I have mentioned before that ranch dressing has a special place in my heart and food memories.  As a child, the little snack bowl-sized salad at dinner was probably my least favorite part of the meal.  The addition of ranch dressing not only made it tolerable, but delicious.  Ranch dressing with carrots and celery was also one of my favorite snacks to eat in between events at a swim meet.  Even to this day, I prefer ranch and celery to peanut butter and celery.  By the time I entered college, salad became one of my favorite meals.  The label salad is so versatile- between the varieties of lettuces, fresh or cooked vegetables, and cold or warm protein accompaniments that make it a filling and satisfying meal.  I have a salad twice-a-day on most days, although most of the time it is dressed with organic olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Even though my palate has matured and I don’t often eat products with a mayonnaise base, I still enjoy the flavors of ranch dressing.  After I discovered how easy it was to make Paleo mayonnaise at home, I was eager to try to make my own ranch dressing.  For the herb portion of my recipe, I used ideas from Sarah Fragoso’s Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook and a recipe from allrecipes.com to create a ranch flavor similar to my favorite food memories.

The idea of adding a little bit of full-fat coconut milk came from Sarah Fragoso’s cookbook.  It not only helped to thin the mayo a little, but also to hydrate the dry herbs that I used.  I did not add additional salt because there was already salt in my mayonnaise.   You are obviously free to adjust the amounts and variety of herbs to suite your palate, but I was extremely happy with the mix I came up with!

I have already used this Paleo Ranch as a dip for celery and carrot sticks, as an accompaniment with my Paleo Buffalo Chicken Meatballs and Paleo Chicken Nuggets.  I hope you enjoy reliving the joys of ranch dressing without all of the additives!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup paleo mayonnaise
• 1 tbs full-fat coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp dried chives
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp dried dill
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp onion powder
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

• 1. In a medium-sized bowl, add paleo mayo
• 2. Gently stir in coconut milk
• 3. To mayo and coconut milk mixture add the remaining ingredients
• 4. Cover the dressing, and let it sit for a few minutes (either on the counter or in the fridge) so that the flavors can combine, and the dried herbs can rehydrate
• 5. Enjoy!