Ranch Dressing. North Americans almost literally have a love affair with the stuff. I’m not immune to it’s delicious charms, either.
However, there’s been a disturbing trend in the past 10-15 years, where bottled ranch is getting more and more disgusting. Cheap chemicals to maximize profits? Probably. But what’s happening is these mega corporations are taking what used to be good – 30 years ago, Hidden Valley Ranch was edible – and turning into an over sweet, under seasoned, disgustingly textured blob of nasty.
Not all is lost, because if you look down below a couple lines, you’ll be rewarded with a ridiculously simple and superbly tasty ranch dressing/dip recipe. I originally posted this 11 years ago, in June of 2010, and we still use the exact same recipe to this day and it’s as satisfying as ever.
Use this homemade ranch dressing as a normal salad dressing, or as a dip for anything you might want to dip, like my homemade chicken strips, carrots, celery, etc.
My kids love the cold pasta salad I make with rotini noodles, fake crab, and broccoli (lightly steamed and cooled) with homemade ranch. It’s oddly satisfying.
Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ tsp dried chives
- ½ tsp dried parsley
- ½ tsp dried dill weed
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- Milk to thin as needed
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add the mayonnaise and sour cream then completely whisk in all the spices.
- Use as is for dip, or slowly add milk while constantly stirring til desired thinness is reached for salad dressing. May thicken with time, more milk can be added to "re-thin."
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes to blend flavors.
Nutrition
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6 comments
This Ranch dressing dip looks amazing!! I can’t wait to try it out this weekend for Sunday dinner. All I have to do is make sure to get a lot of crab. Like you said up top…depending on the crowd i’m serving….I definitely would need more crab with my family :). Thanks again for such great tips. and a small shout out to @Jessica for putting up the calorie count.
@Andrea
Here’s the breakdown!
458 calories – 1/2 cup mayo (multiply by x2 or x3 depending on whether or not you use sour cream)
246 calories – 1/2 cup sour cream
0 calories – 1/2 tsp (rounded) dried chives
0 calories – 1/2 tsp (rounded) dried parsley
1 calories – 1/2 tsp (rounded) dried dill weed
4 calories – 1/2 tsp onion powder
5 calories – 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Sounds dee-lish but do you have the calorie/fat counts?
This looks yummy. I love both crab and mayonnaise so it’s a great combination. Wonder if shrimp would be good in there too.
I’m a recipe junkie…I always look on the net for good food recipes and try them out…I’ve tried many in the past but your Crab salad is insanely delicious!
haven’t tried yet the homemade ranch dressing, but I definitely will.
Will follow your recipes from now on…they’re so worth it!
Thank you Amy!
This sounds great, I will definatley be giving it a go in the next couple of days. Thanks for sharing this with us, I’ll be sure to tell you how it goes down with the rest of the family.