Dairy-Free Ranch Dressing
This dairy-free ranch dressing is creamy, thick, and rich without a drop of dairy! We use full-fat coconut milk from the can and lots of herbs to make a vegan ranch so good, you'll want to put it on everything!
Let's make dairy-free ranch dressing!
Making this vegan ranch might be even easier than opening a bottle from the store (and it sure is cheaper!). Here we go:
Step 1: Combine
In a medium-sized bowl, combine fresh or dried herbs and spices, add the coconut milk, mayo (use plant-based mayo for vegan ranch dressing), and apple cider vinegar, then whisk or blend together until smooth. We like using an immersion blender so it gets super smooth!
Protip: Use fresh or dried herbs!
Fresh herbs give this dressing the most flavor, but we know how expensive fresh herbs can be out of season. If you don't have or can't get fresh, dried herbs work just fine! We've listed the amounts for both-so you can use all fresh, all dried, or a combination of the two.
Step 2: Chill
Let the ranch chill for at least 30 minutes in the fridge for the flavors to blend. If you use mostly dried herbs, make sure to let the dressing rest in the fridge for a good hour or two before using it to help bring out the flavors.
You can store extra ranch dressing in a wide-mouth pint mason jar or a glass vinegar bottle in the fridge. It will keep for a week or more. Admittedly, this ranch never actually lasts that long in our house. We're lucky if a batch lasts two or three days! It's that good.
Can you make this ranch vegan, paleo, or Whole 30?
You sure can! This dairy-free ranch dressing is paleo and Whole 30-compliant as written, and if you grab some plant-based mayo, it easily becomes vegan. Enjoy your ranch!
How can you use this ranch?
- As a delicious dairy-free salad dressing (obviously!)
- As a dressing for this ranch blt pasta salad
- As a marinade for chicken
- As a dip for cut veggies
- In the zesty ranch mashed potatoes variation of my crockpot mashed potatoes recipe (use dairy-free butter)!
📖 Recipe
Healthy Coconut Milk Ranch Dressing (Dairy-Free, Vegan, Paleo)
Ingredients
- ½ cup mayonnaise use plant-based if vegan
- ½ cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon onion powder OR ¼ small onion, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder OR 1 clove garlic, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon dried dill OR 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley OR 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon dried chives OR 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives
- 1 green onion sliced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and whisk together until smooth. For a super smooth dressing, blend using an immersion blender.
- Transfer to a bottle or jar for storage, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving (longer if using dried herbs).
Video
Nutrition
Need more dairy-free dressing options? Check out our other dressing recipes:
- Cashew Cream Ranch
- Creamy Avocado Vinaigrette
- Italian Dressing
- Sesame Ginger Dressing
- Balsamic Vinaigrette
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This is an awesome recipe, and I use it often when having guests. Ive never made more than a single batch at a time, and never have any left over, but Im wondering:
How does this freeze? The recipe only uses maybe 1/4 of the can of milk, and I am always at a loss for what to do with the rest. Im thinking maybe just making like a quadruple batch, and freezing it for future use, but I have no idea how it'll come out once thawed.
Anyone tried this?
I haven't tried it, but I don't think it would freeze well - I suspect it would separate oddly when you thawed it. But you could pour the extra coconut milk into an ice cube tray and freeze that, then thaw it in the future for more batches of dressing!
I'm very excited to try this, but I can't have mayonaise. Do you know if there are any egg-free substitutes that be used?
I thought the recipe given might be *too* herb-y for my picky kids, so I doubled the coconut milk and mayo and used the same amount of herbs and seasonings.
Yum! And it hasn't even chilled a while yet to let the flavors mingle! My youngest, who is SOOOOO hard to please with food, gave an immediate two-thumbs-up!
Sorry, I was wrong. It doesn't have dairy. I was thinking eggs. We can't have either in our house. I'm just getting it all confused. The recipe looks great though!
Mayonnaise has dairy in it.
I just mde it and love love love it!!!
Just wondering how mayonnaise is dairy free...
Mayonnaise is made up of eggs, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. No dairy! https://wholefully.com/homemade-mayo/
Has anybody tried making this sans mayo? We can't do eggs, I'm thinking that the solid cream from the can of coconut might work out, with a bit of lemon for added flavor lost from the mayo. I've been eating dairy-free the last couple of months, and I find that solid coconut cream (I appreciate Native Forest for taste and insane amounts of solid cream, more than half of every can) slightly warm, with a tiny sprinkle of salt makes a wonderful butter substitute on scones, muffins, sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, et cetera. Delicious.
I just tried this without mayo very close to what you suggested. Mostly just used the fat from a can of coconut milk plus a bit of the water to thin it out. I also added a few teaspoons of olive oil to add just a touch of that mayo consistency. I cut the herbs mostly in half since I only had about half the base ingredients. Only used ACV since that's what I had on hand. It turned out REALLY well. The texture after being in the fridge all night is sort of like whipped butter, so great as a veggie dip. Maybe more of the coconut water next time if I'm going for salad dressing. Flavor is spot on.
I've lost count of how many times I've made this dressing. It is perfect. Unfortunately, it's obnoxiously high maintenance, haha (for me anyway - workin' on that). But every time I have it on hand I'm so glad to have it. Especially right now on a ridiculous low-sugar, non-dairy diet. It's on my favorites list!
Do you know the nutritional information for the dressing? I'm trying to count calories etc.
Nope, I don't count calories. But there are lots of great nutrition calculators out there that can help you out. 🙂
This sounds great! Question - do you use the coconut milk that comes in a can, or the coconut milk in the carton that's in the refridgerator section?
In the can. 🙂
I haven't eaten dairy in years and years, partly because I'm lactose intolerant and because I'm vegan. One of the first things I made was creamy salad dressing and used coconut milk. It is now my go-to for all things creamy! This looks incredible!
This looks incredible. Also, may I suggest Isa Chandra Moskowitz's cooking? http://www.theppk.com/ I got her "Isa Does It" cookbook for Christmas last year and I cook out of her vegan recipes constantly. I just made a batch of the "Nacho Cheese" (made with cashews) and for lunches over rice and beans with kale chips this week. OMG SO GOOD. Also, she's super fun. Here's a variation on it for "Mac and Cheese": http://www.theppk.com/2013/10/roasted-red-pepper-mac-cheese-video/ Anyway, always interested in your dairy-free recipes, even though I love everything cheese. Sometimes vegan recipes sneak up and surprise me as being as good/better than my cheesy recipes - and I feel better afterwards. SCORE!
Unfortunately, so many of those vegan "cheese" recipes use nutritional yeast to get the cheesy flavor, and I no matter how many times I've tried, I just can't seem to get on board with the flavor. 🙁
Here's a really good cheese sauce recipe that doesn't use nutritional yeast flakes..
http://jenniferskitchen.com/2014/04/healthy-cheese-sauce.html
We love it.
Thanks for sharing- it looks yummy! We are not dairy free but we add butternut squash puree to our mac and cheese to reduce the amount of milk and cheese in it. It is creamy and very delicious that my kids gobble it up.
This sounds good- thanks for sharing. We are not daily free but we like to add pureed butternut squash to our mac & cheese (usually half noodles & half cauliflower) in order to reduce the amount of milk and cheese in it. It makes it creamy and so delicious my kids love it.
My mom and I were JUST saying how we want to start making salad dressing, and then I see this post on my Bloglovin'. Perfect! I can't wait to try it out! Coconut milk sure is a lifesaver, huh?
God Bless you for including the variations for dried/fresh. Thank you for recognizing its January!
I try to be more dairy free myself because it just doesn't sit well with me. I too cannot give up my feta and don't even get my started on sour cream! 😉
As for you wanting mac & cheese, check out this recipe: http://minimalistbaker.com/vegan-green-chili-mac-n-cheese/ It is SO GOOD! I made it for a NYE party at our house and our cheesy friends loved it.
YUM! Do you think the Nutritional Yeast is a must? I've tried so hard to like the stuff, but I just can't get on board.
Some think that "Brewers Yeast" is the same as "Nutritional Yeast" - it is NOT. Brewers Yeast has a very disagreeable taste - whereas Nutritional Yeast has a much lighter, almost cheesy taste and is a bright yellow color.
Brooke, have you tried Tofutti's Sour Supreme or Better than Sour Cream? They are dairy free and I promise the taste is SO close to the real thing, even my cat loves to sneak a lick off my plate 😉
Can't wait to try, this looks awesome!
Looks great! Can't wait to try it. How long can u keep this in fridge? Although it doesn't sound like it will last that long!
If you use dried herbs, I'd say two weeks or more, fresh herbs, I'd go a little shorter—maybe a week?