Seasoning mixes and blends are great to have on hand. They not only cut down on prep time, but are inexpensive and you can adjust to your personal tastes! Homemade Ranch Seasoning is a perfect example of cost savings and seasoning blend versatility!
This post and its photos were updated September 11, 2018.
Homemade Ranch Seasoning is my new lifesaver. Yes, a ranch seasoning has that much power; let me explain. Since the beginning of May, I’ve been trying my best to watch what I eat – more specifically, my calorie intake. I’ve never been skinny; in fact, I was a whooping eleven pounds when I was born!
For most of my life, I never really felt like a fat person. The only time it really bothered me was when I needed to shop for clothing. Outside of that, I had perfect health, great relationships, and a generally a good time doing whatever I loved and living my life.
As I got older though – in my thirties – I began to feel like my weight was holding me back. I guess on some level, I had convinced myself that being overweight was fine and that it was who I was; a part of me. After moving to Toronto and having easy access to big and tall clothing stores, it made accepting the overweight issue much easier.
About four or five years ago, my lifestyle changed completely. Within five or six months of coming out, I lost one hundred and twenty pounds. I was so proud of myself! I was eating not-so-good food on occasion, but often paired chicken or steak with salads or sautéed veggies. I was walking to and from work every day; I bought a bike; and, I joined a gym.
Fast forward a year or so… the bike remains locked up; the gym membership expired, and after moving a little further from work, the walking stopped. This is where John.e comes into the picture – the vegetarian.
Loving to cook, and wanting to impress him with home cooked meals, I would often whip up comfort food in vegetarian format, forgetting that obtaining the flavours of comfort food, more often than not, involved extra cheese, excess amounts of bread, cream-heavy soups, and loads of carbs, etc.
As a result, I gained back 65 pounds. So now, it’s time to get rid of that nonsense once and for all. After all, I’m getting older and the excess weight puts me at risk for health issues – and really, I don’t have time for that!
I’ve incorporated lots of salads and veggies into our regular mealtimes, but the store bought dressings usually kill my efforts.
With this seasoning, I can sprinkle some into a fat free sour cream and have a wonderfully tasty, creamy dressing or dip. Think chip dip, soup stock, chicken seasoning, etc. This Homemade Ranch Seasoning is very versatile and the possibilities, Dear Reader, are endless!
Another great thing about creating your own seasoning blends is that you can adjust the flavours to suit your personal tastes. I’ll give you an example.
The jar of Homemade Ranch Seasoning that you see in the photographs, are an exact blend of what you see in the recipe card. I did use a food processor to break everything up and blend it together better.
When I made the dip that you see in the photos, however, I added some fresh chopped parsley, to help make the dip taste a little fresher. But, for my own personal tastes, I stirred an addition teaspoon of the dried dill into the sour cream, because I love strong dill flavours.
You can certainly change it up to suit you. Add more garlic powder if you wish, or increase the amount of chives if you like that onion-y taste. The options are endless!
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Homemade Ranch Seasoning
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 2 tablespoon dried chives
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried dill
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a food processer, add all ingredients and pulse until well mixed. About 5 or 6 pulses lasting 3 seconds each will be enough to blend the ingredients together.
- Store in a clean mason jar and keep in a dark, cool cabinet.
Notes
Nutrition
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Karen Coghlan says
Hello Byron, how did you know… I have been needing this for awhile… Nice site make over… Let me know how the rebranding goes… 🙂
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Thank you, Karen. The re-branding is going very well, but I couldn’t do it without the help of Jennifer Meyering. If you need blog help, she’s your girl! http://www.jennifermeyering.com
Kirsti says
I’m super excited to try this! I can never find dry ranch mix, so this should be great! But…. what is nurtitional yeast and where would i find it?
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Hi Kristi – thanks! I usually find nutritional yeast at my local bulk store.