Light Ranch Dressing

This 5 minute, healthier ranch dressing recipe is made with buttermilk for a lower calorie alternative. The perfect enhancement for salads or a light veggie dip. You can’t resist this creamy homemade ranch dressing.

For years I’ve been depriving myself of one of my favorite things – ranch dressing. After a stint on Weight Watchers, I began to fear it and opted for lighter vinaigrettes.

I felt like eating a salad covered in ranch dressing negated the reason I was eating salad to start with. I started thinking about good fat vs bad fat and the big picture, then I created a light ranch dressing that I could toss my salad in – guilt free.

It has all of the yumminess of my favorite dressing, without the calories and allows me to add variety to my salads.

To Make This Healthier Ranch Dressing, You Will Need:

• Buttermilk
• Black peppercorns
• Fresh herbs: Parsley and dill
• Green onions and garlic
• Mayonnaise and sour cream: You can use low fat to decrease the fat and calorie content further.

Variations

• Spice it up with a little Fiesta Ranch Seasoning Blend

How to Make This Healthier Ranch Dressing Recipe

It really couldn’t be easier to make this homemade dressing!

1. Combine all ingredients (preferably in a food processor).
2. Refrigerate for 1+ hours to allow the herbs to marinate, shake and serve.

What to Eat With Light Ranch Dressing

I love pairing it with all of my different salad recipes to add a different flavor to some of the traditional recipes. Some of my favorites include; Arugula Salad, Red White, & Blue Salad, Peach Salad, and this Pecan Grilled Chicken Salad.

Low-Calorie Homemade Ranch Dressing

One of our favorite restaurants in Columbia, Missouri, had a really simple salad, which consisted of greens, cheese, carrots and a peppercorn ranch. My friend Cheryl and I would often order it to go, complete with a side of their crazy delicious bread, that did negate the salad, but it was worth it.

I loved their dressing because it’s wasn’t super thick {but still creamy}, which allowed it to coat each piece of lettuce. Since it’s two hours from home, I played around with it and created my own. And even better, mine easily has half the calories!

5-Minute Light Ranch Dressing

It takes just 5 minutes to make this dressing and you can make it using fresh or dried herbs. I won’t judge, promise! I had just visited the store, otherwise I would have made it from dried herbs, but I can never resist fresh.

If you have buttermilk, great! If not, you can learn how to make buttermilk here.

Why Is This Ranch Dressing Healthier?

Because this dressing is homemade, immediately it is healthier than store bought as there are no preservatives used and it has no added salt or refined sugar. Rather than just using mayonnaise, this dressing is a mixture of mayo, sour cream and buttermilk so it is still wonderfully creamy but with less calories and fat.

Top Tips for Making Homemade Ranch Dressing

• If you’re using dried herbs, reduce to 1 Tbsp parsley and 1 Tbsp dill. All other ingredients remain the same.
• I really love making salad dressings in a food processor so that it chops the herbs finely and blends well, but it’s not required, you can just use a jar that you can shake vigorously.
• You can use low or non fat mayo and sour cream to reduce the calorie and fat content further.
• Store in a sealed jar in the fridge and it will be good for around 5 days.