My Mother in Law makes a very good ranch dressing that includes pickle relish, sweet or dill. She has also come up with a great way of storing and serving the dressing. She reuses the large coffee mate creamer containers. Its perfect. I cant wait to try this recipe and her container!

I sub in sour cream or plain Greek yoghurt with excellent results (I'm not a fan of mayonnaise so I rarely have it around).

Thanks for sharing so many wonderful food recipes. I'm a regular reader of yours now for at least a year and enjoy every post you take time to share. I've been making homemade ranch dressing since being married. Luckily, the Betty Crocker wedding cookbook we got as a gift had a good basic recipe for one. We changed it to our liking, mainly adding 50/50 mayonnaise and sour cream and granulated garlic instead of fresh (the fresh was a little too overpowering). I love your idea of adding dill.

There is nothing like homemade Ranch dressing. Once you've made it you simply can't go back to the store bought stuff.

The idea of instant buttermilk is a wonderful idea; however, if you do not have that on hand, a tip from the 50's. You can use your whole milk to make buttermilk by adding to 1/2 cup of whole milk either one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice...wait a while and you have your ingredient. I hope this helps because I know how it is to need a small amount of buttermilk when preparing a recipe.

I'm another long-time Ranch lover. I got my original recipe from a restaurant in Mesa, AZ in 1972. I can't remember which one, but it might have been Reuben's. Anyway, my recipe calls for grated fresh parm, as well as a bit of Worcestershire, a touch of lemon zest and sour cream ON TOP of the buttermilk and mayo. It too specified garlic powder, as well as fresh herbs. I have switched from mayo to low-fat Greek yogurt, which I like even better, and of course low-fat sour cream. My daughter was just old enough to begin eating salad when I got this recipe, and she began licking the dressing from the salad leaves and only eating the dressing. I had to start chopping hers up small, then thoroughly blending in the dressing so she would actually consume the veggies. She is now in her 30s, and makes it herself...she's still 'addicted' to it.

I wonder if this would still taste okay without the dill and mustard powder. hmm...

It's to taste. So, just skip it if you don't want the dill or mustard. You could also add garlic and/or Worcestershire sauce. The base is just buttermilk and mayo, so beyond that truly anything goes. ~Elise

I love the idea of having fresh dressing on hand. As I often combine ranch and blue cheese dressings on a salad, I will follow the blue cheese crumble tip! Yum!!

I imagine that Ranch dressing became number one in America because it's practically the ONLY thing people here in Texas seem to eat! I know, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm convinced it's not too far from the truth. :-) Thank you Elise, this looks scrumptious. I might just have to make this for salads this week!

I make up just the spices part in a big quantity using ingredients from the bulk food store (where the spices are much cheaper).

Then when I need to make more dressing, I just add 2 Tbs of mix and the liquid ingredients. I can have it made in 2 min. Anything to save time because I am always hungry when I get home.

I try to cut down on the Mayo to save calories. You could use all buttermilk, or some yogurt and buttermilk. If the dressing is too thin, add mashed potato flakes. No one will ever know.

Oh, Elise! I can't believe you posted this. I had to make it, and then practically drank it straight from the bowl. Finally had enough self respect to put it on some lettuce, then my steak, then back to my fingers.

It was yummy! Thanks Kathy C. for the 1/3 mayo, 1/3 yogurt (Greek, non-fat), 1/3 buttermilk tip - added a tad more buttermilk to make it pourable. Also added some dried, minced onion since it was on hand.

Now, off to find the next "carrier food"...!

For instant buttermilk, blend milk and plain yogurt in 1:1 proportion. If you want it more thick, add extra yogurt, more thin, add extra milk.

I love this! So fresh and tasty. I rarely have buttermilk on hand or want to purchase a large container that would probably go bad, so I usually make my own too, 1 C milk to 1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar. I use 1% milk too and it still works. I just used it in a bread I made.

The first time I tried it out, I followed the recipe exactly. However, we found that we did not like the taste of the paprika. I make it with lowfat buttermilk and lowfat mayo - it is fantastic every time. Thank you for another great recipe!