Ranch dressing is an iconic, herbaceous creamy dressing and/or dip. To be quite honest, store bought ranch is fine, but it's not amazing. This five minute ranch dressing surpasses its store bought counterpart, and the best part? No blending required! This ranch dressing is the perfect condiment or accompaniment to homemade home fries, fried pickles and everything in between.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
It comes together in no time! If you're looking for a quick salad dressing or dip, this is it. It takes no time to whisk together, and it is ready to eat right away.
No unknown ingredients here! By making store-bought favourites at home, there are no unknown, hard-to-pronounce ingredients in your food.
This dressing is packed with flavour! Fresh herbs and citrus make for a flavourful dip or dressing, with tons of freshness!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Mayonnaise: I always recommend using a good quality mayonnaise when making a heavily mayonnaise-based dish. I would not recommend swapping out the mayonnaise, because it adds the right balance from the tangy sour cream and lemon.
Sour cream: As with the mayonnaise, this is a crucial element of the ranch dressing. You can always use a lighter sour cream if you are looking for a light alternative. Always keep in mind that lower-fat sour cream is thinner in consistency. You may want to adjust the amount of milk you add in that case, to avoid too thin of a dressing.
Whole milk: Milk is the perfect ingredient to thin out the ranch dressing, depending on your desired consistency. You can also use buttermilk if you would like some extra tang.
Lemon juice and Zest: I recommend using fresh lemon for this recipe, primarily because the zest is the perfect addition to this dressing. If you do not have fresh lemon, you can use bottled lemon juice. You will be missing out on the brightness from the zest, though!
Herbs and spices: You will need fresh dill and chives, garlic and onion powder, dried parsley, and salt and pepper. You can substitute all dried herbs for the fresh herbs as well. The fresh herbs add a nice herbaceous flavour.
Instructions
Add and mix: Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl, and combine well. That's it - really!
Expert Tip
Use less milk and use this recipe as a fantastic, thicker dip for your vegetables. It's a great way to get kids to eat more veggies too!
Make Ahead & Storage
Make Ahead Instructions
You can make this dressing up to 2 days before serving. Store in an airtight jar or container to keep the dressing fresh. I do not recommend making the dressing prior to that, as the herbs will lose their fresh and bright flavour.
Storing Leftovers
Store any leftover dressing in an airtight container or jar for up to 3 days. Keep in mind that there are dairy products in this dressing, so be mindful of expiration dates of the products you used!
Recipe FAQs
You can keep this ranch dressing in the fridge for up to 5 days. Because it contains lots of fresh ingredients, it is not shelf stable like a lot of store-bought varieties. Keep it cold, in a jar for optimal freshness.
If you want to dress up this ranch dressing, you can add an avocado and blend up the dressing. Avocado ranch is a delicious rendition!
More Dressing & Dip Recipes
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Five Minute Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup Mayonnaise
- ½ cup Sour cream
- ½ cup Whole milk
- 1 Lemon zested
- ½ Lemon juiced
- ¼ cup Fresh dill finely chopped
- ¼ cup Fresh chives finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- Generous sprinkle of coarse black pepper
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Add and mix: Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl, and combine well.
Equipment
Notes
- Reduce the milk to ¼ of a cup, if you are looking to make a ranch dip instead.
Estimated Nutrition
This recipe was updated in June, 2021 with new photos, and updated measurements.
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