Homemade Ranch Dressing with Creme Fraiche

It’s spring time and the chives in my patio garden have started to grow again after a stagnant winter. As someone who is constantly questioning if she has a black thumb, it’s nice to be reminded that all is not lost. IN fact, all of my perennial herbs survived and are currently flowering to celebrate the spring sun after a rainy winter.

I have some leftover buttermilk from making this chocolate truffle cake* for a special someone’s birthday and I wanted to find a way to use the rest of it up. I confess, I had never actually tried buttermilk straight until recently. It was not bad and in hindsight, it should have been obvious. The buttermilk tasted quite similar to chaas** which translates to “buttermilk ” in Indian-English and would probably be quite lovely with salt and roasted jeera powder.

Traditionally, buttermilk is a cultured milk product. Culturing (read: fermentation) gives dairy a tart tangy quality although to varying degrees. This is why you might detect this flavor profile in buttermilk, yogurt, creme fraiche and sour cream. Before the era of refrigeration, culturing helped to increase the shelf life of dairy.

In addition to the leftover buttermilk, I had also impulse bought some Bellweather creme fraiche from Costco. Between the dairy products in my fridge and the herbs in my garden (and grocery bag), I decided to make homemade ranch dressing.

Truth be told I have never come across a ranch dressing that I didn’t like. My relationship started early with the ranch dressing served with breadsticks at Chuck-E-Cheese. However, comparing homemade ranch with the storebought ranch is like equating an artisanal cheese with Kraft velveeta. I have nothing against Velveeta (it’s great in queso) but it’s just not the same.

Describe Homemade Ranch Dressing

Homemade ranch has a California cool vibe. It’s creamy and cooling and tangy all at once. It’s packed with so much fresh parsley, dill and chives that it feels like it’s screaming spring. The flavors are rounded out with lemon juice and garlic. It’s reminiscent of tzatziki, raita or maybe a Mexican crema. In any case, it’s a great way to elevate a meal or party spread.

I can distinctly taste how each of the three fresh herbs I used, parsley dill and chives, add to the dressing. If you have other herbs, it should not stop you from experimenting.

Ways to Use Homemade Ranch Dressing

Some of the ways you can use homemade ranch dressing include:

• As the centerpiece of an elegant, effortlessly chic crudite platter.
• Drizzled on top of asparagus and refried cannellini bean quesadillas
• As a dip for pizza crust or bread sticks
• As a salad dressing

Waste Less, Make More Tasty Food

Here are some of the ways I use up ingredients that are not part of my essential pantry or where it is not obvious what you might be able to do with the remaining portion of an ingredient after making this recipe.

1. Buttermilk
   • The Cake Blog’s Chocolate Truffle Cake
2. Parsley
   • Chimichurri Paneer & Roasted Vegetables

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Recipe by Preeyanka

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking timeminutes

You can use either creme fraiche or sour cream to complement the thinner, less fatty buttermilk. If you use creme fraiche, you will have a slightly milder, runnier sauce, especially at warmer temperatures. Sour cream will produce a slightly tangier, thicker dressing. If you already have one of these in your home, use that.

The garlic is key to adding zing, savoriness and ultimately balance to the dressing. I would not skip it.

Lastly, if I were making this for something already well salted (e.g. deep fried num-nums, quesadillas etc), I find that it doesn’t need as much salt as if you’re serving it with unsalted things (e.g. fresh vegetables).

This dressing lasts for a couple days in the fridge – it will be thick when chilled and melt into tangy herby liquid creaminess when paired with something warm.

Homemade ranch dressing also passed the toddler test and encourages cucumber consumption.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup buttermilk

• 1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream

• 1 clove garlic, grated on microplane or mashed into a paste

• 1 Tbs lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)

• 1-2 Tbs storebought mayonnaise

• 2 Tbs finely chopped fresh parsley

• 1 Tbs finely chopped fresh dill

• 1 Tbs finely chopped fresh chives

• 1/4 tsp onion powder (optional)

• 1 tsp kosher salt plus additional to taste

Directions

• Mix everything together in a bowl starting with 1 Tbs mayo. Add additional mayo and salt per your liking
• Refrigerate if not using immediately.

* In case you’re wondering, it is an absolutely delicious cake although on the less sweet side if you use 70% Guittard chocolate for the chocolate truffle frosting. We found it to be a grown-up crowd pleaser but not as enticing with the under-10 crowd. Reach out if you’d like the full notes!

** Growing up, chaas was always made with water and yogurt frothed together but you can also make chaas from the whey after churning butter.