Yogurt Ranch

Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty

Season a cup of yogurt generously with salt, loosen it with good olive oil and a squeeze of lemon, grate a little garlic in there and you’ve got a nice salad dressing. But yogurt’s creamy tang also makes it a natural for a modern version of a classic American food—ranch dressing. This is a brighter, fresher take that’s just as addictive as the bottled stuff , using fresh herbs instead of dried, replacing most of the mayonnaise with yogurt, but making one essential retro concession to the real deal: onion powder. Leave it out if you want; you’ll still have a very good dressing, but it’s really the magic bullet that spells ranch.

This is an all-purpose dressing that works all year long. Drizzle it on fresh spinach or arugula with bacon lardons, pickled red onions and quartered hard-boiled eggs in the cooler months or serve on baby Romaine, halved grape tomatoes and sliced cucumber in summer. Use strained yogurt instead and it’s a dip for crudité or chips. It’s an irresistible workhorse—who doesn’t love ranch? 

Makes about 1½ cups

½ cup yogurt
½ cup buttermilk (or ½ cup milk combined with 1 teaspoon vinegar, left for 5 minutes)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons homemade or Hellman’s mayonnaise
¼ cup minced chives
½ cup minced parsley
½ teaspoon white or turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 dash hot sauce, Hillside Harvest Original Hot Pepper Sauce or another favorite
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste 

Whisk all ingredients in a medium bowl. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve with vegetables. 

This recipe appeared in the Fall/Holiday 2020 issue as part of a larger story on DIY Yogurt.