• Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Cancer Dietitian

Lifestyle tips for prevention and survivorship. Keeping you well beyond cancer!

  • About
    • Meet Julie
    • Speaking & Awards
    • Privacy and Disclosure Policy
  • Blog Articles
    • Recipes
    • Recent Articles
    • Hot Topics
      • GMO Foods Debate
      • Does Sugar Feed Cancer?
      • Organic Foods Discussion
      • Julie’s Favorite Resources
      • Cancer Diets
      • Cancer Prevention
      • Meal Planning
  • Podcast
  • Webinars & Videos
    • Webinars
    • Videos
  • Contact
    • Ask Julie a Question
    • Media Inquiries
    • Request a Speaker
  • Resources
    • Store – Resources for Dietitians – PDF Downloads
    • Julie’s Recommended Books
    • Julie’s Recommended Kitchen Tools
    • Julie’s Favorite Foods

Make a Healthy Ranch Dressing Recipe at Home! No Preservatives or Artificial Ingredients!

February 3, 2014 By Julie Lanford MPH, RD, CSO, LDN

If there’s one
thing I know about the south – we LOVE our ranch dressing. With just about
anything!

Why Should I Use This Recipe?

There are a few reasons that make this recipe particularly healthy. Here’s my approach to evaluating food: FIRST – I ask,  what is in this particular food/recipe that is going to nourish my body and provide it the nutrients it needs to function optimally?

It’s not really about calories or how many “bad” things are in it. Most importantly, what are the health promoting aspects of the foods I am choosing?

This recipe has several things going for it!ranchdressingingredietns.jpg

  1. The buttermilk and greek yogurt provide probiotics to promote a healthy colon.
  2. Chives
    belongs to the family of vegetables called Allium, which also includes
    onions, scallions, leeks and garlic. According to AICR’s second expert
    report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer, foods belonging to the allium family of vegetables probably protect against stomach cancer.
  3. As we discussed in the last post, all spices provide us with extra cancer fighting phytochemicals!

After evaluating what a food offers that is health promoting, THEN I look to see if there’s anything in the food that is known to be harmful. And I also consider if there are ingredients that just aren’t necessary!

What’s so bad about bottled ranch dressing?

Processed/prepared ranch dressing isn’t going to harm you, when used on occasion. But many of the commercial brand ranch dressings don’t actually provide benefit to health! In fact, in order to make it shelf stable, they need to add a lot of preservatives. And in order to make a profit, they use the cheapest flavorings (i.e. artificial).

Is buttermilk ranch really made out of real buttermilk? Not likely, unless it’s in the refrigerated section of the grocery store! Additionally, the commercial brands aren’t likely to use a lot of ingredients that haven’t been altered or processed in some way.

But really… the most important thing about this recipe is that it tastes GREAT! Try this version to get more phytochemicals in your favorite
dipping sauce.

ranchdressingonsalad.jpg

Print

Healthy Ranch Dressing Recipe

Print Recipe
  • Author: Julie Lanford, MPH, RD, CSO, LDN
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/8 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley – I used more
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives – I used more
  • 1/4 teaspoon of dry dill (or a teaspoon chopped fresh – I used fresh and more than 1 tsp! I love dill. :))

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients together in jar or food processor. I used a food processor so I didn’t have to deal with mincing all the fresh herbs!

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag us — we can’t wait to see what you’ve made!

For a dip, make mix without buttermilk and increase greek yogurt, as desired. You can see in my pictures, it was a little thin. When I bought the ingredients, I accidentally bought European yogurt, instead of greek yogurt. Definitely use the greek for a thicker dressing!

Enjoy!
– Julie

Choose Food by Color for Cancer Fighting Nutrients Part I: Red, Purple and Blue Foods
It's Easy to Make Your Own Spice Mixes! Taco Seasoning and Italian Seasoning Mix Recipes.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Recipes Tagged With: Buttermilk, cancer, diet, dressing, fighting, food, health, nutrition, Ranch, recipe

This post may contain affiliate links for products I recommend. This means if you click on a link and purchase a product, Cancer Services, Inc. will receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. We use these proceeds to support cancer patient direct services and community education in the Triad area of North Carolina. For more information, view our disclosure policy.

Brought to you by:

Search Recipes & Articles

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Whether you've been diagnosed with cancer or not, we will provide you with the most up-to-date and evidence based information regarding lifestyle choices and cancer risk. Sign up HERE.

Podcast Episodes

Topics

Recent Articles:

  • [WEBINAR RECORDING] Protein: Everything You Need to Know!
  • Protein Webinar, Survivorship Nutrition/Cooking Class & Movement Program!
  • Eat the Rainbow: Graduation – Winter Edition!
  • Eat the Rainbow Winter Week 12-Final Week!
  • Eat the Rainbow Winter Week 11-Satisfying Snacks

Archives

Featured Recipes

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

SIGN UP FOR UPDATES

Whether you've been diagnosed with cancer or not, we will provide you with the most up-to-date and evidence based information regarding lifestyle choices and cancer risk. Sign up HERE.

SEARCH RECIPES & ARTICLES

Copyright © 2023 · Cancer Dietitian · Evidence based lifestyle tips for cancer prevention and survivorship · Privacy Policy