I love ranch dressing.
Jason makes fun of my love of ranch dressing.
In all my years of ranching (heh…), I have become quite the connoisseur. Not all ranch is the same. For instance, I love the flavor and consistency of something like a Hidden Valley packet of ranch, mixed with milk. I do not enjoy the flavor or consistency of the Hidden Valley Ranch in a bottle, ready made. This is nothing against Hidden Valley – as I loved those original packets – I am not a fan of most bottled dressings.
I love to make my own.
First of all, I like a thin dressing – this is thin, dippable. I like the traditional ranch flavors, including whatever Cool Ranch means. Cool is most definitely an aspect of flavor, and I have been trying to recreate it for a while now, in addition to the tangy herby flavors ranch is known for.
While it may seem like a completely strange ingredient, coconut milk helps give it the cool taste I was looking for. If you want to try this recipe and think I’m nuts, please feel free to substitute milk of your choice. Then put it in the freezer before using. Only sort of kidding. But yes, I am kidding.
I first made this dressing for my salad of living watercress. I also used it as a dipping sauce for those radish tarts. Mmm.
celery ranch dressing
dairy, egg, soy and gluten free, vegan
2 stalks celery, cleaned and trimmed
1/2 cup coconut milk (So Delicious carton)
1/2 cup sunflower oil
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
3-4 fresh chives, minced fine
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch sea salt, black pepper
In high speed blender, puree celery to a liquid (or juice celery). Pour through a mesh strainer to remove pulp, set aside celery juice. Add coconut milk and oil, cover tightly and blend at highest speed several minutes, until this emulsifies into a thicker consistency. Add celery juice, apple cider vinegar, chives, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper – blend to combine.
Store covered in refrigerator.
Are you a ranch fan? What is your favorite salad dressing?
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
My favorite thing about my Vitamix is that it can blend celery. So cool. Now I need to make this. How is it that I NEVER had coconut milk on hand?
yep – I used my Vita as well, really does a great job (there were just a few “strands” that I wanted OUT!)
totally opposite from me, I ALWAYS have coconut milk on hand…
Oh my gosh! YES!!! I have missed it sooooo! I love ranch dressing on baked potatoes! I am so making this! I get to have ranch again!!!
I hope you like it – you might want to adjust to make thicker if you’re wanting it on a baked potato – it’s pretty thin. YUMMY, though!
Awesome recipe! I will have to try this! Thanks! Great blog, too! LOVE it!
thanks so much, Jennifer! enjoy!
I’m don’t follow a vegan diet, but I still love this dressing! I think it’s the celery that got me…yum!
the celery adds a fresh flavor to the traditional ranch – I really liked it!
now that i am dairy free i miss ranch so much! making this!
yay! hope you like it!
Um. Yum. I love ranch dressing and ranch flavored things (‘cool’ ranch Doritos come to mind…) but you know, the whole dairy situation has eliminated that for me. I would never have thought to try coconut milk–or to blend celery–but I love it.
My favorite salad dressing is a little something I like to call “Hummus mixed with nutritional yeast mixed with sweet hot salsa of some variety and a dash of Bragg’s, and maybe a shake of some other favorite seasoning blend.” That’s what goes on top of my nightly bowl of cr@&.
I know – I admit the coconut milk sounds weird to me, too – but I thought why not? I knew I’d still eat it, even if it wasn’t something I wanted to share… that flavor may not be for everyone but I LOVED it!
I LOVE using hummus as a salad dressing – and again, since I like “thin” dressings, that usually means I’ll mix it with a bunch of lemon juice, even water. SO good!
My favorite dressing is a simple dijon red wine vinaigrette–but now I’m thinking I need to start branching out with other homemade dressings. This looks great! I would never have thought to start a ranch dressing with celery juice.
it definitely gives a unique spin to the ranch flavor, and celery helps thin the dressing they way I like.
So I just found your website through this post on Pinterest and boy am I happy! This recipe sounds amazing because there are no nuts in it! Never knew I could get so excited over a salad dressing
hi Amanda! there are so many flavors of ranch, and this one gets close to the kind I like! I was so excited too
great to “meet” you! – Kristina
One more reason I knew we are kindred spirits. I also am a connoisseur of Ranch. I love it on almost anything. I love pizza, but not so much for the pizza as for the ranch I drowned it in. Hehehe I am constantly looking for a recipe to equal the ranch at Abby’s!
I am also always looking for something, anything I can put ranch on. I am so excited to try this one. Mmmm Ranch.
pizza + ranch = essential. we WILL do this Abby’s field trip…
Kirk is a HUGE ranch fan and I’ve yet to get the flavors to my liking – this sounds great!
if you make it I hope it is the flavor / style he likes… there are SO many different kinds!
Oh lawdy! I love ranch dressing too. Guess what?! You will soon own a copy of Vintage Cakes.
squeee!! so So SO excited, I have loved all your recipes inspired by it! I will have to get you my new address.. XO!
Yes, new address!
yeeee! emailing now!
I was beginning to think that I was the only vegan who still loves Ranch dressing, but I can tell by the comments I am not. Hurray and thanks for the recipe.
…and here I thought I was the only one. happy to find out we are in good company!
I am most definitely NOT a ranch fan. At all. BUT- if you made this for me, I would try it. And I bet it would be awesome with your buffalo “chicken” dip!
I grew up on Good Seasons (I think that’s what it’s called). To this day, my mom still makes her dressing from packets!
I like to combine unsweetened almond milk, some kind of fruit, balsamic and some kind of nut with salt and pepper and blend away- it makes a delicious dressing every time!
that’s how I make a lot of my dressings – random ingredients (that sort of follow a template…) into a blender. something different every time, and almost always great!
Cool Ranch, yes please! and I have no idea what the flavor profile is that makes it taste ‘cool’ but I really love it…and love that you’re done it, at home! No chemicals! And dairy, egg, soy and gluten free, vegan. Amazing! I am actually shocked the coconut milk helps give the cool taste, but hey, I trust you!
coconut has that hard to describe “cool” to it, you know? this doesn’t taste like Doritos
but it’s getting closer…
I used to love Ranch dressing, but stopped messing with it awhile back because those bottles of dressing usually have a whole ton of crap I don’t want or need. This is great and maybe perfect for dipping veggies…?
it IS perfect for dipping veggies! I think so…
Seriously? Celery as a dip? This is too awesome! And do you follow the NYTimes health section? Their recipes for health this week all feature celery–I think this means it’s time for me to get over my I-hate-celery-because-I’ve-Only-Ever-Eaten-It-As-Sticks and actually try something fun with it and give it a second chance.
yessss… celery as a dip! I didn’t see the NYT piece- but quite timely! I should show them this!
Kristina, I have a container of ranch in my fridge as I type this! I, too, am a ranch fanatic. I love it paired with anything spicy (especially covered in buffalo sauce). I am typically pretty lazy and will mix vegan mayo/sour cream and a splash of almond milk with garlic/onion powder, salt, pepper, dill, and parsley and call it a day. Sometimes I don’t even use a blender! This recipe will bring ranch to new heights for me, I’m sure. The celery sounds magical. Thanks so much!
hi Jared – I know what you mean, ranch is like a COOLANT to spicy buffalo’ed things… I hope you like this one – the celery makes it thin (as I like it) and adds a great flavor… enjoy!
I have been looking and looking for a good vegan ranch recipe, and this is my favorite looking one so far!
oh good, Abby! I hope you love it as much as we do!
Oooooh, I’m so excited to try this! I am a ranch lover and am curious how the coconut base works for it. To me, soy passes fantastically for the usual dairy base, but it’s nice not to use soy all the time.
I’ve had some people give the side eye about using coconut for this
but I love it! soy would work well, I just think the coconut gives it that extra something… enjoy!
Hi Kristina,
I had a question about the recipe. After you puree the celery and then drain the juice, are you putting the rest of the pulp back in the blender and adding the coconut milk and oil? I was a little unsure. Please help?
hi Brittney,
after blending the celery at highest speed, I strained it (just a few strands and a bit of pulp) and only used the liquid for this dressing – I did not add the pulp back in.
hope that helps – enjoy!
Kristina
This sounds really good have had good luck in the past with homemade ranch dressing. Just wondering have you tried to use other oils besides sunflower, does it make any difference what oil is used? ty
hi Val,
I just made a batch of this with flax-seed oil, and it still works well. Olive oil is another oil I use for salad dressing, although I have not tried it with this ranch, so I don’t know how it may change the flavor. I would love to try this recipe with avocado oil as well, I have a bottle of it I need to try!
hope this helps, and if you make this, enjoy!
Kristina
I’ve been on a mission to clean up my diet. My kids and I would put ranch dressing on everything so I stopped buying it about 6 months ago. But oh how I’ve missed it! I made your version last night and I wanted to drink it. YUMMMMM! Thank you!
you are SO WELCOME! so happy you liked it – and yes, I had the same reaction, I wanted to drink it
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