Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe

We'll admit it — we are ranch dressing fanatics. We love it on salads, with chicken fingers, for dipping with french fries, and of course we love to eat it with pizza. Most of the time, a store-bought ranch dressing will do the trick, but every now and then it's worth it to go the extra mile and make some from scratch.

Recipe developer and registered dietitian nutritionist, Kristen Carli, MS, RD, brings us this recipe for homemade ranch dressing. With buttermilk, fresh dill, and a combination of sour cream and mayonnaise, this dressing is leaps and bounds tastier than your favorite store-bought classic. And it's the addition of fresh dill that brings a much needed lightness to an otherwise heavy salad dressing, so make sure you don't skip adding the herb.

Once it's made, drizzle this on top of a classic Cobb salad, mix it with mashed potatoes, or use it to make this copycat Chuy's creamy jalapeno dip. There are virtually endless ways to serve up this homemade ranch dressing.

To make this homemade ranch dressing, you can start by gathering your ingredients. You'll need sour cream, buttermilk, mayonnaise, fresh dil, fresh parsley, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.

Pour the buttermilk, scoop out the sour cream, and add the mayonnaise into a medium-sized bowl. If you don't have sour cream, or are looking for a slightly healthier option, feel free to sub in Greek yogurt. Depending on your desired consistency, you can thin out the ranch dressing by adding more buttermilk. Use less buttermilk for a thicker ranch dip and more for a thinner ranch dressing.

Add the chopped herbs, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder into the bowl. The key to this recipe is using fresh chopped dill. The flavor and aroma that the fresh herb provides is simply unmatched. In a pinch, you could substitute dried dill for fresh, but you'd really be missing out.

Using a silicone spatula, stir the mixture well. Once all of the ingredients have been mostly incorporated, switch to a whisk. The whisk will help break up the clumps and create an even consistency. That's it! Your ranch dressing is complete. Store it in an airtight jar until you're ready to drizzle it on your next salad.