The Best Light Ranch Dressing

You’ll never buy a bottle or seasoning packets of ranch again! The Best Light Ranch Dressing uses just a couple of fresh ingredients to make a low-cal version that will blow you away.

Well, friends, it only took me about 2 years to come up with this one! Haha. I take my ranch dressing seriously. Maybe a little too seriously.

It’s been said that you can tell if a restaurant is great or not by their bread alone. But I need to add ranch dressing to that equation. I’ve had some pretty awful ranch dressing in my day, and it totally turns me off to the rest of the food.

So if trained cooks can mess up ranch so easily, I knew that finding my own version to make at home would be daunting–let alone making it lighter. It took me probably about 15-20 times to get this one perfect for my tastes.

It was so worth the work, though! Just like with my Light Caesar Dressing, this is one of the best ranch dressings I’ve ever had, light or not.

WHat Makes This the Best Light Ranch Dressing?

This process took me down many different roads. I won’t bore you with all of the details, but I’ll give you a brief rundown of my takeaways.

Many ranch dressing recipes try to mimic those Hidden Valley Ranch packets, so they rely on dried herbs and seasonings. I like the idea of having most of the ingredients in my pantry so I could whip the dressing up without having to plan too much ahead.

No matter what variation I tried, though, the dressing fell flat. It could be flavorful but lacked that perfect balance of creaminess and the zippy tang of really good ranch.

So I turned to the goddess herself, Ina Garten. She really never steers me wrong. I even hit up Reddit board to see what ranch dressing people recommended the most, and hers was always at the top.

I also heard from friends in the restaurant biz that what really makes a ranch taste great is MSG. Worcestershire sauce has a similar salty/umami flavor, so I added that.

One trick that made a big difference was using just the white and slightly green part of the green onions. When I tried to make it will the full 3 scallions, the onion flavor was overpowering. Use the middle section shown in the picture above, discard the bottom, and save the green tops for garnish or another recipe.

Also, skip the dried dill. It’s in a lot of ranch recipes but, in my opinion, overpowers everything else. Unless you can find great fresh dill (I rarely can), just stick the with what I’ve come up with.

HOw to make the best light ranch dressing

I was surprised by the simplicity of Ina’s ingredients. Many ranch recipes can be overly complicated. Instead of tons of dried herbs like dill, chives, garlic powder, onion powder, etc., she relies on just just three fresh herbs and vegetables: basil, green onion, and garlic. I used parsley instead of basil to keep it classic and paired down the other ingredients to make it lighter and little simpler. The result was heavenly.

What you see in the picture above is my comparison between various ranch recipes. The bottom left is one using all dried herbs. Notice how much I had to add to make it taste like anything, and even then it was dull. I also noticed that after a day or two, the dressings become super runny, almost watery.

The one on the middle right is a full-fat version, using a seasoning packet. Pretty good, but nothing great.

The one on the top left is the clear winner. It maintained its creamy texture days later. My theory is that the fresh garlic and herbs helped emulsify the dressing, which is important since we’re using lighter ingredients that tend to break down easier than their full-fat counter parts.

Now, all you have to do is throw everything in a blender and process until you get the smoothness you want. This is a super easy recipe, takes about 5 minutes tops, and utilizes ingredients you can easily find at any grocery store. Enjoy!

I’d love to hear from you if you make this recipe! It makes my day when you share your pics on Instagram and tag me (@litecravings). Don’t forget to use #litecravingsrecipes to make sure I see it. If I don’t get a chance to scroll through my tags quickly enough, I won’t see your post. I always make a point to look through the hashtags, though, so I’ll see it there!