Ranch Dressing Recipe #1

I have been on the search for a good ranch dressing recipe for awhile now. I have  more recipes to try out so you will see a couple more of these ranch dressing recipes pop up from time to time.I wanted to go ahead and share the one I like the most right now  and share how I make it fit in with our dietary needs.

First let me respond to the obvious to some of you. “Why should I try a dairy free ranch dressing? I like the one I use right now.”  If you are not a vegan or have dairy allergies I am sure you probably have not thought about doing much of anything that is dairy free. Going dairy free on some of your recipes will help you make your recipes healthier by lowering the cholesterol,saturated fats,and hormones you are exposed too.Need more reasons? Read this article-click here.

Hopefully I have given you some reasons to try out some new dairy free recipes, so lets get on to the recipe!

After some searching and asking around on different FB groups I was sent  this recipe on the Crafty Blog Stalker site. I am going to show you how to take this ranch dressing recipe and make it dairy free.

The first thing you need to do is make up the dry mix.

Now to tweak it a little bit.

For the mayo she calls for- I used  a vegan mayonnaise called GrapeSeed Vegenaise. There are many other brands out there you can use. This is my favorite not just becasue of the taste but the health benefits. Grapeseed oil is one of the few natural foods known to raise HDL, the “good” cholesterol.

For the low fat buttermilk she uses- I have made it with just original flavor almond milk and it was great but if you want a buttermilk ranch flavor it is still easy to do. Just follow these directions. I found using the lemon juice option produces a better tasting buttermilk for recipes.

For the sour cream- I use Follow your Heart Vegan Gourmet Sour Cream. I know there are ways to make dairy free/vegan sour cream. I have not found any that I am a super huge fan of so I just use this one. My local  grocery store  ( Ingles) carries it. A quick word about this sour cream. When we first were coming off of dairy this did not taste like sour cream to me. The longer I have been off dairy the better tasting this has gotten, but in a recipe like this you wont notice the difference like you would if you just put a spoonful on your chili or potato. Baking with it is great too- I t produces very moist cakes!

This is how I made this recipe dairy free. I hope you will give it a try and let me know what you think and how you tweaked it to work for your family!

Some things I added to this recipe for my family-

1 Tbsp of nutritional yeast ( Are you wondering what the heck nutritional yeast is? Click here to answer that question)

1/2- 1 whole avocado – I just scrape out the avocado and blend it well it the ranch dressing. I have used my food processor, a blender,and just  a fork to do this. If you want to try this just use whatever you have.  Adding avocado adds a healthy fat to this recipe and makes it very creamy. Super Yummy!

1-2 Tbsp of salsa- I know this may sound strange but it really good! We use our homemade salsa (Click here for it). It gives it a great kick and is really great on baked potatoes!

-let me give you a little heads up. Those vegan products I listed above are going to be a little bit more than your regular products you are used too. The first time I bought them I had some sticker shock to be honest. I found I had a little bit more wiggle room in my grocery budget becasue I was not eating meat (and that was the most expensive thing I used to buy each week). If you needing some wiggle room in your food budget try adding in a  meatless meal to your dinner  meal rotations. I have several several here on my site and if you sign up for my newsletter you get 7 dinners/7 breakfast ideas that are dairy free and meat free. I am going to try this recipe without the sour cream and Ill let you know how it goes.  Do what works for your family. Go all the way and make this really healthier or just start slow by replacing the buttermilk and work your way up!

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Ranch Dressing Recipe #1