Basic Buttermilk Salad Dressing (2024)

Growing up, I loved making ranch-style dressing by mixing up a purchased dry seasoning packet with some mayo and milk. Then I discovered homemade buttermilk dressing, and I never looked back. Our buttermilk salad dressing recipe is savory and creamy, and it can be used to dress pretty much any kind of salad or as a dunk for hot wings, pizza and roasted veggies.

This is an everyday dressing with lots of crowd appeal, and it’s particularly good on crispy lettuce salads and crunchy slaw. Once you make it, you’ll want to keep some in the fridge at all times!

Is buttermilk dressing the same as ranch?

Buttermilk and ranch dressing are very similar, but they’re not exactly the same. Think of them like twins who are a little difficult to tell apart. Ranch dressing often includes sour cream in addition to mayonnaise and buttermilk, which makes it a bit more tangy. It’s also a little more herb-forward. Despite these slight differences, you can use buttermilk dressing pretty much anywhere you’d normally use ranch.

Ingredients for Buttermilk Dressing

• Mayonnaise: Mayo thickens up buttermilk dressing and gives it a nice mouthfeel. Here’s our take on the best mayonnaise for the job.
• Buttermilk: Buttermilk used to be the low-fat byproduct of churning up cultured butter, which contains “good” bacteria that give the butter extra flavor and a longer shelf life. Nowadays, most store-bought buttermilk is simply milk with cultures added, and it doesn’t have anything to do with making butter! Nevertheless, the stuff gives great flavor to dressings and baked goods.
• Onion and garlic powders: We know that spices do expire, so be sure your onion and garlic powders aren’t out of date, or else they’ll lack the intense flavor you’re looking for in this dressing. Onion and garlic flakes would both work here, if you don’t happen to have them in powder form.
• Dried parsley: Flecks of dried parsley bring a little color to this dressing. Use fresh parsley if you happen to have it around!
• Celery salt: This aromatic spice is simply ground celery seeds blended with fine salt. If you have the seeds but not the celery salt, you can add those instead. Start with 1/4 teaspoon and see what you think. If you use celery seed instead of celery salt, you may need to add a little extra plain salt too.
• Black pepper: If you’ve got a mill, use freshly ground black pepper instead; it truly makes all the difference.

Directions

Step 1: Make the dressing

In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, buttermilk, onion powder, dried parsley, garlic powder, salt, celery salt and pepper. Whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Buttermilk Dressing Recipe Variations

• Add fresh herbs: If you want to increase the ranch vibes, use flat-leaf parsley instead of dried, toss in some chopped chives or add fresh dill (or all of the above). For even more flavor, use minced onion or shallot, or sliced scallions, in place of the onion powder, and minced fresh garlic in place of the garlic powder.
• Make it smoky: Add smoked sweet or hot paprika to taste for a bit of campfire sizzle. If you eat meat and have a food processor, you can grind up a couple strips of crispy bacon and make bacon-buttermilk dressing, with or without the paprika.
• Mash in blue cheese: Turn this into a whole different dressing by mashing your favorite creamy blue cheese into the mix.

How to Store Buttermilk Dressing

I like to store dressings in a screw-top jar in the fridge, but you could also keep it in a covered squeeze bottle for easy dispensing. Homemade buttermilk dressing should be used within five days.

Can you freeze buttermilk dressing?

This is not one for the freezer! The dressing will separate if frozen, and the flavor will quickly deteriorate.

Buttermilk Dressing Tips

How do you make buttermilk for dressing?

To make a product like the cultured buttermilk found at the store, you need to combine a starter culture (such as a little bit of leftover commercial buttermilk) with fresh milk, and let it sit at room temperature until slightly thickened or clabbered.

If that’s not something you wish to do but you can’t find any buttermilk, you can simply mix together milk and a tart ingredient, such as lemon juice or vinegar, and let it sit for a few minutes to allow some of the milk proteins to coagulate. Here are the details on how to make buttermilk.

You can also use yogurt or sour cream in place of the buttermilk when in a pinch!

How can you make buttermilk dressing thicker or thinner?

If you’d prefer the dressing to be thinner, simply add as much extra buttermilk as you like. To make a thicker dressing, reduce the amount of buttermilk, use extra mayonnaise or swap in sour cream or yogurt in place of some or all the buttermilk.

How do you use buttermilk dressing?

This dressing is incredibly versatile, which makes it a great thing to have around. In addition to using buttermilk dressing on lettuce salads and various types of slaw, it makes a great mix-in for pasta salads or potato salads. You can also use it anywhere that ranch dressing is called for, including as a dip for crispy chicken wings. Making a wrap with chicken or turkey? Try pouring a little bit of this dressing over the protein. Have a plate of sliced vegetable crudité or hunks of roasted veggies? Serve some of this dressing on the side.