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Hidden Valley ranch dressing
Steve and Gayle Henson opened the Hidden Valley dude ranch in 1954, and their Hidden Valley ranch dressing recipe - which Steve had developed in Alaska - became a favorite of ranch visitors - so much so that they started selling it for their clients to take home. Things took off from there, and in 1972 Clorox bought the rights to sell the dressing.
I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather make my own Hidden Valley ranch dressing than buy something made by the folks who bring us chlorine bleaches. And when you see the ingredients in most Hidden Valley ranch dressing recipes, you start to wonder whether these recipes have drifted from the wholesome dressing that Steve Henson first developed. You'll find locust bean gum, guar gum, MSG and other niceties in most commercial ranch dressings these days, and even in Hidden Valley ranch dressing recipes you can find on the Internet, many of them have MSG (or Accent, which is the same thing).
There's general agreement that you need either sour cream or buttermilk in a Hidden Valley ranch dressing - this provides both the fat and the acidity that are essential for any good salad dressing - with buttermilk being the more common. On the other hand, how many of us keep buttermilk in the refrigerator all the time? (We do - it keeps for 2-3 months and makes wonderful pancakes!) My take is that sour cream provides a thicker dressing, but is also more fattening - it's a toss-up, just use what you have!
There's some debate as to whether mayonnaise should be a part of a Hidden Valley ranch dressing. Since I'm a big fan of my VitaMix blender, which is so powerful it can grind just about any food into a quasi-liquid in a matter of seconds - my ranch dressing recipe uses homemade mayonnaise, which is made as part of the whole process rather than as a separate step. The key to a good mayonnaise is fresh eggs, good (but not overly flavored) vegetable oil, a hint of mustard, and technique. In my case I blend the technique along with the ingredients, for this dressing.
The directions below assume you're using a high powered blender like the VitaMix. You can do it all by hand if you just use store-bought mayonnaise, but in that case make sure you finely mince the fresh parsley, garlic, and green onion or chives.
Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk (or sour cream)
1 cup mayonnaise (or separate mayonnaise ingredients - see below)
2 tsp dried parsley or 2 Tbsp fresh
1 green onion cut into 1/2 inch pieces, or 1 Tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp garlic powder or one crushed garlic clove
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
Mayonnaise ingredients
Use these ingredients in place of the 1 cup mayonnaise above, if you want to make this Hidden Valley ranch dressing from scratch!
1 fresh egg - free range if possible
1/2 cup good quality oil (vegetable or olive or hemp seed oil)
1/2 tsp mustard powder or 1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 quarter of a lime, or 1 wedge of lemon, seeds and peel removed
Directions - if making with homemade mayonnaise
1. Place the egg, parsley, green onion or chives, garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, and lime or lemon, into the blender. Blend on maximum for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of blender and blend again until it has a smooth consistency.
2. Remove the top of the blender lid and, with the blender running on low to medium, slowly add the oil in a steady drizzle.
3. Once the oil is well blended and the mayonnaise begins to take shape, turn off the blender, replace the clear lid top in the lid, and remove the lid. Pour in the buttermilk and blend on high for a minute.
4. Pour the dressing into a mason jar and refrigerate until ready to use. It should keep in the refrigerator for several days when made with fresh eggs.
Directions - if using store-bought mayonnaise
1. Mince the fresh parsley, green onion/chives, and fresh garlic if using. Each should be as finely chopped as possible.
2. Add the ingredients together in a blender - if you want a creamy Hidden Valley ranch dressing - or in a mixing bowl, if you're content with more coarseness and texture in the dressing. Blend (if using the blender, of course) or mix with a spatula (by hand, of course!).
3. If the dressing seems too thin (which is more likely to happen when using buttermilk than sour cream) try adding a little more mayonnaise, but don't overdo it - no more than an extra 1/3 cup.
4. Pour the dressing into a mason jar and refrigerate until ready to use. It should keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks if you made it with store-bought mayonnaise.
Serving ideas
Here are a couple of ways you can make good use of this Hidden Valley ranch dressing recipe:
- Try blending one recipe of Hidden Valley ranch dressing with one cup parmesan, for a variation on Caesar salad recipes.
- Use this recipe along with our tomato cucumber salad recipe for a simple summer lunch salad.
Or just toss on sliced cucumbers alone for a quick snack.
- Toss this ranch dressing on romaine lettuce and top with a single golden beet, grated with a cheese grater over top of the salad. Even people who aren't fond of beets tend not to mind raw golden beets, and in fact probably won't even know that's what they're eating. The gold of the beets contrasts nicely with the creamy dressing and the dark green of the romaine.
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