Ricotta Ranch Dressing

I’ve been experimenting with making salad dressings for awhile. My goal is to make them from ingredients I commonly have on hand. I haven’t come up with anything particularly noteworthy, but I keep on trying. Are they even necessary? I don’t know, but they sure do dress up a salad, and we like them for a veggie dip too.

Ranch used to be a staple at our house, until the ingredient list on the bottled brands convinced me I no longer want to buy it. Homemade recipes for Ranch dressing call for mayonnaise, sour cream, and buttermilk. The problem is, these aren’t ingredients I keep around. I recently stocked up on coconut oil mayonnaise (75¢ a pint!), but I don’t buy or make sour cream, and my buttermilk is from butter making, not the cultured kind used in salad dressings. Since I’m not inclined to go to a lot of trouble making individual ingredients for only one recipe, I’d given up on one of my favorite salad dressings.

The other day I made a soft creamy ricotta from my mozzarella whey and wondered why it wouldn’t be a good base for a salad dressing. I experimented with an idea, and both Dan and I agree it’s a keeper! I won’t miss store-bought Ranch any more!

I’m posting the recipe here, so I’ll remember what it is. With whey ricotta, skimmed milk kefir, and no mayo, it could be almost zero fat. With the kefir, it’s probiotic! My measurements are in parenthesis, but this could be adapted for any amounts and taste preferences.

Equal parts of:

• ricotta (that recipe here) (⅓ cup)
• kefir (and that recipe here) (⅓ cup)