Home Made Buttermilk Dressing
My wife has, over the years, come to find commercial salad dressings products to avoid. Between too much sugar and too much tart, which is a curious combination, we can no longer find a dressing we wish to eat. So, what’s a chef to do? Well, duh!, make his own.
As my wife is a Southern girl through and through, of course, the base for this dressing needs to be buttermilk and mayonnaise. If you haven’t been to the South, well, how sad for you. Add that to our bucket list and get there. The food is amazing and so are the people. But, travelogue later. Now, we mix.
A few notes about ingredients in homemade dressings. While fresh is almost always best, I have found that dry, in a dressing such as this, work better because they last longer. Fresh herbs are tasty but they also spoil rapidly and therefore, so too does the item they are in. Dry garlic and dry onion also for the same spoilage reason.
I also use vinegar instead of fresh lemon juice, for the same reason. My herb choices are mine, of course, and you are welcome to add or delete any of them. I had an idea that some grated Parmesan cheese might be good. Play with it. As it stands, it is a good dressing and makes also an excellent dip for raw carrots or cakes or crudites. Yum-Yum!
Ranch style dressing
Home made is always best, and in this case, quick and easy too. Plan a few hours, or a day, so the flavors have a chance to really develop. There is a good chance you already have most of these ingredients which makes this a money saving and flavor boosting dressing.
Ingredients
- 1 C Mayo 250 g
- 1/2 C Buttermilk 125 g
- 1 T Dried chives
- 1 T Dried parsley flakes
- 1/4 t Onion powder
- 1/4 t Garlic powder
- 1/4 t Ground white pepper
- 1/8 t (pinch) Salt
Additional flavors
- 1/4 t Dried mustard powder
- 1 t Dried onion flakes
- 1 t White wine vinegar herb vinegar is good too: avoid white vinegar
Instructions
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Mix all ingredients together and store in a snap tight container or sealable jar. Keep refrigerated.
Let stand at least 4 hours to reconstitute dried herbs and allow flavors to develop.
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