Yogurt Ranch Dip

This is something I've been making about once a week since last year. It's great for people like me, who cannot eat raw carrots and broccoli without some kind of dip, but feel that slathering sour cream all over your veggies sort of defeats the healthiness goals. I first started getting ranch dip mix and using yogurt instead of sour cream, but I hated using a store-bought mix with all those preservatives. I wanted to be able to just use dried herbs to make my own mix.

This recipe is based on several different ones I found in my initial search. It's pretty easy to tweak.


Yogurt Ranch Dip

Makes almost 2 cups

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (regular or Greek)
1/2 - 1 Tbsp dried chives
1/2 - 1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 pinch black pepper (I just grind the pepper grinder 8 or 10 times)
1 pinch granulated sugar
1 tiny pinch of dill (I use half of a 1/8 teaspoon measure)
1/4 cup light ranch salad dressing (I don't really measure this, just give one good squirt.)

Just mix it all up! I happen to have a tiny whisk which works perfectly, but a fork is fine too. It fits nicely in a 2-cup container. I like to start with one cup of yogurt, mix in all the dry ingredients, then add the ranch dressing and the rest of the yogurt. It's best if you can mix it ahead of time so the flavors can set.

A word of warning about the dill - a little bit goes a long way. Just the tiniest amount really makes that ranch flavor, but any more than that and you end up with dill dip. Which some people probably like. I do not.

It's a lot of measuring, but I'm at the point where I don't need to check the recipe any more, so it goes fairly quickly. And I'll mix up several packets at the same time so I just have to add the yogurt and salad dressing.

Regular plain yogurt can get kind of runny, but it does not have as strong a sour flavor as Greek yogurt, so I prefer it. I will sometimes put 2 cups plain yogurt into a coffee filter in a sieve, and drain out quite a bit of liquid - I end up with about 1 1/2 cups of very thick yogurt, perfect for dip!