Homemade Ranch Dressing

This homemade healthy ranch dressing is seriously tasty and takes just 5 minutes: why buy it again? It features Greek yogurt and a special mix of spices.

Have you tried making homemade ranch dressing? If not: you don’t know what you’re missing! This recipe is so creamy and delicious, with the best ranch flavor using only a few simple spices. Every time we serve it, it gets rave reviews! It’s perfect for salad or dipping veggie sticks, and you can make it in just 5 minutes! Even better, it skips the additives, preservatives, extra salt and sugar of store bought dressing. Now that we have a homemade ranch dressing recipe that we love, I don’t think we’ll ever buy it again! Here are all our secrets to this top salad dressing recipe.

Ingredients for homemade ranch dressing

What’s ranch dressing made of? Most recipes include mayonnaise, buttermilk, onion, garlic, spices, and herbs. To make easy homemade ranch dressing, we decided to add a healthy spin and cut back a little on the mayo. Our secret? Plain yogurt! This helps it to be a little lighter, and adds a bit of those lovely yogurt probiotics. You do need the mayo to add richness and so the dressing clings to the lettuce leaves, but not nearly as much.

Here are the ingredients you need for this homemade ranch dressing:

• Plain yogurt
• Mayonnaise
• Apple cider vinegar
• Spices: Garlic powder, onion powder, and dried dill
• Optional: Chopped chives or minced green onion

Adding chopped chives or minced green onion tops adds a beautiful freshness to the flavor. It takes it to the next level: but it’s also not necessary for a delicious dressing!

Is ranch dressing healthy?

Ranch dressing typically is not considered a health food. But this homemade ranch recipe has only 38 calories per tablespoon, vs 73 calories in store bought! So we’d call that healthy version. It’s also gluten-free, keto and low carb. In either case though, you don’t necessarily want to go eating gallons per day.

Who invented ranch dressing, anyway?

If you’re like us, you wonder how popular foods like ranch came to be. Turns out ranch dressing was originally invented by Steve Henson, a plumber turned cowboy, in the 1950’s.

Apparently Steve invented ranch while working as a plumber in Alaska, then he and his wife opened a ranch in California called Hidden Valley Ranch. They started selling the popular dressing at grocery stores, and eventually ended up selling the name and recipe for a cool 8 million! Here’s more about the story of ranch dressing if you want to nerd out.

Variation: vegan ranch dressing

Can you make ranch dressing vegan? Yes! Here’s a spinoff on this recipe: a Vegan Ranch Dressing that’s creamy and just as delicious as this one. The secret? Blended cashews, which make a creamy body for the dressing that you’d swear has dairy in it. It’s incredibly satisfying…just as much as the original.

Ways to serve homemade ranch dressing

This homemade ranch dressing is perfect on any type of salad that you throw together! Here are a few of our salad recipes where we’d use it:

• Wedge Salad: This Wedge Salad with Potato Chips is over the top good.
• Cobb Salad: Try it on Vegetarian Cobb Salad for an alternate option.
• Chopped Salad: This Favorite Chopped Salad is just as perfect with ranch.
• Salad Bar: Make a Salad Bar Dinner and drizzle with ranch.
• Caesar: You can always make Caesar Salad or Grilled Caesar with ranch: no judgement!
• Veggie Sticks: This dressing is perfect for dipping!
• Pizza: This ranch is perfect for drizzling over our Taco Pizza!
• Fries: Dunk these Baked French Fries in a big bowl of ranch.

This recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, see our Vegan Ranch Dressing.

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Looking for salad dressing recipes?

There are so many salad dressing recipes to make at home! There are so many to choose from; here are some favorites to try:

• Caesar Dressing Incredible flavor, featuring the yogurt trick above!
• Best Balsamic Vinaigrette Another big favorite: creamy and tangy.
• Homemade Italian Dressing Delicious and perfect for chopped salad.
• Creamy Avocado Dressing Beautifully green and fresh.
• Honey Mustard Dressing Perfectly tangy sweet.
• Blue Cheese Dressing Creamy, with pungent blue cheese chunks.
• Greek Salad Dressing Light and refreshing vinaigrette!
• Thousand Island Dressing Tastes even better than store bought.
• Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing Creamy like ranch, but flavored with pesto!
• Raspberry Vinaigrette A fruity, zingy spin with balsamic and real fruit.

Last updated: May 2020