After scouring the internet on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I was so happy to run into this copycat jewel. Ranch dressing isn’t a condiment but a staple in our house, so I’m always eager to try new ideas.

I must admit that I have no idea what the official seasoning mix tastes like—we don’t have Hidden Valley here and the only store that sells it charges $8,95 per bottle, I kid you not —but I was really happy with the result.

You can store the mix for up to a year and it’s one of the most versatile seasonings. We’ve use it for ranch dressing, oil dips with Moroccan flatbread, marinades and it even makes a mean garlic and herb butter!

Ingredients:

4 saltine crackers
4 tbsp dried parsley
4 tbsp dry minced onion
1/2 tbsp dill weed
1 tbsp onion salt
1 tbsp garlic salt
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
 

Directions:

Use a blender or food processor to grind the saltines. Mines were saltless. It happens.

Add the parsley and dill. I added a little less dill because it tends to get overpowering pretty fast.

I never go easy on dried onion flakes. Never. Add them as well.

Blitz, blitz and blitz some more.

Stir in the garlic salt, onion salt, garlic and onion powder. That’s it, finito.

You’ll end up with a gorgeous green mix. Store it in an airtight container.

 
This makes roughly 8 – 1 tbsp servings.

 

According to the copycat recipe you have to add 1 tbsp seasoning mix to 1 cup mayonnaise mixed with 1 cup buttermilk. This makes way too much dressing for my family. My perfect dressing is 8 tbsp Hellmann’s combined with 6 tbsp buttermilk, 1 tbsp sour cream and 1/2 to 2/3 tbsp mix. I also add a pinch of pepper.
 

Dipping lettuce, carrot sticks and cauliflower florets into this delicious dressing somehow makes me feel less guilty.

It’s a false sense of healthy, I know, but denial has never tasted better!