Homemade Ranch Dressing

This easy and simple Homemade Ranch Dressing recipe features greek yogurt and plenty of herbs to create a more Mediterranean Diet inspired dish.

Making Foods at Home

A large part of the Mediterranean Diet is trying to make more things at home instead of buying the store bought version.

Making something at home means you get to control the ingredients, often costs less, and contains way less additives and preservatives that store bought versions require.

You can check out previous “Make It Yourself Monday” recipes below –

• Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
• Basil Pesto
• Homemade Ricotta Cheese
• Vegetable Broth from Scraps

Store Bought Ranch Dressing Ingredients

For a lot of people, ranch dressing is a common item in their home. We often have a bottle in our fridge too.

However, if you look at the ingredient label, you’ll see quite a few ingredients that fall under the “additive or preservative” category.

For example, here’s the label of a very popular brand of Ranch Dressing –

Ingredients included you might not be familiar with –

• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) – a flavor enhancer, giving umami flavor and typically replacing some sodium in foods
• Phosphoric Acid – used to acidify foods for tang
• Xanthan Gum – additive used to thicken/emulsify food
• Sorbic Acid – most commonly used food additive, inhibits mold growth
• Disodium Phosphate – food additive used in packaged foods
• Disodium Inosinate – food additive commonly used for flavor enhancer
• Lactic Acid – used as a food preservative
• Disodium Guanylate – food additive commonly used with MSG as flavor enhancer
• Calcium Disodium Edta – popular food additive and flavor enhancer
• Sodium Sulfate – additive used to as an acidity regulator
• Glutamic Acid – food additive and flavor enhancer

A typical bottle of store bought Ranch Dressing contains 11 additives in the ingredient list for “flavor enhancers”, “preservatives” and “acidity regulators”.

The Domestic Dietitian

I don’t know about you, but 11 different additives/preservatives seems excessive to me and outnumbers the amount of actual “real” ingredients.

Making Homemade Ranch

My mom used to make ranch at home, but she used the little seasoning packets of hidden valley ranch, mayo, and sour cream. It’s delicious, but I wanted to try a recipe that had a bit more nutritional value.

Both mayo and sour cream contain saturated fats. A diet high in saturated fats can lead to an increased risk of heart disease and high cholesterol. So I replaced those two ingredients with greek yogurt and a bit of milk. The greek yogurt adds a bit more protein and a lot of tang to the recipe.

Is this Homemade Ranch Recipe considered “Mediterranean”

As with most of my recipes, they aren’t really traditionally “mediterranean”. Instead, I try to focus on how to take foods and make them a bit more “mediterranean diet” inspired.

To take ranch and make it more Mediterranean Diet Inspired, here is what I did –

• Omitted the sour cream and mayo
• Used Greek Yogurt and milk instead
• Focused on using lots of dried herbs for flavor

In the spring/summer, you could also use fresh herbs in this recipe to add a bright, vibrant flavor. For every teaspoon of dried herbs, you would replace with a tablespoon of fresh herbs.

Homemade Ranch Dressing with Greek Yogurt Recipe

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do. In addition to using it for salads, it also works great with –

• A dip for raw veggies (carrots, celery, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumber, etc)
• A sauce on baked/grilled chicken
• A sandwich spread

Print Pin

Homemade Ranch Dressing

This easy and simple Homemade Ranch Dressing recipe features greek yogurt and plenty of herbs to create a more Mediterranean Diet inspired dish.

Course dip, dressing, sauce

Cuisine American, Mediterranean

Keyword dip, dressing, greek yogurt, ranch

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Chilling Time 1 hour hour

Servings 2 cups

Author Brynn McDowell at The Domestic Dietitian

Ingredients

• 1 cup Greek Yogurt, plain
• 1/3 cup Milk
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tbsp dried dill
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir well to combine.
• Cover and place in the fridge to chill and set for 1 hour

Notes

Note – you can replace the dried herbs with fresh herbs in this recipe for a vibrant, herby flavor. A general rule of thumb is 1 tbsp of fresh herbs for every 1 tsp of dried herbs.

A Store Bought Recommendation

I also like to consider myself realistic, so I completely understand that it isn’t often possible to make your own ranch dressing.

This Creamy Ranch Dressing from Tessemae’s is one of my favorite options when I need to buy dressing. I find it at Target, but I also know it’s available at Whole Foods and Online.

It’s dairy free, gluten free, contains organic ingredients as well as real foods.

Looking for More Dressing & Dip Recipes?

In addition to ranch, some of my other favorite dressing and dip recipes include –

• The Best Vinaigrette Recipe
• Zesty 3 Ingredient Ketchup
• Homemade Tzatziki Sauce