Yogurt Ranch Dip

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Did anyone else grow up eating lay’s potato chips dipped in hidden valley ranch flavored dip? It makes me cringe now to think about that mysterious powder being poured into the innocent sour cream. What is in that stuff?! I believe MSG is among the ingredients. No wonder I couldn’t stop eating it!

My husband also loves the flavor of ranch salad dressings and dips. He loves it when I make a ranch salad dressing using sour cream and buttermilk – two ingredients I don’t generally have on hand.

I almost always have yogurt in the refrigerator, though. And because we need to make whey for homemade baby formula, I almost always have yogurt cheese sitting around as well.

This doesn’t taste exactly the same as the sour cream/buttermilk combination, but it is delicious in it’s own right – and contains no mysterious ingredients.

Yogurt Ranch Dip

Ingredients

1/2 cup yogurt cheese (whole milk yogurt drained overnight in a sieve with cheesecloth)
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried, minced chives
1/8 teaspoon dried dill weed
3-4 grinds of fresh black pepper
1/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Directions

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Refrigerate for at least one hour and taste before serving. Adjust seasoning as needed. Serve as a dip for cucumber slices, carrot stick, celery sticks or any other vegetables.

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16 Comments

  1. My kids love ranch dressing. I should figure out how to make homemade with all the kefir we have. I always add vanilla to our yogurt as I make it…think that would make funky ranch! :o)

  2. I love dip!! We typically go with something a bit simpler like 1c mayonnaise (homemade is best, obviously), 1c yogurt, and 3 tablespoons of some kind of herbs/spices (usually Frontier’s Italian Seasoning Blend).

    Oh…and you are right, Hidden Valley Ranch like most commercially available ranches has MSG in it!

    Pampered Mom’s last blog post..Our Third Car-Free Journey – A Trip to the Library

  3. Yum! I make ranch with sour cream all the time, because I am more likely to have that than yogurt cheese. I make mine really simply with a bunch of dill, a fair amount of garlic powder, a smaller amount of onion powder and a pinch of italian seasoning or basil. Salt and pepper to taste. Scale up or down as appropriate 🙂

  4. Could I make this recipe substituting greek yogurt for the yogurt cheese and regular yogurt?

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