Thursday, February 16, 2012

Revised Recipe: Single Serve Ranch Dressing

One of the things I often struggle with when it comes to making many of the recipes I find on my favorite health blogs is actually eating the entire dish before it goes bad. My man travels quite a bit and that leaves me with two very picky girls who would rather eat spaghetti every night than try one of mom's crazy new dishes. One point in particular is ranch dressing. I have a recipe from Mark's Daily Apple that I love. Unfortunately, it makes quite a bit and even when I have someone to share it with, it often goes bad before it is gone. Of course, being on the ACD, I can't even have that ranch dressing right now as it calls for buttermilk, tamari and white wine vinegar.

ACD or no, I have been determined to find a ranch dressing. All I needed was a basic ranch recipe that called for mayo and then find a legal mayo recipe. I also wanted to make it so that I could make just a small amount of dressing at a time, reserving the mayo base for other dishes. If I can do that, then I can have my salad dressing without having to eat it every day for a week or the guilt of letting it go bad.

The results of my search are in and I have to say I'm pleased. I found the mayo template over at Vegan Epicurean. I made just a few tweaks. First, I tried the new almond/coconut milk blend from Blue Diamond. It has the benefits of coconut plus the almond protein necessary for the emulsion that is mayo. I also used walnut oil instead of canola. I know canola might simply be getting a bad rap, but with all the other good oils out there, I prefer to avoid it when possible. Second, I used a few drops of stevia instead of the agave to make it ACD legal. Finally, I went for the bottled organic Volcano Lemon Juice. I love this stuff. So much easier than messing with a lemon. I guess I'm lazy that way.

For the ranch flavoring I turned to Carol Kicinski over at Simply Gluten Free. She has a ranch recipe that calls for Vegenaise. I can't have Vegenaise because of the brown rice syrup it contains, but the rest of the recipe looked like it would work. My only change is to simply premix a larger batch of the dry ingredients into a jar and determine the ratio of dry ingredients to wet so I can make my dressing one serving at a time.

Here's the result. I'm posting this over at Diet, Desserts and Dogs for Wellness Weekend February 16-20. I'm so proud I actually have a picture to use this time! :-)



Dairy Free Gluten Free ACD Ranch Dressing (single serving) adapted from GF DF Ranch by Carol Kicinski
  • 2 Tbsp mayo (see recipe below)
  • 1/8 cup coconut milk, stevia sweetened (or less depending on the consistency you like.)
  • squeeze of lemon
  • 2 tsp of Ranch Mix (see recipe below)

Ranch Mix adapted from GF DF Ranch by Carol Kicinski

Combine all ingredients in a small jar and shake. Use in mayo of your choice for a ranch dip or follow the below recipe for vegan, ACD mayo.

Walnut Oil Vegan Mayo adapted from Vegan Epicurean
Place all ingredients except for the oil in your blender. Blend on high and slowly add walnut oil through hole in blender lid until mixture begins to thicken.

My mayo isn't very thick, most likely due to the low protein content of the milk. Next time, I might try adding just 1/2 tsp or less of protein powder to see if it helps. I'm not sure that's how the emulsion process actually works. I should also state that I am a recovering processed food addict. I'm not one to like a homemade health item right off the bat. However, this recovering Miracle Whip lover really likes this recipe. I added 4 drops of stevia and it was almost too sweet, but so very like my formerly-dear old Miracle Whip.


Have a great Friday!

-Melie


2 comments:

  1. I have been looking for a good ranch recipe. It has a lot of ingredients, but looks simple to make. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please play around with the recipe and come back to let us know what you did and how it went. This is one of the recipes that lends itself to tinkering. :-) Thank you!

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