Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean you have to give up on all the foods you love. Learning how to make and create a healthier version of some of your favorite food choices can be just as satisfying as their full-calorie counterparts. To help get you started, I wanted to share my recipe for a healthy (sodium-free) homemade ranch dressing that’s the perfect addition to any salad.
Eating healthy can sound like a drag. Believe me, I know! Patrick and I are on our second week of the 21 Day Fix and to say I jumped into our nutrition plan “Hip Hip Hooraying” would be the biggest lie I’ve ever told in my life. Truthfully, I was completely dreading it and drank beer and ate deep fried snacks right up until the day we started our Fix. Yes, I’m shaking my head in shame!
To put it in black and white for you, I’m a food lover! I love fried foods, bread, pasta, cheese, ICE CREAM, and a couple glasses of wine here and there. Eating yummy food makes me happy! Finding new restaurants or cuisines to try speaks right to my love language. I was raised this way and I love every minute of it!
Because of my love for food, healthy living has always been a struggle for me. I try my very best to eat in moderation but I want to eat ALL THE THINGS, ALL THE TIME! It’s a constant struggle. I always find myself falling into the same vicious cycle.
My Vicious Cycle
I start a healthy eating and fitness plan and achieve all my goals. Once my goals are met, I start adding some of my old favorites back into my meal plan (in moderation of course!). One unhealthy breakfast then leads into a calorie-packed lunch followed by a HUGE dinner. Before I know it, I’m eating whatever I want, whenever I want! Just like that, I’m right back at the beginning of the cycle again. It’s frustrating!
I just completed a cycle, and now I’m full force into a new one. This past cycle I’m coming off of was probably one of the longest stretches of healthy living I’ve had in awhile. I shared my journey on the blog last week along with my tips on getting organized for a fitness and diet plan. It’s filled with information and a perfect read if you’re looking for a little motivation to get you started.
One of the things I have been doing a lot of, especially for my lunches, is eating salads. I’ve found this to be a great way to help me accomplish my vegetable intake for the day. I’ve never been a vegetable lover, so I struggle with incorporating them into my diet. Eating a salad for lunch every day has become a routine and my way of tricking myself into eating my veggies.
Eating a salad for lunch every day can get a little boring over time, though. To make it a little less repetitive, I try to add different proteins to my salads and also change up the dressings. If I’m looking for something simple, I’ll just add a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil on top of my salad. If I’m looking for something just as easy, but a hundred times more flavorful, I’ll go for this homemade ranch dressing recipe.
Ranch is one of my favorite salad dressings of all time but I never thought about having it while on a diet because the stuff that comes in the bottle is insanely unhealthy! After just a little bit of researching online, I found out that I could actually make a healthy homemade ranch dressing at home in less than 5 minutes. How awesome is that! I eliminated the salt from the recipe because salt is a no-no for me right now while on the 21 Day Fix. I swear to you that you won’t even be able to tell the difference.
So what do I need to make this Healthy Homemade Ranch Dressing?
For the seasoning: 2 tbsp dried parsley, 2 tsp onion flakes, 2 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp pepper
For the dressing: 1 tbsp Ranch seasoning, ⅓ cup Nonfat Greek yogurt, ⅓ cup low-fat buttermilk
You’ll need to start this recipe by making the seasoning mixture. This is super simple! Measure all your seasoning ingredients (2 tbsp dried parsley, 2 tsp onion flakes, 2 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp pepper) and add them to an airtight container.
Once the seasonings are in your container, place the cap on top and give it a really good shake.
This is what it looks like with everything all combined together.
In a small bowl, add 1 tablespoon of the ranch seasoning along with a ⅓ of a cup each of the nonfat Greek yogurt and low-fat buttermilk.
Stir everything together.
You can use this immediately or place it in the refrigerator until ready to use. The longer the dressing sits, the more the flavors marry together.
I add two tablespoons of this dressing to my lunch salad and I find that to be more than enough from me. If you are following the 21 Day Fix, two tablespoons are equivalent to ½ an orange container. Because Patrick eats a bigger salad for lunch, I tend to give him about 3 – 4 tablespoons of the dressing to use.
You will have extra ranch seasoning so just leave it in the airtight container in your pantry until you’re ready to make the ranch dressing again. You could also use the extra seasoning to flavor your roasted vegetables or chicken.
Healthy Homemade Ranch Dressing is a cinch to make. Let yourself feel like you’re cheating on your diet and make a batch of this today. You won’t be disappointed. Here’s to a healthy diet!
- For the seasoning: 2 tbsp dried parsley, 2 tsp onion flakes, 2 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp pepper
- For the dressing: 1 tbsp Ranch seasoning, ⅓ cup Nonfat Greek yogurt, ⅓ cup low-fat buttermilk
- You’ll need to start this recipe by making the seasoning mixture. This is super simple! Measure all your seasoning ingredients (2 tbsp dried parsley, 2 tsp onion flakes, 2 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp pepper) and add them to an airtight container.
- Once the seasonings are in your container, place the cap on top and give it a really good shake.
- In a small bowl, add 1 tablespoon of the ranch seasoning along with a ⅓ of a cup each of the nonfat Greek yogurt and low-fat buttermilk.
- Stir everything together.
- You can use this immediately or place it in the refrigerator until ready to use. The longer the dressing sits, the more the flavors marry together.
Want to remember this? Post this Healthy Homemade Ranch Dressing to your favorite Pinterest board!
Lois says
Could be a helpful hint to someone that dried herbs are much stronger than fresh. This was too much parsley in my opinion. I would half the parsley amount ..maybe less than half..Also def half the pepper amount..and then taste. and tweak as needed. Needed salt badly as well. Thank you for the starter recipe though!
lakelifestateofmind@gmail.com says
Hi Lois! Thanks for the feedback. I used all dried herbs too when making the recipe. I’m wondering, did you happen to put all those seasonings into the buttermilk and yogurt at the same time by chance? I only say that because that would definitely be overpowering. I mixed all the seasonings together in an air tight container and only used 1 tablespoon of the mix to add to the wet ingredients. The rest of the seasoning can be used for more dressing in the future or to sprinkle on chicken breast. Thanks for the comment!
Lois says
Hi. Yes I only used a tablespoon of the herbs. The consistency was really nice and I love the buttermilk in it, makes it taste more like traditional ranch . I’m trying it again with a little tweaking, start with less and add more as needed. Could just be a matter of Personal taste. Thank you for sharing !
lakelifestateofmind@gmail.com says
Good luck! Hope it works better for you this time around. Have a great day!