Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dip with Greek Yogurt

My apologies for the shadow in the picture. The lens on my camera isn't working at all right now. Until I get to a local camera shop to have it fixed, my blog photos will come from the iphone 4. I promise not to make them too artsy with Instagram.

I am NOT anti-ranch dressing/dip at all.  If it gets my son to eat broccoli, it's fine with me. He's still eating broccoli. How many of us grown-ups regularly eat steamed or raw veggies with no oil, butter, dip, or salt? That's what I thought :) OK, that's not my point. We are a family that loves to dip our veggies. The kids even like to dip everything, not just veggies.  I decided that my job as a mom was not to protect them from the delicious flavor of veggies dipped in ranch. Instead, it is to make sure that they get some quality ingredients from their dips. I do have bottles of thousand island and bbq sauce in my fridge because I'm sometimes missing an ingredient or two for a homemade dip. And some nights I either forget or run out of time to mix up something, but I really do try to make most of their dips. It helps that most commercial ranch dressing gives my son a rash around his mouth, so I have to make the real stuff.

I kept seeing ideas on Pinterest for ranch dip using Greek yogurt. We love greek yogurt and it tastes like sour cream, so I figured it was worth a shot. Ranch dressing packets are pretty expensive, so I decided to use some spices I had around the house to make a dip.  I ended up adding a little bit of buttermilk. I keep it on hand because I cook and bake with it quite a bit. If you leave it out, the dip should be fine.  When I tasted the dip, something was missing...lemon juice. I was out of lemons and didn't feel like thawing the one of the cubes of Meyer lemon juice from the freezer, so I grabbed my Penzeys lemon pepper seasoning. It was perfect! I think this will become a permanent addition to my ranch recipes. This ended up being very kid and adult friendly. We had some for snack and with dinner. Now I need to make more!

As you can see from the picture, my son couldn't keep his fingers out of the dip, even while I was taking pictures.

Just in case you are looking for more dips and dressings to make from scratch, here is a list of some of the recipes I've posted:

Thousand Island Dressing
Parmesan Peppercorn Ranch 
Peanut Sauce (really good with chicken)
Blue Cheese (my favorite)
Honey Mustard

Ranch Dip
Makes 1 cup

1 cup Greek yogurt
1 - 2 tablespoons buttermilk (I used 2)
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt (start with 1/4 and add more if you need it)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper (or 1 teaspoon lemon juice + 1/8 teaspoon pepper)

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.