Easy and Healthy Ranch Dressing

Classic ranch dressing gets a healthy upgrade in this quick, simple recipe. Use gut friendly, probiotic rich dairy and ordinary kitchen staples to make this healthy ranch dressing for salads, dips, and anything else you can think of. It takes only a few minutes and tastes better than store bought.

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I do not recommend any products I have not purchased and used myself. Read my full disclosure here.

Ranch dressing is a great favorite for many people! Kids of all ages love it, and that classic ranch dressing coaxes many a hesitant diner to eat the salad, or the veggies, or the chicken…

Mild yet tasty, ranch dressing works well both as a dip and as a dressing. The simple flavors work well together, play nicely with many dishes, and become a comfort food for many people. Especially the kids who learn to love it in childhood and may never, ever abandon it.

Pin for later!

Health disclaimer The Site offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Click here for more information.

Is ranch dressing good for us?

It depends! Slipping nourishing foods under the radar of selective eaters, whether children or ourselves, has value. The ingredients, however, vary!

Ranch dressings from the big grocery store brands aren’t exactly a health food. Typically, store bought ranch lists unhealthy oils as the first ingredient (the one present in the highest quantity). Canola, soybean, and other inflammatory, inexpensive oils are the norm.

Then we find MSG in many ranch dressings, plus preservatives, gums, starches, sugars, and other ingredients that are hard to identify and often pretty unnatural. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think of these ingredients as “healthy food”, and in some cases not even as food at all. Then there are “natural flavors”, which can be anything but natural.

There are ranch dressings at the store that are considerably better for us. No (or fewer) artificial ingredients, preservatives, MSG, etc. Better quality oil. The problem is the price tag. They tend to taste good and may be “good enough” for us, but a small bottle can run you $8. OK once in awhile. Not so much if you serve ranch dressing often. Or have someone who considers ranch a basic food group.

What about those packets of ranch dressing mix? The ones you mix with a couple of ingredients to “make” ranch dressing? Sadly, the ingredients are pretty similar, minus the oils. And if you use store bought mayonnaise, those same oils are back.

Is vegetable oil really that bad?

Well, it won’t kill you outright. At least, not right away at the dinner table. That will take awhile, though it may contribute to poor health developing over time. The topic is controversial.

Those oils we used to call “vegetable oil” and were encouraged to use are the same ones many now refer to as “seed oil”. While vegetables and seeds can be good for us, the oils made from them contribute to inflammation. The most common eight are in many processed foods!

If you think about it, you will notice that something like corn or soybeans doesn’t seem very oily. The 8 common plants used in these cheap oils don’t easily yield oil in the same way that an olive or a coconut do. They require solvents for extraction plus multiple processes to bleach, deodorize, and such, so that people consider them to be edible.

Not only do these processes involve substances most of us don’t like in our food, but the heavy processing strips out what nutrition is in the original plants. There are other reasons to limit use of heavily processed oils, such as their instability at high heat and during storage. Learn more here.

What Makes Healthy Ranch Dressing Better?

To start with, you don’t need oil at all! While there is nothing at all wrong with many less processed oils and fats, and they can be good for us, this dressing uses only dairy products. (Unless you use mayo– you can make your own in a couple of minutes with the oil of your choice. Keep reading to see how.)

Not only will we use dairy products, but ideally you choose cultured dairy, making the dressing a “living” food that is full of probiotics that benefit digestive health. Since gut health affects all aspects of physical and mental health, this is a really good thing! Consumed with salad, you may be taking in prebiotics and postbiotics that help those probiotics work even harder for you.

The rest of the ingredients are a pretty small part of the dressing, and they contribute most of the flavor. Choose a high quality salt (I often use Redmond’s) for optimal nutrition, and the rest is pepper, garlic, dill, parsley, and green onion or chives. All good for us in different ways, but present in tiny amounts.

How to Make Healthy Ranch Dressing

This recipe uses cultured dairy products. I culture most of mine at home, so the benefits are very high. I started doing this on the GAPS diet; this dressing is GAPS friendly!

You can purchase these ingredients, though, and they will still be good for you. There are also some substitutions suggested further on if you need to change something.

First, you need milk kefir and cultured cream. I make mine following the GAPS methods– learn to make GAPS kefir here and cultured cream (home cultured sour cream) here. Both are easy to make, requiring little time, hassle, or special equipment from you. They do, however, require a day for the culturing process to happen.

Also, you need a little apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, both of which are detoxifying for us. You can leave them out for a milder dressing if you prefer.

Then, gather the “ranch” seasonings– I used garlic powder and onion powder. You could leave those out and add a small clove of garlic (or half a clove) and rely on the green onion. Salt and pepper, plus dill, parsley, and chives or chopped green onion comprise the classic ranch flavor.

If you use fresh herbs, your dressing will be thinner. You could start with a higher proportion of sour cream.

You can use fresh or dried herbs. If you use fresh, you will need more– about a teaspoon of dried versus a tablespoon of fresh. You can see I used fresh green onion. I cut it off my recently revived green onions by the kitchen door and chopped them up. Chives are more traditional for ranch dressing; you can use freshly chopped chives or dried ones.

All you really need to do to make the dressing is to mix all the ingredients up together, then adjust the seasoning and consistency to your liking. If your herbs are all very finely chopped (or the dry versions), you can just whisk it all together.

If they aren’t (like my chopped green onions) or you want the dressing super smooth, you can use an immersion blender. I like to use my immersion blender in a wide mouth jar. Then I use my favorite lid ever with its handy pour spout, write with a dry erase marker what is in the jar, and store and serve it that way.

Ways to Adjust your Healthy Ranch Dressing

It goes without saying that you can use more or less of the seasonings. I have listed lower amounts; I usually use more. It’s easier to add more than to remove anything!

Also, the consistency of your dressing will vary a lot depending on your ingredients. If you are home culturing the milk and cream, as I often do, that adds extra uncertainty. For example, kefir cultured for 8 hours will be much thinner than that left out for 24 hours. Plan to adjust a bit. If you use store bought ingredients, you will be able to figure out how to get the same result each time more consistently.

Try:

• For a thinner dressing, add more kefir, milk or even water. If you use fresh herbs, your dressing will be thinner. You could start with a higher proportion of sour cream.
• For a thicker dressing, add more sour cream.
• Add more of the herbs as you like.
• Try other herbs when they are in season for a fresh take– basil or cilantro take this dressing in a whole new direction!
• Many versions of ranch dressing call for mayonnaise in addition to some form of dairy. Store bought mayo will work well, or if you want a higher quality oil in your mayo without paying the grocery store price for that, make your own using an immersion blender. It takes just a couple of minutes using this recipe.
• If you need dairy free but can use mayonnaise, try using coconut milk. It will thicken in the refrigerator, so take it out 15-20 minutes before serving. I haven’t done it that way, but I used to make coconut milk ranch when my son couldn’t have any dairy at all. It was delicious!
• If you need dairy free and egg free, this recipe might be just perfect. Still GAPS compliant with fresh coconut milk.
• If you want a very thick ranch dressing, like a dip, try using most (or all!) sour cream to start with. Then thin it if you need to.
• If you go through a lot of ranch dressing, double or triple the recipe in a quart jar.

Want more easy homemade salad dressings?

Honey Mustard Dressing with Ginger

Creamy Cranberry Dressing (you can use fresh or frozen berries in place of cranberry)

Ginger Tahini Dressing