Having a Vegan Ranch Dressing Recipe in your back pocket is imperative to getting through all those veggies and salads.
If you make this recipe, be sure to post it on your Instagram and tag me @happyfoodholly #happyfoodhealthylife so I can highlight your creation on my IG Stories!
Ranch dressing is all I know really. It’s almost like a comfort food (comfort condiment??) for me.
Growing up, if we had salad, I poured Ranch Dressing on it.
If we had carrots with dinner, I made sure to have a little puddle of Ranch Dressing to dip my carrot sticks in.
It’s not that I don’t like veggies. It’s just that veggies and salads taste way better when they’re bathing in the creaminess that is Ranch.
So of course, the panic that felt about Ranch dressing as I was toying with the decision to go vegan was a real deal… and almost a deal-breaker.
I was almost ready to start making the change when it hit me like a ton of bricks…
Wait?! Is Ranch Vegan?
Uh no. Not even a little bit. The creaminess pretty much gives it away. The traditional ingredients for ranch dressing include buttermilk and mayo, which is made with eggs.
I mean – how? How was it going to be possible to live a life without ranch dressing poured all over my salads?
So yup, as I tend to do, I realized it was time to take matters into my own hands and figure out how to make ranch dressing on my own.
First though, I did have to try out the Just Ranch product from the store. And while it was yummy, I still wasn’t 100% in love with the ingredients:
Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Water, Sugar, White Distilled Vinegar, Contains less than 2% of Salt, Spices, Modified Corn Starches, Dehydrated Onion, Pea Protein, Phosphoric Acid, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Calcium Chloride, Garlic Puree (Garlic, Citric Acid), Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors, Dehydrated Shiitake Mushroom, Lactic Acid, Xanthan Gum, Preservatives (Cultured Dextrose, Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Disodium EDTA).
Seems like a lot of stuff, some of which I don’t know where it even comes from or what purpose it serves.
Guys I’m all about eating real food. Feel free to buy premade products from the store if that makes your life easier. I get being busy.
But lately, I’ve just been feeling more inclined to know exactly what I’m putting into my body as much as possible.
And that is why the ranch had to be made homemade.
And I know I’m not alone in my ranch obsession.
A few weeks ago, in my weekly email, I asked what recipes y’all wanted veganized. Can I tell you how many emails I got asking for a vegan ranch dressing? An overwhelming amount!
I was so happy to respond to those emails that the recipe had already been made and photographed and was just waiting on me to get my butt in gear to put it up on the site.
So here we are with it, and I promise it is worth the wait!
Can I use store-bought vegan mayo?
Oh, and you’ll see in the ingredients that it calls for a vegan mayo. Again, you can do whatever you’d like and whatever makes your heart sing the prettiest.
I personally found that it’s super easy to just whip up a batch of vegan mayo in like 6 minutes and then just add the rest of the ingredients right into the jar I made the mayo in. And then just plop a lid on it, and you’re set for life…
Well, maybe like a couple weeks before it’s time to make the next batch… if you can make it last that long!
I know it’s gone for me in days!
Be sure to bookmark this recipe in your browser so you can have the recipe available whenever you start running low.
Vegan Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Vegan Mayo (i use homemade, linked in the instructions)
- 1/8-1/3 cup non-dairy milk I use unsweetened plain almond milk
- 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp pickle juice
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp pink himilayan salt
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
Instructions
- If making mayo from scratch, do so first in a large mason jar. You can then add all remaining ingredients into the jar. Otherwise, just mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- Adjust the amount of milk you use according to the desired consistency. For a ranch dip, you may only need to use 1/8 of a cup. For a thinner dressing, you may use the entire 1/3 of a cup. Start small and add as you stir if needed.
- Store in a jar in the fridge. You can use right away, but it's best if you wait at least 4 hours for the flavors to meld together.
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