salad dressing

Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe

There’s no need to buy it from the shelves, homemade buttermilk ranch dressing is one of the easiest, and tastiest, dressings to make from scratch.

I have a go-to salad dressing that I have to admit, I’m rather famous in the family for.

It’s a vinaigrette with tarragon and is made in our house on a rotation of at least once a week. Why haven’t I posted it on the blog yet? I’m asking myself that same question. I need to remedy that stat.

This homemade buttermilk ranch dressing isn’t one I make too often, but when I do, it is pretty much drizzled, dipped and guzzled down so there’s never much left over. I’m sharing it today as a preview of what’s coming your way tomorrow, where it is going to lace not a salad, but a sandwich that will leave you wishing for one more handful of potato chips, and just one more drizzle and dip of ranch dressing, because as Smudge declares, “Mom. This. Is. So. Good.”

She’s right, you know.

see more: Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Creamy Ranch Sauce

Ranch Dressing Ingredients

This dressing gets its tang from the combo of mayo, sour cream and buttermilk. I used full-fat ingredients, but if you want to create your own lower calorie versions, you can simply sub low-fat mayo, sour cream or give Greek yogurt a try. Buttermilk is naturally low-fat so you’re in the clear there. I like my dressing on the thicker side (reflected in the amounts in the recipe below), so add more buttermilk to your preference.

Fresh herbs are essential here, but I do like to use dried dill in this recipe as it’s a bit more concentrated in flavor. If you simply don’t have the fresh herbs, go for dried, a much better option than skipping altogether.

You’ll find the recognizable taste of ranch comes from the nugget of garlic in the dressing. I pretty much always prefer pressing my garlic, but if you don’t have a garlic press, simply mash the garlic in 1/8 teaspoon of salt to create a paste then add to the rest of the ingredients.

continue to the recipe… about Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe

Classic Blue Cheese Wedge Salad Recipe and Dole Salad Farm Tour

I must say, this blog has given me the chance to do things I never in my life could have imagined. I mean, how many of you have walked through acres of furrowed rows of big-headed, leafy green orbs to watch as they’re cut from their stalk and stems by the swiftest of hands that instinctively know just the right angle and pressure to keep the lettuces at their tender, leafiest best? Or stayed at amazing resorts, sampling amazing food with amazing foodie friends? Or almost been trampled on the 18th hole of Pebble Beach by a deer (as docmuented here and here.)

Well, I can strike them all off of my bucket list, check this and roger that.

I can’t believe I ate green iceberg lettuce, straight from the field. From the Dole field. From a field that is the birthplace to millions of salads all across the United States. And there I was in the middle of it, wishing I had a little of my favorite dressing to slurp alongside it.

Iceberg screams summer to me thanks to it’s watery, juicy crunch. Which led me to finally posting my favorite Classic Blue Cheese Wedge Salad. My other natural option was a BLT Sandwich, which this actually sort of is, minus the bread. Let’s call it low-carb, shall we?

My salad inspiration stemmed from my trip a few weeks ago to Monterey, CA when a group of food bloggers were invited to the Dole Taste of Spain Salad Summit. It was an opportunity to meet and tour local growers, see the inside operations of one of the Dole Salad factories, eat fantastic food, drink local wine (in a vineyard), savor the coastal temps in relaxing accommodations (please take me back), and learn all sorts of foodie insider information from the editors of Eating Well (did you know that America’s favorite vegetable is asparagus and that 78% of U.S. adults say they are now buying organic?)

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Roasted Kale and Fennel Salad with Avocado Caesar Dressing Plus 20 More Kale Recipes to Love

I succombed to peer pressure. I jumped on the bandwagon. I’m intoxicated with the sweet promise of a new fangled and healthy twist on one of my favorite meals.

My lunch crunch salad.

I have a version of a salad nearly every day for lunch and it’s often a dish I’m requested to bring to pot luck dinners. It usually includes some sort of protein (rotisserie chicken, tuna, leftover salmon or chickpeas), fresh veggies (roasted tomatoes or beets, avocados, maybe peas) and just a sprinkling of firm cheese (feta or blue are my faves.)

But it wasn’t until recently that I veered from my trusty spring mix or crunchy hearts of romaine to jump into the land of kale as my main salad base. I’ve added it to several of my favorite dishes like my Kale and Cabbage Coleslaw and White Bean and Pumpkin Pork Chili but for some reason it didn’t make it into my usual lunch crunch rotation.

Until I roasted the kale leaves for the salad.