Ranch Dressing Powder Blend

My husband loves Ranch Buttermilk Dressing on his salads, so I decided to take equal amounts of the herbs I had on hand that I suspect are in the Hidden Valley commercial blend and see what I could come up with.  Since the onion and garlic taste are so pronounced, I have added a lot of those two ingredients.  🙂

You will find dehydrated buttermilk powder in a small can in the baking aisle of your grocery store.  Most carry it.  If you can’t find it, just mix the herbs and spices.  There won’t be a buttermilk taste in the spice blend, but if using to make dressing, you can follow this Ranch Salad Dressing recipe, which I will be posting very soon.

This recipe is suitable for Atkins Induction, Keto dieters and Primal followers that consume some dairy.  One tablespoon of this blend should be equivalent to 1 envelope of the commercial powder mix.  1 envelope is enough to season 1 cup of the mayo-sour cream base for making the well-known salad dressing.  Of course, you can always add more if you like, since the net carbs are low.

TIP:  You can use fresh herbs for a better taste, but I’d make up half as much as it won’t keep so well using fresh herbs.  Use approximately double the shown amounts below if you use fresh herbs.  But know that it won’t keep in your refrigerator longer than the fresh herbs keep, the fresh parsley will be the first to spoil on you.  For this reason,, I double bag mine in plastic and freeze.  Then I break off a clump and defrost when I want 1 T. or so for a recipe.  If you use dried herbs as listed below, this blend should keep a long time in a tightly lidded jar in your spice rack/cabinet.  The buttermilk powder is room-temperature stable.

INGREDIENTS

1 T. dried chives  (or 2 T. fresh)

1 tsp. – 1 T. dried dill weed  (I prefer 1 tsp., personally, as I’m not fond of dill)

1 T. dried parsley (or 2 T. fresh)

½ tsp. dried thyme (or 1 tsp. fresh)

1 T. onion powder

1 T. garlic powder

1 tsp. coarse black pepper

1 T. dehydrated buttermilk powder

¼ tsp. salt (more if you like, but I’m salt sensitive)

DIRECTIONS:  Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process to a fine powdery mixture (won’t be so powdery if you use any fresh herbs).  If fresh herbs are used, you need to refrigerate and use this mix up in about a week, or freeze it flat in a plastic bag.  Then you can just pinch/break off (still frozen) what you need for a small batch of dressing or a recipe. 🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 8 T. each contains:

12.3 cals, 0.11g fat, 2.42g carbs, 0.38g fiber, 2.04g NET CARBS, 0.73g protein, 80 mg sodium