Spicy ranch dressing (the best garlic dip)

Why I love this garlic sauce

Do you like creamy sauces? I can’t imagine my culinary life without them.  They always add that necessary drop of taste, which is often lacking in some dishes. Sometimes it happens that you have prepared a whole baking sheet of roasted vegetables, generously sprinkled them with spices and aromatic herbs, and yes… that amazing picture pleases the eye, but you feel like some final touch is lacking to accompany this veggie tray… something that is creamy, pleasantly spicy, to take crispy fried potatoes, immerse them in this dip and understand what gastronomic ecstasy is! Well… that’s what sauces are for.

Since childhood, I have adored my grandmother’s sour cream sauce…

… with fresh garlic, chives, fresh parsley, a pinch of paprika and a generous spoonful of mayonnaise. At home, it has always been (and is) a number one garlic dip for Ukrainian potato zrazy, baked potatoes, and not only for them … for any roasted vegetables (eggplant, bell peppers, carrots, zucchini). We often use it as a salad dressing (just cut some fresh tomatoes, cucumber, radish, add the sour cream sauce with herbs and you will get the best delicacy in the world!  This garlic sauce is amazing also with a slice of bread, or some crunchy crackers and chips.

For a long time, suspicion has crept in somewhere in the corner of my subconscious and telepathy, that such a yummy should be known in some corner of the world and occupy a prominent place in some national cuisine. And what a shame that I only recently found out that overseas a similar sauce made a real sensation among American gourmets in 1949 and to this day proudly occupies the place of one of the most popular and beloved!

Haha… So, it turns out that my Ukrainian grandmother Maria (who has not traveled further than neighboring Poland and Romania) has been preparing one of the versions of the American Spicy Ranch sauce for so many years and we didn’t even know about it!

After such a culinary discovery…

… a terrible curiosity made me try different spicy ranch dressing recipes and in the end I came up with my formula”, combining my grandmother’s garlic dip recipe with the American version. Classic American Ranch dressing is usually made with buttermilk, but I prefer the rather thick consistency of my grandmother’s sauce… I just wanted to improve it a little, adding tenderness and smoothness. And Greek yogurt worked best for me (plain whole yogurt without sugar can also be used, but the sauce will turn out to be more liquid). I borrowed lemon juice and oil from the American version, they interestingly enriched the sour cream sauce I was used to and improved its taste. And yet, to facilitate and speed up the cooking process, I use a blender (my grandmother always chops the greens into small pieces). Just don’t grind until smooth, let the pieces of chives and parsley remain in the sauce  – this at first glance “trifle” plays an important role in the taste range… and one more useful piece of advice – if you like fresh dill, feel free to add it to this garlic sauce (the American version is always with the dill).

Ingredients for my creamy garlic dip:

• sour cream
• mayonnaise
• Greek (or plain whole milk unsweetened) yogurt
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• chopped fresh chives and parsley
• big clove of garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• a pinch of smoked paprika

How to make spicy ranch

Put together sour cream, yogurt and mayonnaise