Thursday, June 12, 2008

Homemade ranch dressing

Again, I was inspired by Pioneer Woman with her recent post regarding ranch dressing.* While I don't claim ranch to be my favorite dressing of all time, something about the pictures on that post drove me to crave ranch dressing like never before. With a few days off work, I decided to give it a whirl.

First, the herbage. Here we have dill, chives, and a lot of flat-leaf parsleyl. Oh, and a garlic clove that is preparing to meet its Maker, the microplane. Behold the gleaming garlic clove!Next, the creamy goodness. Sour cream and mayo - I opted for an almost equal split - maybe a cup of mayo to 2/3 c sour cream? Something along those lines. I also tossed in a splash of Worcestershire sauce. That stuff goes with everything, I swear. I also added sea salt and ground black pepper. Mmm.Mix mix mix and add splashes of buttermilk as you go - I probably added nearly a half cup when all was said and done. It is still SLIGHTLY thick for a salad, but I'm thinking that most of mine will be used as a dip for strips of bell pepper, carrot sticks, and grape tomatoes.As our friend PW says, you'll want to play with it - taste as you go, etc. Mine took more salt than I'd expected. Once it sat in the fridge for a while, I ended up adding another pinch of salt. And, for my personal tastes, one minced garlic clove was MORE than enough - the dressing was actually spicy just from one. But that's the beauty of homemade salad dressings - they are endlessly customizable to meet your personal tastes!



*A shoutout to my mom - RANCH!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am envious of your motivation... homemade salad dressing? When prepackaged bottles are just a couple dollars and a short trip away in the grocery store? You are my hero.

Anonymous said...

I am envious of your motivation... homemade salad dressing? When prepackaged bottles are just a couple dollars and a short trip away in the grocery store? You are my hero.