This Healthy Ranch Dressing recipe is creamy, protein-packed and made with simple ingredients like Greek yogurt and fresh dill. Enjoy it as a healthy dip or healthy salad dressing that takes only 10 minutes to make.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
I have been making this healthy ranch dressing with Greek yogurt for over 10 years now. It’s our go-to during summer months and we never ever buy the store-bought ranch dressings with additives!
We just love this recipe and I think you will too because it’s:
- 10 minutes to prep: Just whisk or shake everything in one jar – no blender or food processor to wash.
- Protein-packed: I make my healthy ranch recipe without sour cream, buttermilk or mayo. Just Greek yogurt with a lot of protein!
- Low calorie and low fat: Each serving contains only 28 calories.
- Customizable: Use regular yogurt or Greek yogurt, adjust consistency, and use fresh or dried herbs, and other spices, add more vinegar etc.
- Perfect for meal prep: This homemade healthy ranch dressing stays fresh for up to 7 days in refrigerator.
Reader’s Review
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!
April
Ingredients for Healthy Ranch Dressing
- Greek yogurt or plain yogurt: Any of these two base ingredients work in this ranch 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 Greek yogurt 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!
Adjust the Consistency
All yogurt brands are of different thickness. You will definitely have to add a splash of water or milk if you use Greek yogurt. Some plain yogurt are thin enough. Just add 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency.
Variations
- Dairy-free: Use plain dairy-free yogurt the taste of which you like.
- More tangy: Add a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you love ranch dressing with more tang.
- Buttermilk: Feel free to use buttermilk to make this healthy ranch dressing. In that case, omit water.
- Add mayonnaise: You can add 1-2 tablespoons of mayo to make this healthy ranch taste more like everyone’s favorite Hidden Valley ranch.
Ways to Enjoy It
The unique flavor of homemade healthy ranch dressing goes with just about anything!
- As a salad topper: Drizzle on BBQ chicken salad, a crunchy savoy cabbage salad, or even drizzled over roasted sweet potatoes.
- As a protein-packed dip: Serve it as a healthy veggie dip alongside various veggies like carrots, cucumbers or bell peppers. Or use it as a dip for almond crusted chicken, chicken wings or cottage cheese zucchini fritters all without the guilt.
- With potatoes: Baked potato wedges or crispy Parmesan potatoes.
- In wraps, sandwiches and tacos
- With anything pizza: Drizzle on cauliflower pizza crust, Greek yogurt pizza or cottage cheese pizza crust.
- Alongside buffalo flavors: Dip buffalo chicken bites into it, or drizzle on buffalo chicken tacos.
How to Store
Healthy homemade ranch dressing will keep fresh in an airtight container 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.
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.
More Healthy Dressing and Dips Recipes
- Cottage cheese ranch dip
- Healthy honey mustard dressing
- Greek yogurt Caesar dressing
- Greek yogurt blue cheese dressing
- Avocado cilantro dressing
- Healthy poppy seed dressing
Healthy Ranch Dressing (with Greek Yogurt)
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain regular or Greek yogurt
- 3 tablespoons water or milk, if using Greek yogurt to thin it out
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar, or white wine or apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons fresh dill or parsley, minced
- 1-2 small garlic cloves, crushed or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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.