Homemade Ranch Dressing

Probably one of my favorite gifts I have ever gotten is the herb garden that Matt got me for Mother's Day that he and Asher put together for me. I love to cook and generally spent a small fortune constantly buying herbs. So having them on hand in the backyard has been one of my favorite things ever, even though I am still fine tuning my ability to grow them. So in honor of my herb garden which currently has some thriving curly leaf parsley, I wanted to share one of my go to recipes - Ranch Dressing.

So there is no hiding it, we are a ranch dressing loving household. We are a ranch dressing on almost all salads, ranch dressing to dip your vegetables, ranch dressing with pizza kind of house. Love it or hate it, we are who we are. BUT, for loving ranch as much as I do, I'm insanely picky about my ranch. And while store bought ranch will do in a pinch, there is ZERO comparison when it comes to a good homemade ranch. So this is a staple in my fridge, and we keep it on stock at all times.

Does this take a little bit more effort than simply buying a bottle from the store, yes. But maybe 5% more effort for 1000% better taste. We are talking 5 to 10 minutes max here people. So for any of my fellow ranch lovers, or parents desperate to get their kid to eat something who knows ranch dressing will very often do the trick - here you have it - the absolute BEST and easiest homemade ranch dressing recipe you will ever find.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 2 cups mayonnaise

• 1 finely minced garlic clove

• 1/2 tsp grated onion (I use a fine cheese grater to essentially make a pulp)

• 1 tbsp minced parsley (you can use curly leaf parsley or flat leaf parsley, I mix it up based on what I have on hand in my herb garden)

• Salt & Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk (or, if you are like me and super lazy, in a blender and blend). I personally throw it all in the blender to make sure it is mixed really well, but if you do that make sure you don't blend on too high of power or you will froth your buttermilk. The most important thing is to just make sure you have everything mixed very, very well so you don't end up with a mouthful of intense garlic or onion puree. Store in an airtight container in the fridge (I store it in a large, wide mouth Mason Jar - I keep several of these on hand to store ranch, homemade salsa, or even fresh vegetables or herbs, and also keep some small ones on hand for smaller batches of things like chimichurri sauce). As long as you don't cross contaminate it (don't dip things directly into the container), then stored in an airtight container your ranch should last up to two weeks in the fridge (assuming you started off with fresh ingredients - if your buttermilk or mayo was going to expire in less than 2 weeks then that will shorten the longevity of your Ranch Dressing accordingly).

Quick tip: if you feel like it came out a little too thick for your liking, add a splash of milk to it and remix. Milk will help you adjust the consistency without throwing off the ratio of the buttermilk/mayo. Don't forget to grab a copy of my Recipe Book here to store all of your recipes for future use! Once you try it, leave a note in the comments with your thoughts!