Creamy, from-scratch Buttermilk Ranch Dressing to use for salads, pasta dishes, meats, sauces, veggies and so much more! Use anytime you need ranch dressing.
I’m a penny pincher who likes to eat tasty food that is easy to eat. I also love making my own condiments, dressings and dips. Mostly because I don’t want all the additives and preservatives in there. I just want pure, fresh food. I was always afraid to make my own Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Recipe From Scratch because I thought it would be too hard, or it wouldn’t taste good.
I really enjoy creating sauces and dips from scratch, it was time to find a ranch dressing recipe that I could make homemade too.
I have tried and tested a bunch of different recipes for homemade ranch dressing, and I’ve definitely had a few hits & misses. They are not all created equal. Not at all.
This one, is by far my favorite. It is easy, inexpensive and makes quite a bit.
Each time we make it, we add this or we add that, and often we add different herbs and seasonings.
This is my standard, go to, favorite Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Recipe. And it’s truly made from scratch which makes it all the better. I like knowing what I’m putting in it, and I love using fresh herbs and seasonings. In the recipe I specifically give you a measurement for minced onion, however you can substitute that for onion powder. The outcome is simply divine with the fresh onion but tastes delicious either way.
I’m also not sure we’ve ever made the same batch more than twice, simply because I don’t measure as well as I should, but the last batch we made, I did measure out what I used so I could share the Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing with you.
Serve with fresh veggies, a salad or like we do – with AWESOME fried veggies. Obviously this ranch dressing recipe can be used anywhere ranch dressing is called for, and trust me we do! I usually make a batch of it, and plan a few meals around it for the 2 weeks following so it gets used.
We use ranch dressing in so much, including pasta, casseroles, appetizers, veggies dishes and the old stand by, to dip stuff in. Lots of stuff. Like pizza, veggies, crackers, chicken, beef, etc. Yes, we might just be ranch dressing addicts.
Have you ever made your own Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Recipe From Scratch? Tell me about it! Honestly, this is the only ranch dressing recipe I will use, and it is so easy to change up the flavor by making minor tweaks to the seasonings and herbs. Enjoy!
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Recipe From Scratch
Ingredients
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 1 cup of mayonnaise
- 1 cup of buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 1 clove of garlic, we use two because we love the garlic flavor
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- ¼ teaspoon of pepper
- 1-2 teaspoon of fresh chives
- 2 Tablespoons of chopped onion
- 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
Instructions
- Put the onion, garlic clove and fresh chives into your food processor or a blender and blend until completely minced.
- Add the rest of the ingredients.
- Turn on your blender or food processor and blend it all well. I blend about 2-3 minutes.
- Scrape down the sides of the blender or food processor with a spatula if needed. I do this once about halfway through.
- Pour into air tight containers or mason jars and refrigerate for 12 hours.
- This recipe makes about 2½ bottles of standard size dressing.
- Keeps in the fridge for about 2 weeks.
Maureen
February 10, 2012 at 5:25 amI love ranch dressing but it’s not common in Australia and especially not where I live. Thanks heaps for this!
Nicole Humphrey Cook
February 10, 2012 at 8:23 amOh Maureen, I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t get my hands on it. I assure you this will get you your ranch “fix” – so, so good.
Kristen
February 10, 2012 at 5:38 amYUM! I need to run over to Penzleys to get some dried chives now. This sounds like a fabulous reason to stop buying Ranch.
Nicole Humphrey Cook
February 10, 2012 at 8:25 amIt is amazing Kristen, and I like it because everything is natural, no preservatives – so of course it doesn’t last as long but its worth it IMO. Plus they are easy ingredients to get and it tastes… just amazing.
Helen Jones
February 10, 2012 at 6:14 amYum…I’m gonna make it!
Nicole Humphrey Cook
February 10, 2012 at 8:26 amHelen, do let me know if you try it out and what you think!
I like adding other herbs and spices also, but this is just a basic, VERY delicious recipe!
Enjoy!
Tora Estep
February 11, 2012 at 7:04 pmLooks good. I keep ending with a surplus of buttermilk (milk delivery mistakes on my part), so it’d be nice to find another way to use it. Also, I like being able to make foods from scratch, and ranch dressing is typically such an industrial food standby.
Nicole Humphrey Cook
February 21, 2012 at 7:37 amWe do that too – so much buttermilk and not enough recipes we make on a consistent basis – except this one. 🙂 I feel your pain.
Let me know what you think of it if you decide to try it – it is by far my favorite I’ve found, but I’m definitely interested in what others think! 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
Micha @ Cookin' Mimi
February 13, 2012 at 10:57 pmRanch is my favorite dressing and I make it from scratch too. My recipe is slightly different in that it uses crushed saltine crackers and quite a few more herbs.
Nicole Humphrey Cook
February 21, 2012 at 8:30 amMicha I throw tons of herbs in mine but I do whatever I have on hand, so I didn’t want to add that. I would love to see yours though – the saltine crackers have me quite intrigued! I hope you’ll share!
Eric @ Eat Like No One Else
January 22, 2013 at 9:11 amI feel sad whenever I see people putting store bought ranch in their carts at the grocery store. It’s so easy to make. We do it all the time. We like to include a bite of the liquid from our homemade pickles.
Eva | Adventures in Cooking
January 23, 2013 at 11:24 amI’ve got a nice little salad garden growing in my yard and have been meaning to make some dressings to use on my new greens, this sounds perfect! Thank you!
Chris
February 27, 2013 at 9:38 pmI don’t see your exact measurement (no measurement actually) for the onion powder.
nicolehcook
February 28, 2013 at 7:47 amThis recipe doesn’t call for Onion Powder, it calls for Chopped Onion which is 2 Tablespoons and is listed towards the bottom of the ingredient list.
hellmet
May 8, 2013 at 4:58 amWe don’t get sour cream in India so I used sour yogurt instead of the cream and buttermilk. The result was a rather watery ranch, but the taste was incredibly refreshing for the tongue from the store bough, expensive, imported bottle of ranch which rather tasted like cardboard. Thanks for the recipe. Next time I’ll try squeezing the water out of the yogurt with a muslin.
robyn
August 17, 2013 at 8:42 pm@helmet- you can make buttermilk by adding a Tablespoon of lemon juice to a cup of milk and waiting five minutes. you can add 1/4 cup of buttermilk to cream to make sour cream. hope this helps. robyn
robyn
August 17, 2013 at 8:43 pmthat is 1/4 cup buttermilk to one cup cream
DR J
November 7, 2013 at 7:18 pmThe commercial dressing has MSG, what a great recipe and now I can go back to enjoying my salads and fresh veggies.
Heather
June 23, 2014 at 9:00 pmI didn’t have chives on hand so I substituted dill, and boy was it good. Tastes like something out of my childhood. I’m looking for vegetables for an excuse to keep eating it!
Grace J
September 21, 2014 at 7:56 amAre dried chives just as ok as fresh chives? The store only had dried chives. I already made one ranch dressing recipe from Huffington Post which called for buttermilk, sour cream, mayo, tabassco, garlic, chives and salt/pepper.. and it was not good. My first time though so maybe I messed up?
Nicole Cook
September 25, 2014 at 4:04 pmHi Grace, I am not sure why the other recipe wasn’t good. I guess it’s possible you could have messed up, or maybe you didn’t like the ingredient combination. I’m not sure and without seeing the whole recipe (or even trying it) I can’t really say. This recipe is pretty easy and error proof. You MAY use dried chives for this. Obviously it tastes better with fresh for the full flavor, but you’ll still get the flavor with dried chives too. Enjoy!
stephanie
October 12, 2014 at 2:27 pmWe as a family are on a no processed food diets, and have done without ranch, because we could not find one that fit our strict diet(both our children are special needs), this recipe fits into our resrictions. Thank you for posting, hope to try after a shopping trip.
Nicole Cook
October 17, 2014 at 6:47 amHope you all enjoyed it! I’m so glad it fits the restrictions!