Light Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Lainey6605's Note:

This is a great ranch dressing mix, which is lower in sodium and without the preservatives found in the commercial brands. This dressing mix not only makes a good salad dressing and dip, it is also good as a sauce on cooked vegetables, baked potatoes, fish, poultry and meat. This recipe makes 1/2 cup of the dry mix, or enough to make 8 cups of the finished dressing. You can make the dry mix up in larger quantities and package it in small decorative jars just large enough to hold one recipe for holiday gifts. When wrapping the jars of the mix, you could include a copy of the recipe and the ingredients for making more of the dry mix. This way if the recipient likes the dressing, they can make more of it for themselves and share it with even more friends. Recipe is from Cook It Light.

• Total Time: 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 cup

Dry Mix

• ¼ cup dried parsley
• 3 tablespoons dried onion flakes
• 2 teaspoons dried chives
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon ground celery seed
• ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Dressing

• ¼ cup fat-free mayonnaise (you will also add 1 T dry mix to these 2 ingredients for the dressing)
• ¾ cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. To make the dry mix, combine the dry dressing mix ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Store the mixture in an airtight container in a dry place.
3. To make the dressing, combine 1 T of the dry mix with the mayonnaise and buttermilk and mix well using a wire whisk.
4. Store the dressing in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.
5. Makes 1 cup of dressing.
6. Each 2 T serving contains approximately: 16 calories, negligible fat; 1 mg cholesterol; 112 mg sodium; 3 grams carbohydrate; 1 gm protein; negligible fiber.

Reviews

[Sue Lau]

This has a really excellent ranch flavor that perfectly dresses tossed salads. I would just like it a touch thicker and with a little zip, so next time I might cut the buttermilk back to half cup and add a teaspoon of vinegar. Otherwise, most excellent! Thanks for sharing. ~Sue

[Sarah_Jayne]

I was raised in the States and I have long enjoyed ranch dressing. I live in the UK now and ranch is nearly impossible to find here and when you do it is going to be the full fat kind which tastes great but I can't have because I have to keep to a low fat diet. So, I was happy to try this recipe and even more happy with the results. I liked that the dry mix was a separate step because that allows me to store a bit of that and then control the serving amount I want of the wet ingredients. So, If I wanted to do a smaller batch it would be easy to measure out for calorie counting. I had this on a green salad for my lunch today and have saved the rest in the fridge to have during the week. I am sure I will be making this again. Made for PAC Fall 2008.

[Galley Wench]

Wonderful dressing . . . didn't have fat free mayo so mine wasn't exactly light. The other change made was I added fresh cilantro instead of parsley, which made a wonderful cilantro ranch dressing! This is definetly going to the boat with me! Thanks Lainey for another great recipe!