#SugarFreeSeptember: 30 days of sugar-free recipes

A super easy to make, keto friendly, and low carb ranch dressing recipe! Use it as a dressing for a zesty, flavourful, and creamy salad, or thicken it up and use as a dip for veggies and chips!

Summer is coming to an end y’all… we better finish up eating all out summer seasonal faves, shouldn’t we?!

And… what says summer like smothering ranch dressing on your grilled veggies. That’s exactly what I did yesterday. Out came my grilling table in the back garden, and on went the veggies along with black bean burgers, and I enjoyed the day in the sun with my family.

I also made my sugar free chocolate ice cream, to help us beat the heat without the crazy sugar hit.

But I also made a brand new version of my ranch dressing.

I have been making ranch dressing for years now - it’s my younger bro Xavier's favorite, he never lets a summer go by without having it on pretty much all of his food.

My traditional ranch dressing recipe contains buttermilk and has a tad of sugar in it, but I'm eating no-sugar all of this month due to sugar free September, as well as sharing sugar-free recipe versions of your favorite foods.

To work around this problem, I made the decision to develop a new sugar-free ranch dressing recipe, one that would be healthy and low carb (and even keto), but most importantly it had to be APPROVED by the whole family - most crucially Xavier.

I know the idea of ranch dressing without buttermilk or powder sounds crazy. You’re probably thinking, “how can you get that authentic ranch taste without buttermilk”?

I was very worried about this too, but with a little bit of testing I came across the perfect balance to replicate that tangy buttermilk taste.

The key here is the sour cream to mayo ratio, and the lemon juice.

Yep. It’s that simple...

Yet I spent literally an hour trying different proportions!

The herbs and spices in the recipe are exactly the same as the original, but I adjusted the amounts ever so slightly to preserve the tiny bit of natural sweetness in the sour cream as there’s no added sugar - and my SUGAR FREE Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe was created.

I was so worried that my bro Xavier wouldn’t like it - I almost as nervous as I felt before my first university interview!

My worries were unfounded though as he said it was amazingly good, and after trying myself I have to say I agree. It’s still slightly sweet while maintaining its tang without sugar, and has an overall delicious ranchy flavor.

So that’s my recipe for today: Sugar-Free Homemade Ranch Dressing!

I know even the biggest ranch fan is going to love this sugar-free dressing.

Best of wishes enjoying this dressing in these last few summer days of 2019 as much as me. Enjoy it on your salad, veggies, burgers, you name it you’ll love it!

Wait, hold up…  before I share my sugar free ranch dressing recipe, I recently found a little silly fun fact about ranch dressing in general that my nerdy mind needs to share with you before you go whip this recipe up.

Did you know that ranch dressing was created in 1949 by a plumber-turned-cowboy?

While working as a plumber in Alaska, Steve Henson started cooking for his coworkers and perfecting his buttermilk dressing recipe. Five years later he moved to California with his wife Gayle and bought a ranch. This dressing became the house dressing at Hidden Valley Ranch, a dude ranch the Hensons purchased near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1954... The name Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing was originally trademarked by Henson.

If you give this recipe a go, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @itsisabellem and using hashtag #sugarfreeseptember

Happy cooking!

KEEP COOKING