamy, buttermilk flavor.
My sister went through a ranch phase where she practically drank the stuff. My mom joked that she needed to invest in plastic dippers since at least one of her progeny focused on just licking the ranch dressing off the regular dippers.
Homemade Ranch Dressing is a mainstay at our house. We love this stuff, and it’s so easy to make and so much healthier than the store-bought variety — or even the powdered mix. This dressing is great on salads or for dipping veggies, pizza, or chicken strips.
Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad
I often make a batch of Ranch Dressing on pizza night. It’s good for 4 days refrigerated. It mixes up so quickly; it’s a great recipe to have a child prepare.
This dressing goes great with these recipes:
Watch how easy it is to make Ranch Dressing!
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- pinch cayenne pepper
- Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl until smooth.
- Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for several hours to allow flavors to blend.
Nutritional values are approximate and are based on 8 servings from the 1 cup of dressing. Refrigerate leftovers promptly and use within 4 days.
*This post was originally published on July 2, 2008. One of my first ever recipes!
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I’ve been wanting a good ranch dressing recipe! Thanks!
Is the buttermilk necessary? I only ask because I would not have anything else to do with the rest of the carton! Could regular milk be used?
Make soda bread! http://lifeasmom.com/2011/03/irish-soda-bread-dubliner-cheese-urs-st-patricks-day-feasts.html I made this recipe for St. Patrick’s Day. It was delicious! And I remember thinking to myself how nice it was to have a simple recipe to make from the buttermilk I always have left over from making ranch dressing. 🙂
great suggestion!
Thanks. Your soda bread recipe was really good, btw. My family loved it!
Yes, Jen, the buttermilk is what “makes” it. But, the product should stay good for a long time, usually a couple weeks past the sell-by date.
Buttermilk is a mainstay at our house — for dressing and baking. Sub it for milk in whatever you’re baking and it will give a boost to the muffins, pancakes, biscuits, bread, whatever.
Thanks for this tip…I was thinking the same thing and didn’t want to waste the rest of the big carton.
I have been wanting a good ranch dressing recipe since my husband loves it. As for buttermilk, you can substitute 1 cup of regular milk with 1 Tablespoon of vinegar for 1 cup of buttermilk.
Yes EOL, you can do that. But, I find that really only works in baked goods. It doesn’t taste quite the same in this dressing. IMO.
woo hoo – I’m so excited to see a ranch recipe…I keep meaning to look for one, but never seem to remember when I have time. I HATE processed tasting grocery-store ranch…can’t wait to give this one a try.
You can also use lemon juice + milk to make “buttermilk” a lot of baking cookbooks have that shortcut in them…I always pull out my Betty Crocker when I need the conversion, bc I never have buttermilk on hand! Don’t know if it would work here or not, but it’s something handy to know!
btw buttermilk freezes well and you can freeze it in ziplocs in whatever proportion you would need for the recipe.
I didn’t see a place to email you privately so I understand if you take this off and answer later. but i was wondering how you decide what to buy(groceries) versus what is healthy for your family. does that make sense? staying on budget vs. non-hydrogenated fats.
ZZ, I was just thinking about both things this morning: explaining why I have so much Chex Mix and making sure my email was evident. 😉 I put up the email link and will answer the other soon. If you’d rather, feel free to email me.
I’m always looking for dressing recipes. I can’t stand bottled dressing.
I LOVE ranch dressing and homemade dressings in general! Can’t wait to try this one!
Jessica,
How long does this keep in the fridge?
Thanks,
Keli
I never keep it longer than a week.
I have about 3/4 gallon buttermilk to use up and thought I would make this dressing, but do you have any other ideas how to use it up. Does buttermilk freeze well? Should I attempt it?
@Jackie Brown, yes, you can freeze it. It is also great in most baked goods.
Thanks! Gonna try this one! My kids will be so happy, because I don’t buy due to all those additives, but this one is nice and clean!
Yes, that’s why I love it, too.
I need a cute little picture so I can Pin this 🙂
I will see what I can do. 😉
I make a similar recipe, but add a crushed garlic clove. YUMMY!!! I also sometimes add a couple shakes of Frank’s Red Hot, but not often since my people don’t care for spicy ranch. 🙂
I do the same. Love it!
Use powdered buttermilk! It’s wonderful and it won’t go bad. Just shove it in your fridge and use when needed in any recipe that asks for buttermilk. I’ve used it in everything from ranch dressing to baked goods. If you can’t find it in your area, Amazon delivers. It’s cheaper for me to buy a 3 pack via Amazon than single cans at the store.
Does the powdered variety get thick enough for you? I tried it once, but it was a thinner texture than I wanted.
It seems to for me. The recipe on the back of the Penzey’s buttermilk ranch recipe comes out thin, but it’s designed to. When I make copycat Outback ranch dressing (with the Penzey’s mix) it comes out much thicker, but I think that’s due to more mayo added.
Agreed! Dried buttermilk has been a game changer for me. My homemade ranch and pancakes are much better now. I do feel like I have to adjust ratios sometimes, but just do it to taste/consistency I want. I usually use sour cream instead of mayo in my dressing and that helps as well.
This sounds great! How long will it last in the refrigerator? What do you store it in?
As long as your buttermilk isn’t close to its date, it should be good about a week.
love homemade ranch dressing………I have a ? though does anyone have a simple catalina/french dressing recipe? my hubby likes this kind the best & cant find one that suits or has a bunch of weird stuff in it. Thanks
I do not have a recipe, but I know I’ve seen them in vintage cookbooks. I’d look there!
mayonnaise not miracle whip??
I don’t buy miracle whip, so I’m not sure how it will work. I have always used mayonnaise.
Blessed to have such an awesome grandma. She mixed half sour dream, half plain yogurt with a spoonful of mayo, some dill, onion powder, maybe some garlic, pepper, pinch a sugar. I forgot exactly. Every day she had a tray of veggies on the table. We feasted all day on that, cheese n crackers, her version of cowboy cookies , etc. I could go on and on about her but I won’t right now 🙂
Sounds like some great memories!
I make this dairy free by using just a splash of water to breakup the mayo. I eyeball all my seasonings and I can whip up some ranch dressing in 3 minutes or less. So yummy and totally worth making homemade without the packet 🙂
Great. Thanks for the tip!
In the powdered packet only days of long ago my mother used to add a packet and buttermilk to the “only the dregs left on the sides” mayo jar. Screw the top back on, shake and you had not only a thrifty use of the very last of the mayo, but also a handy container for the dressing.
Yes! I do that with jams and mustards. Never did that with mayo. Thanks for the suggestion, Kay!
How would you thicken this up to make more of a dip? Also if needs to be DF? Thanks.
To make a thicker dip, use less buttermilk. To make it dairy-free, use a nut or coconut milk.