March 25, 2015 By Sara 24 Comments

Homemade Ranch Dip

Name: Homemade Ranch Dip
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1/3 cup dry buttermilk; 2 tablespoons dried parsley; 2 teaspoons dried dill weed; 1 teaspoon garlic powder; 1 teaspoon onion powder; 2 teaspoon dried onion flakes; 1 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1 teaspoon dried chives; 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 cup of sour cream ((you can use regular or light))

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This homemade ranch dip is full of all of the familiar herbs and spices, but has no preservatives like the store bought version. The homemade ranch powder is easy to make and keeps in the fridge for months!

Ranch dip is a classic snack that never goes out of style, and the homemade version is SO much better than those little packets of seasoning.

When I was pregnant with my youngest my #1 craving was ranch. Ranch dressing, ranch dip, I couldn’t get enough of it. So it’s really no surprise that homemade ranch dip is one of Audrey’s favorite foods. This child is a very light eater – she eats about 3 bites of food and she’s done. But I can usually coax her to eat a bit more if I provide a side of ranch for dipping. She calls it “dipt” – I have no idea where that “t” at the end came from but it’s super cute so I don’t bother to correct her.

How do you make ranch dip?

Here’s the thing. It’s super convenient to go to the grocery store, buy a packet of ranch dip and mix it with sour cream or mayo. But have you ever read the ingredient list on the back? It’s full of MSG and preservatives. I didn’t want to feed that to my kids so I mixed up my own ranch dip powder with a blend of herbs and spices.

Most of the ingredients in this recipe are herbs and spices that you already have at home – parsley, onion, garlic, chives, dill. The secret ingredient is powdered buttermilk, and I’m sure you don’t have that at at home. Powdered buttermilk is often sold in a tin near the other powdered milk products. It’s inexpensive and lasts a long time but the can does need to be refrigerated after it’s opened. Which means you’ll also need to refrigerate your powdered dip mix until you’re ready to use it.

This recipe is crazy simple. Combine the dry ingredients and mix it into sour cream. You can use a combination of sour cream and mayo if you prefer. I typically make up a double batch of the dry ingredients so that I always have it in the fridge when the ranch dip mood strikes. Or when I’m trying to get Audrey to EAT!

My children were like vultures circling while I was taking these pictures, you would have thought I was photographing chocolate cake or something. My husband had to actually restrain Audrey so that she didn’t dive head first into the dip. I’ll spare you the messy-baby-covered-in-ranch pictures, but here’s Alice who also approves of it.

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Make your own ranch dip and skip all the MSG and preservatives in the store bought kind.

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5 from 2 votes