Foodie Friday - How to Make Ranch Dressing with Only 3 Things - What Hidden Valley Doesn't Want you to Read

Here we go with another #FoodieFriday - only this time on Friday I hope. One of the things since living in Bolivia that is not available all the time, and can be a risky thing if you do find it, and it's quite expensive (I have bought two different brands here and they both had almost no flavor) is ranch dressing. This is one of those things my son goes through like water. He loves it on his salad or cucumbers and it goes quickly in my house.

Here's how I discovered the secret. A local salteña restaurant that does fries, pipocas pollo (popcorn chicken) and cupis in the nighttime has a huge array of dipping sauces. I saw one that looked like ranch, so I tried it and it was amazing!! I asked and his wife told me it was just garlic and oregano mixed in mayonnaise. So that's it, that's all that is necessary and where this recipe began.

While it does taste fine and quite good with only those three ingredients, I made my own variation of the recipe which goes much further and is healthier as well. If you want the traditional recipe for ranch, see the Hidden Valley Copycat Ranch Recipe Here. I am sure their recipe has some other ingredients such as dill, that I do not have listed here.

Things you HAVE to have:

• mayonnaise or plain yogurt


• garlic clove


• oregano

Things you SHOULD have:

• all of the above ingredients


• pepper


• salt or beef broth seasoning in place


• milk or buttermilk

Things you might want to add:

• all of the above


• garlic powder


• cumin


• completo seasoning that has onion salt, cayenne pepper and other seasonings mixed


• bacon


• Parmesan cheese


So this is a super easy recipe. Nothing needs to be specifically measured, but I recommend about 2/3 mayo and 1/3 milk or buttermilk. Other recipes say go half and half, but I like mine a little thicker. What's neat about this recipe is that you can replace the mayo for plain yogurt and you can use light milk to get a healthier version.

So I start by putting some, maybe half, of the mayo I am going to use into the container and then start adding seasonings to taste. I like heavy garlic and pepper. This time I was excited to use our jar of honey container because it had the perfect pourer on top. When I get all the seasoning added, I add milk so that the container is about 3/4 full. Then its time to shake it up. Shake it for a couple of minutes until it looks mixed. I started shaking this batch and ranch started flying all over because of the lid, so I grabbed a lid from a jelly jar and was happy to see it was an exact fit. It seems like products do that more here than in the US, like all my bottle brands I can change the tops on, etc.

Once I replaced the top, shook it some more, and I was all done. Took about 5 minutes total. I do use a cheese grater on my garlic, to grate it more quickly. I had to run to the store for this recipe and decided to post a pic of what 15 dollars worth of groceries looks like from here in Tarija. I hope you enjoy, Be sure to make the cupis I posted the recipe for last week, and dip them in this easy and delicious ranch dressing. If you have any good recipes for salad dressings, please share in the comments below. Thanks.