Homemade Ranch Dressing

Have you ever read the ingredients on a bottle of salad dressing?  I have - and they freak me out!  I understand the concept of "shelf stable" but I can't stand the idea of pouring a whole bunch of chemicals (and GMO canola oil) out on top of my oh-so-healthy salad!  I quit buying salad dressing months ago but hadn't worked real hard on finding a replacement.  Most of my family prefers Ranch dressing.  I tried out a recipe a few months ago that my absolute favorite blogger came up with over at Heavenly Homemakers.  Her recipe was a bit too salty for my family, so I whipped up a batch last night with less salt.  This is the recipe I used:

5 Tablespoons Minced Onion
7 Teaspoons Dried Parsley Flakes
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

Mix thoroughly and use 2 Tablespoons mix as you would an envelope of Ranch Dressing Mix - for Dressing, mix with 1 cup mayo and 1 cup buttermilk.  For dip, mix with 2 cups sour cream.

I actually like my mix to resemble the powdery mix that you buy at the grocery store so I run mine through my food processor before I put it in my jar for storage.  I had the presence of mind (for once) to realize that I would need less of the powdered mix, so I used my trusty digital scale and weighed out 2 Tablespoons before processing into powder so I could figure out the proper measurement of the equivalent weight after.  (The weight is 16 grams if you were interested.)  Now I know that I need 4 Teaspoons of my powdered mix for the same ratios of mayo/buttermilk or sour cream.

I mixed up Dressing this time as I planned to have salads with tonight's dinner.  DH, knowing there was Ranch in the fridge again, sneaked in and sampled some this afternoon with some carrots.  (Hey, a girl can't complain about her man eating carrots for a snack!)  The verdict?  He said it was too runny.  Ummm...it's dressing - NOT dip!  I have used the brand name dry mix with mayo/buttermilk in the past and it was about the same consistency - slightly less thick than the pre-made stuff in the plastic bottle.

The best review came from our son, the 5 year old Mr. Picky Pants, "Mom, this salad stuff you made?  It tastes JUST LIKE the kind you buy at the store!"  And he's absolutely right - it tastes exactly the same.  No monosodium glutamate, xanthan gum, disodium phosphate, disodium inosinate or disodium guanylate required.