Homemade Ranch Dressing

Homemade Ranch Dressing, how to make ranch dressing from scratch with easy ingredients like buttermilk and fresh herbs and spices. You can easily change it up to make it dairy-free, spicy, and many other variations.

A delicious Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe for you today! If you’re wondering how to make ranch dressing like what you’d get at a steakhouse restaurant, you’ll love this easy ranch dressing recipe. You can easily change the ingredients too for your family’s preferences. Or try my Homemade Ranch Seasoning mix to store for future use.

I’m a bit of a ranch addict. Totally normal right? I could put it on everything! Ok, maybe not EVERYTHING, but almost everything.

Unfortunately, the stuff you buy at the grocery store just does NOT compare to a homemade ranch dressing. This buttermilk ranch dressing is the best! If you want more homemade dressing recipes, try this Lemon Rosemary Creamy Salad Dressing which is similar to this one but with lemon and rosemary.

How to Make Ranch Dressing

Making homemade ranch dressing is easy! There are a few different ways to make it.

You can mix together the mayonnaise and sour cream, then whisk in the buttermilk. Then stir in all the chopped herbs and spices including the garlic, fresh parsley, green onion, dill, salt, pepper, and paprika.

Be sure to cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours or refrigerating overnight is even better. I like to store in a large mason jar. Depending on the expiration date of your ingredients and how fresh your herbs are, the dressing should last a few days or a week or so.

If you don’t want to chop all the herbs, the other way to make homemade ranch dressing is in a blender (or food processor). This is generally the method I go with.

BUT please do not put everything in the blender (or food processor) all at the same time. I’ve done that and the ranch dressing will come out very thin.

So to start, I put the mayonnaise, a little buttermilk, and the (not very chopped) herbs and spices in the blender and process until the herbs are finely chopped. Then I pour in a bowl, and stir in the sour cream and whisk in the buttermilk until desired consistency.

I like that this saves some time chopping the herbs, but you do of course have to clean the blender. So your choice which you’d rather do.

You can easily change the recipe for your family’s preferences. It’s naturally gluten-free (just double check your ingredients to be sure). You can use lower fat or light mayonnaise and sour cream but know that the dressing may not be as thick as using the full-fat ingredients.

You can also make homemade dairy-free Ranch Dressing quite easily!

Dairy-Free Ranch Dressing

For a dairy-free Ranch Dressing, you’ll need to substitute something for the sour cream and buttermilk. Mayonnaise typically does not have dairy, but double-check the ingredients on your favorite brand just to be sure.

For the sour cream, you can substitute unsweetened plain coconut yogurt or almond milk yogurt, or a dairy-free sour cream. For the buttermilk, you can substitute unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk, or your favorite milk substitute.

The taste will NOT be the same as regular ranch, but if you’re used to almond milk (or coconut products), it’s not too bad.

For other variations, you can add your favorite herbs and spices like more garlic, red pepper flakes (for a spicy ranch dressing), oregano, or anything else you can think of.

I suggest starting with this basic recipe the first time, then the next time, change it up a little.

This homemade ranch dressing is great on salads and sandwiches, and great as a dip too! You won’t believe how much better this buttermilk ranch is than store-bought ranch dressing.

Great dip for my Mini Buffalo Chicken Calzones and Buffalo Chicken Biscuit Poppers.

Would love to hear what changes you make!

Check out this fun video my son Jordan did showing how to put this Ranch Dressing together…

Hope you enjoy this Homemade Ranch Dressing recipe! You might also like this Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta!