Highly addictive Ranch Dressing

prep time: 15 minutescook time: 5 minutesservings: about 500 ml

For the last Superbowl we had organized a small party and served up some chips and dips, chicken wings and pizza for the crowd. In order to include something remotely healthy, Chris had asked me to make a Ranch Dressing and serve it with some cut-up veggies. As I could easily prep the dressing and chopping up veggies doesn't take a great amount of time or effort, I was happy to do it but did not think that it would be necessarily the biggest hit. I was wrong. I have rarely seen so many men eating veggies at their own free will.

When looking at the ingredient list, it is clear that this in not the healthiest dressing, therefore I think it is important not to overdo it with the mayo, it can easily get too heavy and tastes greasy and oily. Instead, I like to use just a bit more buttermilk in the recipe. Buttermilk is a MUST, and personally, I am a big fan. I can drink it straight or use it in smoothies or in other salad dressings.

It actually has a lot of health benefits. Fresh buttermilk contains a lot of active cultures which can help to build good bacteria in your gut. It has a lot of proteins, Vitamin D and provides the body with calcium. It is also good for your skin and hair. So, you don't necessarily have to drink it. People actually like to put it straight on their faces as face masks.

By using a larger amount of buttermilk the dressing will come out quite runny and not as thick as the dressings you might know from the supermarket. I personally really enjoy the consistency, it reminds more of an actual salad dressing, which coats yours ingredients nicely when mixing. However, you do have to watch out while dipping and eating as it can drip and make a bit of a mess.

Though this recipe calls for fresh herbs, you can of course substitute them with dried ones but I think fresh herbs do taste better and give a nice color. I sometimes run into the problem that I buy fresh herbs for specific recipes but that they then end up withering away in some corner of my fridge. So what you can do to actually prolong the lifetime of your herbs is wrapping them in a damp paper towel and leaving them inside a plastic bag in your fridge or you can chop them up and freeze them with either water or oil in an ice cube tray.

My (lazy) method of choice to bring all the ingredients together is actually using a smoothie blender. Besides being easy, the dressing comes out extra whipped and foamy. In the beginning I always started of with putting the mayo in first, which then got stuck on the bottom of the blending cup and did not incorporate well into the dressing when mixing. So after the first blend, I had to go back and try to scrape of the mayo from the bottom beforeblending again. Just make your life easier and start of by putting in the buttermild and the sourcream ahead the mayo.

Another reason why I like to use my smoothie blender is, that I can simply leave the dressing in the seal-able blending cup. Plus it has a good size to fit enough dressing but doesn't awkwardly take away too much space in the fridge. You can keep the dressing refrigirated for a good week, and we actually used it with many of the leftovers of the Superbowl party, like chips and spicy chicken wings, but my favorite combo was actually the Ranch and pizza.

I had made my Dad´s special pizza for the Superbowl, a spicy pizza with a spongy dough. Dipping it into the cold, creamy dressing is a match made in heaven for me. The recipe will be coming soon, so stay tuned for this pizza, which goes light on the cheese and lets the flavorful sauce be the star of the show.