FUELED Up Ranch Dressing

When you change your eating lifestyle, it is bound to include many fresh salads and raw veggies.  Some people just don’t like vinegar and oil (crazy I know.)   Here in Texas, Ranch Dressing is the king of all ingredients in recipes, used as dip for everything, the ultimate party food and the number one dressing asked for in restaurants. We slather, pour, dip and mix it and party it up.   I grew up with “ranch.”   Soooooo….I’ve been reading labels. I hear moans from the crowd, but bear with me here.   We simply must know what we are putting into our bodies.  Read the ingredients carefully, do you know what they are, and are you willing to put them into your body or your family’s bodies?   This journey for me has been about re-learning what my body needs instead of what I crave.   It doesn’t usually take long for me to put a product down in the store after I pick it up.   I hope to post in the future about how to quickly decide if a food is something you want to consume by a quick glance at the label. I’m teaching my family about this too.

I was saddened to learn that not only was the store-bought version of my beloved Ranch Dressing not so healthy calorie wise, it contained many ingredients that are toxic to the body such as MSG.   Salt and Sugar were in the top 4 ingredients in the bottled version and there were far too many preservatives and artificial flavorings and chemical additives  to mention in both the mix and bottled versions.  My suggestion to you?  Don’t use either the bottled or the mix package again.   They just have too many chemicals.   It is so easy to make your own fresh!  I will prepare a mix recipe later using dry organic herbs that you can make on the fly but this one is so fast and easy!

You might also be shocked to learn that the Hidden Valley brand is owned by Clorox.  Hmmmm  makes one think doesn’t it?

I still wanted my occasional ranch dressing but it must be healthy for my family.  I looked at a few recipes online, and had a perfect dupe in my recipe arsenal, but decided to make mine out of fresh herbs and Greek yogurt.   Cultured dairy foods such as Greek yogurt and kefir can be great sources of “healthy” or “friendly” bacteria. In this case, the term “friendly” bacteria simply means bacteria that are needed for healthy digestion in our intestinal tract (and proper balancing of different bacterial populations). Be careful to read the labels and choose a high quality product that says it has live active cultures. Because dairy products are often cultured with these exact bacteria to make yogurt and kefir, they can be highly beneficial in this regard because they contain probiotics.  My yogurt preference if I’m not making it at home is Fage brand.

I hope you enjoy my FUELED up version of Ranch Dressing, delicious and certainly good for you!

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FUELED Up Ranch Dressing

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Number of servings: 10

Per Serving 40 calories

Fat 2 g

Carbs 2 g

Protein 3 g

10

This is a fresh, healthy delicious version of commercial ranch dressing that our family loves even more than the store bought.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C Fage Total 0% Greek Yogurt
• 1 Scallion (white part only)
• 1 T. finely minced fresh chives (dried if you have to)
• 1/2 t. fresh flat leaf parsley chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1 t. dried dill
• 1/4 t. kosher salt
• 1 t. organic Worcestershire sauce (I use Annies)
• 1/8 t. paprika
• 1/2 t. coconut nectar or honey
• 1 t. coconut vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Use Organics when at all possible.
2. Throw everything except into a blender and pulse for 10 seconds.
3. If you don't have a blender pulverize the scallion, chives and salt together with a morter and pestle or mash into a paste with the back of a large spoon then add the rest of the ingredients!
4. Taste your dressing and add additional herbs or seasonings if needed.
5. Store in glass wide mouth jar in the fridge.
6. Chill for a couple of hours before serving, thinning with purified water if needed.
7. Garnish with some of the chives minced very small.

Notes

For a more spicy dressing substitute ground white pepper for black pepper and add a pinch of cayenne or chipotle.

Serving Suggestions: Use as a dip for fresh veggies, on salads or if you make wings, it's perfect!

Recipe from FUELED for Life - http://fueledforlife.net
FUELED UP RANCH DRESSING RECIPE