Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing

Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing is a breeze to whip up using just your blender and few other simple tools. We use heart healthy avocados to make our dressing ultra creamy without all the saturated fat of regular ranch, and flavorful herbs and spices for that punch of ranch you love. Pour it on salads and sandwiches, or use it as a delicious dip for your veggies!

While an obviously perfect pair for a basic tossed salad, you might also like to try it with Buffalo Tempeh Bites for dipping! Mmmm.

Heart Health Benefits of Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing

This homemade ranch dressing is rich in monounsaturated fats, plant proteins, antioxidants, and phytonutrients. It contains ingredients that can contribute to your heart healthy eating patterns by helping improve to cholesterol profiles and lower oxidative stress and blood pressure (1, 2), especially when using this version to replace standard ranch dressing.

Macronutrients

The dressing is overall low in calories, low in carbohydrates, low in protein, and low in total fat. This makes it perfect for heart healthy salads, sandwiches, wraps, or just for dipping!

The fat profile however, is mainly monounsaturated fat. This is the heart healthiest type of fat, and can help lower LDL cholesterol (1), especially when using it to replace high saturated fat foods.

Micronutrients and Bioactive Components

Using our own blend of ranch seasoning ensures our dressing is low sodium, helping to keep blood pressure in check.

Here's a look at the bioactives in this dressing:

• Monounsaturated fats - (in avocado) type of fat molecule that can help lower LDL cholesterol, and provides nutrition to maintain and build you body's cells (1);
• Lutein - (in avocados) a carotenoid that can help reduce oxidative damage of lipoproteins and help improve HDL particles (3); and
• Soy protein and isoflavones - (in soy milk and yogurt - IF using) - associated with lower risk of coronary heart disease and overall cardiovascular disease (4).

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to create your avocado lime ranch dressing recipe, along with applicable notes and substitution recommendations:

• Ripe avocado
• Unsweetened nondairy milk - or use nonfat dairy milk
• Plain soy yogurt, or other plant based unsweetened yogurt (or nonfat plain dairy yogurt)
• Lime juice
• Low Sodium Ranch Seasoning
• Salt (not pictured)

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Just a few simple steps to create this delicious, low sodium salad dressing!

1. Step 1: Pour the milk and the lime juice into the blender.

2. Step 2: Next add the yogurt and the ranch seasoning.

1. Step 1: Finally, add the avocado to the rest of the ingredients.

2. Step 2: Blend on high until completely smooth. Add milk or water, a little at a time, if it seems to thick.

Hint: Look for avocados that yield slightly to gentle pressure, have uniform softness without mushy spots, and possess dark green to nearly black skin depending on the variety. If you've never cut an avocado before, watch the video tutorial below:

Video: How to cut an avocado

Variations

If you're looking for something a little different, try one of these variations:

• Spicy - add a dash of chipotle powder or cayenne to kick it up a notch
• Peppercorn - add crushed peppercorns to the dressing after blending it
• Cucumber - add half or a quarter of a seedless cucumber into the blender. You may also need less milk.

This Cilantro Lime Sauce is delicious, too!

Equipment

I love my Vitamix high speed blender (affiliate link) for this, but you could get away with just about any blender for this recipe. None of the ingredients are overly hard, so it should blend up just fine with what you have. You can also easily double this recipe if your blender needs more volume in it.

Storage

Store the avocado lime ranch dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Shake well before using each time.

Food safety

Safety is our top priority in the kitchen! Always keep these tips in mind.

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands before touching food, and after touching raw meat, your hair, face, pets, etc.
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for longer than 2 hours (or 1 hour if the weather is hot)
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.