Ranch dressing is a staple in most Americans house as it can easily be used with veggies, on a salad, or even on top of pizza! It’s been a favorite condiment for years in my life, but things changed quite a bit once I started eating whole foods and eliminating inflammatory foods such as dairy, gluten, soy, and sugar. As I started to look at the ingredients lists of the condiments I was using, I soon found out that there was very little I could actually have.
If you know me though, I was not willing to give up these delicious dips that make every meal even more satisfying. I had tried several homemade ranch dressings, but a lot of them never really gave me the true feeling of what you would get from a Hidden Valley Ranch bottle. Sure I ate them, but it wasn’t until a friend of mine shared this recipe with me, that I fell in love with homemade ranch dressing!
When my friend gave me the recipe for it, I realized how simple it was to actually make ranch dressing and how many unnecessary ingredients were in a Ranch Dressing bottle that you get at the store. Take a look at the ingredient list of a simple Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.
Hidden valley ranch dressing ingredients
- Vegetable Oil (Soybean and/or Canola) – Soy, along with corn, is one of the top genetically modified foods in the United States. Due to how much is genetically modified, most researchers will say that it’s difficult to even find non-GMO soy or corn. Genetically modified foods have been shown to cause toxic effects on the liver, pancreas, and the reproductive processes. Other studies like in this video explain how it has significantly increased the amount of allergies that kids are having to foods due to the change in proteins.
- Sugar – Sugar is added to almost all foods these days but is one of the top reasons for so many of the health conditions that we have. Instead of just having sugar in sweet foods, we now have sugar in things like ranch dressing. Unnecessary and ultimately adding to our obesity and type 2 diabetes crisis.
- Nonfat Buttermilk – For someone with a dairy allergy or sensitivity, ranch dressing would never be an option. Dairy today looks a lot different than it did 50 years ago. Often times these changes in feed type, hormone and antibiotic use, and several others things can cause digestive or other health issues for people.
- Natural Flavors, Xanthan Gum, Modified Food Starch, Artificial Flavors – These foods that are added to so many things are confusing and often times so hard to decipher. Natural flavors and artificial flavors are both extremely vague terms often used as additives and that really aren’t natural at all. Xanthan gum is a thickening agent but often times can cause digestive distress for people. Modified food starch, also used as a thickening agent, is often times used to increase shelf life of products. All of these are food additives to ultimately allow the food to sit on our grocery store shelves for a long time without going bad.
finding a healthy ranch dressing
As I look at these ingredients, I can’t help but cringe because I used to eat ranch dressing as a kid like it was going out of style. As I’ve learned more and more about nutrition though, I’ve realized that often times we can always find a healthier substitution that doesn’t include these additives or harmful ingredients, and that still tastes great!
And that’s what I found with this recipe!
- NO soy or dairy.
- NO sugar.
- NO food additives.
- NO shelf stabilizers.
- PURE GOODNESS!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as our family does! + a huge thank you to Chelsea for sharing this with me!
Homemade Ranch Dressing
- 1 cup dairy free mayo (We like Soy Free Vegenaise or Primal Kitchen Avocado Mayo)
- 1/3 cup non-dairy milk (i.e. almond or coconut)
- ½ Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp. Ranch Dressing Mix
Ranch Dressing Mix
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp dill
- 4 Tbsp. parsley
- 2 tsp chives
- 4 tsp garlic powder
- 4 tsp onion flakes
- 2 tsp pepper
