Homemade Healthy Ranch Dressing recipe is creamy, made with wholesome ingredients, and can be used in healthy salads or as a healthy veggie dip.
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This healthy ranch dressing recipe is creamy, flavorful and takes 10 minutes to prep. Not to mention, it is also protein packed!
Then drizzle on BBQ chicken salad or savoy cabbage salad, or use as a dip for almond crusted chicken all without the guilt.
Homemade healthy ranch is lower in calories, lower in fat, and lower in sodium compared to the store-bought ranch. Even ones that are “healthy” have a long list of questionable ingredients that I personally do not find delicious.
This versatile healthy ranch dressing recipe will be your new go to healthy salad dressing, perfect for meal prep! Keep it in your fridge up to 7 days!
Healthy Ranch Dressing Ingredients
Homemade healthy ranch dressing recipe is easy to make with simple ingredients! It’s naturally gluten free and you can customize it to what you have on hand.
- Greek yogurt or plain yogurt: Any of these two base ingredients work in this salad dressing. Higher fat content yogurt 2% and up will yield creamier dressing but you can use 0% fat Greek yogurt or fat free plain yogurt if you wish.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic is added to taste and has more garlic-y flavor. Garlic powder has more subtle flavor which would be better for a meal prep lunch for the office lunches.
- Onion powder: Gives it that authentic ranch dressing taste!
- Fresh dill: Or 2 teaspoons of dried dill would work. Not as good as fresh herbs but you will get desired flavor pretty close. You can also use fresh parsley or fresh chives.
- Sugar: Sugar offsets acidity and sourness of yogurt a bit. You can use maple syrup or honey but I personally love real sugar taste in dressings and salads.
- Salt and pepper: Freshly cracked pepper makes all the difference in cooking, especially with the ranch dressing.
How to Make Healthy Ranch Dressing
This homemade healthy ranch dressing is very simple to make by combining all your ingredients in one jar. I love to use a Mason jar because you can just screw on a lid and shake it all together, so easy!
Combine: In a small jar with lid, add yogurt, water (add only if using Greek yogurt), vinegar, dill, garlic, onion powder, sugar, salt and pepper.
Stir and let sit a bit: Stir with a fork or shake the jar well. Let your healthy ranch sit 5 minutes for flavors to “marry” each other and stir again. Ready to serve!
How to Store
Homemade healthy ranch dressing will keep fresh for up to 7 days in the fridge, but I doubt it will last that long!
And like with any refrigerated food, I prefer to use glass containers to store this salad dressing because the food will not absorb plastic’s chemicals and flavors. Makes all the difference for taste!
Stir or shake before each use. Yogurt tends to thicken on the walls of the container.
Ways to Enjoy Healthy Ranch Dressing
The unique flavor of homemade healthy ranch dressing goes with just about anything! Below are salad recipes in which you can swap the dressing for this healthy ranch.
You can also use this ranch dressing as a dip or condiment to these dinner mains.
Try adding a few blue cheese crumbles to the dressing when pairing it with foods containing buffalo sauce, so good!
FAQs
Less than desirable ingredients including added sugar, processed oils, and many other additives make store bought ranch not the best choice!
If you compare nutritional info serving to serving, I promise you will be stunned as I was.
Calories: 30 vs. 226.
Fat: 1 vs. 15
Sodium: 213 vs. 656.
Add a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you love ranch dressing with more tang.
Sure. Use plain dairy free yogurt the taste of which you like.
Sure. Feel free to use buttermilk to make this healthy ranch dressing. In that case, omit water.
Yes, you can add 1-2 tablespoons mayo to make this healthy ranch taste more like everyone’s favorite Hidden Valley ranch.
More Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes
- Poppy seed dressing
- Raspberry vinaigrette
- Avocado cilantro dressing
- Healthy honey mustard dressing
- Healthy Caesar dressing
- Spinach salad dressing
- Balsamic vinaigrette
Healthy Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain regular or Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp water or milk if using Greek yogurt to thin it out
- 1 tbsp white, white wine or apple cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp fresh dill or parsley minced
- 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a small jar with lid, add yogurt , water (Greek yogurt only), vinegar, dill, garlic, onion powder, sugar, salt and pepper.
- Stir with a fork or shake the jar well. Let sit 5 minutes for flavors to "marry" each other and stir again.
- Serve over any salad of your choice.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in a jar for up to 7 days.
- More subtle garlic taste: Use garlic powder.
- Dried dill weed: Use 2 tsp dried dill weed if you are unable to source fresh dill.
- More creamy yogurt: Higher fat content yogurt 2% and up will yield creamier dressing. You can use 0% yogurt if you wish.
The comparable nutrition info numbers got my attention! So, wanted to whip this up to got with the supermoist turkey burgers. No fresh dill, but you said dried would work. No mention of a change in ratio, so went with same amount as fresh. Not a good idea…I redeemed myself (and the recipe) by adding more of the remaining ingredients. Win, win, win…super good, super healthy. May I suggest, for us newbies in the kitchen, you could tell us when substituting ingredients, the difference in amounts? Much appreciated and most appreciative of these great recipes.
Yes, good point. I will. Sorry about the confusion and glad you could save the dressing!:)
I wasn’t sure about making this with Greek yogurt, but it turned out so yummy!! It was much too thick with the yogurt, so I added a couple tablespoons of plain almond milk so that I could shake it up. That worked perfectly and this has such a great, fresh flavor with zero guilt!
Yay! Yes, thinning out with Greek yogurt is a must.:)
Very good!
Ленусик, buttermilk, это что-то типа кефира или айрана?
Kefir:)
This looks delicious. My mom is a garlic lover and she ate them raw and use it as vitamins. She claimed that it healed my dad’s cysts, so they are eating garlic in the morning for extra boost of health. Garlic is also very good to lower cholesterol, so this dressing is simply packed with all the great nutrients. Thanks for sharing.
Yes and I believe garlic is a superfood and can cure many diseases. It’s amazing! Funny you talk about your parents eating garlic in the morning – many people in Ukraine do the same and I almost wrote about that and how wonderful must be taking transit with them in the morning to work.:)
I will make it right away! sounds very easy and tasty. And no doubt healthy. Thank you, Olga
You should, mama. It’s much better than the one you buy in the bottles.:)
Garlic, dill and tangy yogurt are all favorites for me too. I love the simplicity of this recipe. Who wouldn’t want to make their dressing from scratch when it is this easy? And what a beautiful photo too.
Thanks, Katie. The best things in life are usually the simplest.:)
Want to make this with dried fill do you have a suggestion for how much to use?
Well, I wouldn’t but 1 tsp would do it.
Yum, this sounds good. I make my salad dressings but usually they are olive oil based. This is a nice healthy change.
Just checked the ranch dressing I have in my fridge, and it has MSG in it. Blah!! Going to give this recipe a try. Sounds really good.