Ranch Dressing

Name: Ranch Dressing
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: ½ cup mayonnaise; ¼ cup sour cream; ¼ cup buttermilk; 1 clove garlic (minced to a paste); 1 tbsp dill (finely chopped); 1 tbsp chives (finely sliced); 1 tbsp parsley (finely chopped); ½ tsp onion powder; ¼ tsp salt; ¼ tsp black pepper (freshly ground); 1 tsp lemon (juice)

Soups & Sauces · American

11 ingredients · 40 minutes · 2 servings

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450kcal2.6g protein47.2g fat4.7g carbs~$0.75/ serving*

Contains dairy, egg · sometimes contains soy — check the label · only in an optional ingredient: gluten, fish

Restrictions

Containsdairy · eggIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.

Sometimes contains — check the labelsoy (Mayonnaise)Some brands have it, some do not. The recipe cannot tell, so this is the one you check yourself.

Only if you add itgluten (worcestershire sauce) · fish (worcestershire sauce)Leave that ingredient out and the dish does not have it.

Diets

Vegetarian · without onePescatarianNo porkNo alcohol

Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.

Ingredients

Servings:

½ cup	mayonnaise
¼ cup	sour cream
¼ cup	buttermilk
1 clove	garlic (minced to a paste)
1 tbsp	dill (finely chopped)
1 tbsp	chives (finely sliced)
1 tbsp	parsley (finely chopped)
½ tsp	onion powder
¼ tsp	salt
¼ tsp	black pepper (freshly ground)
1 tsp	lemon (juice)

Optional

Not counted above. The dish works without them.

1 tsp	white wine vinegar
¼ tsp	worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp	hot sauce
2 tbsp	buttermilk (to thin at service)

Steps

Mince2 min
on the board, with the salt
- garlic
garlic + salt, dragged flat with the side of the knife until it turns to a slick paste — the salt is abrasive and pulls water out of the clove, and paste disperses through the dressing where minced garlic instead sits as hot bites that get sharper overnight
Whisk2 min
no liquid yet
mayonnaise + sour cream, until glossy and lump-free. Whisking the thick fats together before any buttermilk goes in is the whole difference between ranch that coats a leaf and ranch that runs off it — buttermilk added first thins the mayonnaise past the point where a whisk can shear the sour cream smooth, and the lumps never come out
Whisk2 min
adding in three additions
+ buttermilk, a third at a time, letting each addition disappear before the next. The mayonnaise is already an emulsion; adding the water phase gradually keeps it suspended rather than breaking it into a grainy, weeping base
Season2 min
room temperature
+ garlic paste + onion powder + black pepper + lemon juice + dill + chives + parsley, folded through. The lemon and the buttermilk's own lactic acid also firm the dressing slightly as they hit the mayonnaise's egg proteins — go past about a tablespoon of added acid and it curdles instead
Rest30 min
refrigerated, covered
Chill at least 30 minutes = ranch dressing. The onion powder needs the time to hydrate — used immediately it tastes chalky and raw — and the cut herbs bleed their oils into the fat, which is why cold-rested ranch tastes green and freshly mixed ranch tastes only of mayonnaise. It thickens as it sits; loosen with a spoonful of buttermilk before serving if it has set too far