The Best Vegan Ranch

Ranch dressing. Did you know it’s America’s #1 salad dressing variety? This iconic dressing was created in America in 1949 by plumber-turned-cowboy Steve Henson and five years later he moved to California with his wife Gayle and bought a ranch. His famous dressing became a staple at the dinner table of the Hidden Valley Ranch and before long the Hensons started selling it to guests and local supermarkets. Twenty years later in the 70s, they sold their name and recipe to Clorox for a cool $8 million. Not bad for a little buttermilk, mayo, and herbs right?

I was never a huge fan of the bottled ranch dressing sold in stores but I do remember my neighbor making it from the packet and adding ingredients and that was pretty good. As an adult I’ve had some really good ones at restaurants and they were all really dill forward and garlicky so I tried to create my own and quite frankly I think I’ve nailed it. This ranch is so good. Like run your finger around the inside of the container and lick your finger good. It’s also pretty easy but I used some specific ingredients so follow my lead if you want to succeed.

Here’s what I used:

• Good vegan mayo. I use Follow Your Heart mostly but the new Notco mayo is really creamy and good. Use your favorite but make sure it’s thick and creamy.
  
• Thick vegan sour cream. I prefer Tofutti sour cream but Kite Hill or another thicker variety should work well.
  
• Good vegan cream. I used Country Crock plant cream but Silk brand or Califia should work well too. It will give the creamiest result but a vegan half and half will work too. Last resort is plain vegan milk but use a really creamy full fat variety and one that’s not sweet.

The easiest way to make this is in a food processor (I used a mini prep) or a blender but you could mix by hand as long as you minced or pressed the garlic and chopped the green onion really finely. It’s better if it melds for a few hours or overnight and then it’s ready for dipping, dressing or dunking!

Vegan ranch is great for:

• Dipping! I love to dip vegan nuggets or tenders, pizza or veggies if I’m feeling healthy.
  
• Dressing! Of course it’s a salad dressing but I use it to finish pasta salads, bowls or on top of baked potatoes or sweet potatoes too. it’s also great on vegan mac and cheese.
  
• Mixed with other sauces! It’s great with buffalo sauce, barbecue sauce and others. It’s essential to my vegan macaroni salad too!

The Best Vegan Ranch

Recipe by Kreg

4.3 from 13 votes

Cuisine: Salad DressingDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Vegan ranch that’s vegan and spectacular.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vegan mayo

• 1/2 cup vegan sour cream

• 1/2 cup vegan cream, half & half or creamy plain vegan milk

• 1 scallion or green onion, chopped

• 1 teaspoon dried dill

• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 clove fresh garlic, minced fine (or whole if using a blender or food processor)

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon salt

• freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

• Add all ingredients to a mini or regular food processor or blender and process until really smooth for about 30 seconds to a minute. That’s it! It’s best when it sits for a few hours in the fridge for the flavors to blend but could be used right away. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Use really good vegan mayo, sour cream and vegan cream if possible. That will give the best results. See my post caption for my favorite brands I used.
  
• Dried spices really work here. We usually say fresh is best but in this case, these are the best option.
  
• The size garlic clove you use will determine our garlicky it is. Some love garlic and always want more and some only want a hint so keep that in mind and you can halve a clove if you want less.

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