7 Grocery Store Ranch Dressings Made With Real Buttermilk (And 3 That Aren’t)

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Anyone who likes ranch — and there’s lots of us — will know how much you can do with it. You can take ranch to a brand new level with a host of ingredients, from miso to chipotle to caramelized onions. However, while you can add a lot to this timeless dressing, it’s generally thought that there’s one thing you just can’t take away: buttermilk. Buttermilk gives ranch dressing its distinctive balance of sourness and smoothness, and does so without thickening it too much. It’s so important to the flavor and texture profile of ranch dressing that it’s rare to find a recipe without it, and while you might think grocery store options try to cut corners by skipping or replacing it, even the cheapest brands have it in their recipes.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s always in grocery store ranch dressings. Some store-bought ranch options are made without any buttermilk in sight, and instead replace it with a combination of oils, proteins, and natural flavors to imitate its flavor and texture. The reasons some food manufacturers skip buttermilk, though, are not simply because they’re cutting corners. The question is: How do you know if the ranch dressing you’re interested in buying has real buttermilk or not? Well, let’s break it all down, brand by brand.

Hidden Valley Original Ranch is undeniably famous, with the salad dressing producer’s flagship product on virtually every store shelf in America. As such, it’d be pretty brave if it thought it could skip using buttermilk in its ranch — and it takes the safe route here. Hidden Valley Original Ranch has buttermilk as one of its primary components, with the dairy product listed after water and vegetable oil on its ingredients list.

Although the inclusion of water here might seem strange, it’s worth bearing in mind that buttermilk can be a little thick. Therefore, the water in this product helps it work both as a dressing and a dip, and makes it perfect for shaking onto salads. Elsewhere, Hidden Valley Original Ranch gets its flavor from the inclusion of sugar, salt, onion, garlic, vinegar, natural flavors, and monosodium glutamate (or MSG). It also has a few additives to help its flavor and texture, but that doesn’t seem to put off Hidden Valley’s customers. On its website, its Original Ranch has well over 8,500 five-star reviews, making up the vast majority of its ratings.

You wouldn’t expect any less from Trader Joe’s, right? The supermarket prides itself on the quality ingredients it puts in its foods, and so it’s hardly any surprise that it opts to use buttermilk in its ranch — it has literally put the ingredient in its name, after all. Trader Joe’s Buttermilk Ranch uses cultured low fat buttermilk as one of its main ingredients, but not its first one: That distinction goes to sour cream. It’s refreshing to see TJ’s take a dairy-forward approach here, given that so many other grocery store ranch dressings opt to use canola or soybean oil as their primary ingredient, and it gives the dressing a creamy, rich, restaurant-quality flavor.

Trader Joe’s keeps things creamy elsewhere, too. It also adds mayonnaise to its ranch dressing, as well as salted egg yolks for an ultra-luxurious flavor. We love that Trader Joe’s uses red wine vinegar as an ingredient in its Buttermilk Ranch: It’s a nice touch that gives the dressing slightly more depth. Oh, and the rectangular bottle is unique, too.

There was once a time when the thought of making ranch dressing without buttermilk would be inconceivable. However, there are more dairy-free options available than you would ever believe. You can now basically eat exactly the same foods as someone who consumes dairy would, without having to make any omissions to your diet — and on the ranch dressing front, Daiya Homestyle Ranch Dressing is the product that allows you to do it.

Daiya’s dressing has no buttermilk whatsoever, and no other dairy products in it. Plus, it’s egg, soy, and gluten-free, making it accessible for almost every type of diet. It instead replicates the flavor and texture of buttermilk using a mixture of canola oil, vinegar, natural flavors, and chickpea protein. The latter is a fairly new replacement for milk and dairy products, and we can understand why it’s used here: Chickpeas have a fairly neutral flavor and a lovely smoothness which helps to give liquids and dressings bulk. Daiya’s Homestyle Ranch Dressing’s texture is improved further by xanthan gum, a commonly used additive which works to thicken and stabilize food products.

Kraft’s ranch is definitely one of the more affordable options out there, so it’s nice to see it doesn’t try and skimp on using real buttermilk. Instead, buttermilk is listed as the third ingredient in its Buttermilk Ranch Dressing (well with a name like that, you’d expect it to be in there, right?), just after soybean oil and water. Kraft also gives its buttermilk a further boost of richness by including egg yolks in its recipe, which help to amp up both its flavor and texture.

However, elsewhere Kraft slightly falls over with the ingredients in this dressing. Firstly, its sodium content is pretty high: Salt is listed prominently in the ingredients list, and it shows in the 290 milligrams of sodium in every serving. It also opts to use a host of preservatives and enhancers like xanthan gum, polysorbate 60, and calcium disodium EDTA. For the price of this dressing, these kinds of ingredients are to be expected — but at least it doesn’t skimp on the buttermilk.

Marzetti Classic Ranch positions itself as a classy version of the classic dressing. The bottle it comes in has a fashionable width to it that makes it feel elegant, while the design on the front highlights its use with fresh ingredients in an understated manner. Plus, it doesn’t skimp on that all-important buttermilk. Buttermilk is listed as the second ingredient here, so you can expect a fair amount of it in this dressing. In addition, Marzetti keeps its ingredients list refreshingly minimal, and avoids any use of unnecessary additives, preservatives, or thickeners.

It’s a shame that this doesn’t quite translate to its flavor. Reviews for Marzetti Classic Ranch are patchy at best, with its website listing a 3.4 star rating on average for the product. While some people praise its full, rich flavor, others point out that it has an excessive tanginess that sours the experience. There are also customers who have noted the dressing is overly thick, which can make using it in a salad a little tricky.

Those clever folks at food companies can work wonders. In this modern world, you can get ranch dressing that looks and tastes almost identical to the real thing, but without any dairy or animal products whatsoever. This is the case when it comes to Hidden Valley Plant-Powered Ranch, which is completely free of buttermilk. Instead, it gets its body and flavor from a combination of vegetable oil, soybean protein isolate, xanthan gum, modified food starch, and natural flavors.

It’s important to note that while this is a plant-based ranch, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthier for you, or somehow more wholesome. Not only does it have plenty of preservatives and additives, but its fat and sodium content is pretty close to Hidden Valley Original Ranch. However, for people who follow a plant-based diet, it’s a great substitute. Reviews on Hidden Valley’s website point out that its Plant-Powered Ranch tastes just like the real thing.

Litehouse Homestyle Ranch makes a pretty big deal out of its rustic image. Not only does it quite literally have the word “homestyle” in its name, but it also states very prominently on its product label that it has no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. It’d therefore be a big surprise if it somehow didn’t include buttermilk, given that it’s one of the traditional ingredients in ranch dressing — and lo and behold, it’s right there on the ingredients list.

However, it’s important to take a closer look at what’s actually in this buttermilk. Among the components of the buttermilk, which contains corn starch, tapioca starch, and locust bean gum, is carrageenan. This controversial additive has long been scrutinized for its potential impacts on health, and concerns remain about its ability to increase inflammation. Nonetheless, the additive is still considered to be safe by the Food and Drug Administration – but its use here goes to show that even if a product contains the ingredients you want it to (like buttermilk), that very ingredient may have something else in it.

No steakhouse salad is complete without a creamy dressing, and if you don’t like blue cheese, then ranch is likely your go-to. Plus, as steakhouses are all about richness and substance, it’d be a shock if a food manufacturer that made its name on steakhouse-like offerings skipped the good stuff. Ken’s Steak House doesn’t make that error with its Buttermilk Ranch Salad Dressing, which prominently features cultured buttermilk in its ingredients list.

Ken’s Steak House Buttermilk Ranch Salad Dressing also includes egg yolks in its recipe, and unlike other grocery store dressings, it adds in sour cream powder. All of these components give it a real richness that customers love. “This is the first Ranch dressing I have ever had that I actually liked the flavor,” said one reviewer on Walmart. “It’s rich and creamy and I find myself eating a lot more raw vegetables and salads.” Hey, if this dressing encourages people to get their veggies in, then we guess it’s done its job.

If you want a smooth ranch that’s full of buttermilk, then Marie’s is the brand for you. Its Creamy Ranch Dressing & Dip prominently features cultured buttermilk in its ingredients list, and the buttermilk itself is refreshingly light on components, with just cultured skim milk and two vitamins making it up. It also contains both sour cream and egg yolks, two surefire signs it’s going to be nice and thick.

It is worth bearing in mind, though, that this ranch dressing isn’t as shelf-stable as others: Once opened, you’ll have to keep it in the fridge. It’s also a lot thicker than some other ranch options, and may be better-suited as a dip than a dressing. However, if you like your dressing with a lot of body, then it’s still pourable; you may just want to use slightly less of it in your salad, so things don’t get too gloopy.

Primal Kitchen specializes in putting spins on modern foods that conform with the paleo diet, an eating style that strives to replicate what our ancestors would have consumed and to avoid ultra-processed food options. It appears there was no room for buttermilk in the days gone by, with Primal Kitchen leaving it out of its Ranch Dressing & Marinade. Primal Kitchen instead opts for avocado oil as its main ingredient, and also thickens the dressing with egg yolks (which importantly means that it’s not suitable for people eating a purely plant-based diet).

Although we like this spin on ranch and Primal Kitchen’s mission, it’s useful to keep in mind that it doesn’t entirely avoid processed ingredients in its food. Primal Kitchen Ranch Dressing & Marinade includes potato starch, lemon juice concentrate, and nutritional yeast in its recipe — which may not be created in a lab, but which we’re willing to bet that hunter-gatherers weren’t coming across in the wild thousands of years ago. Nonetheless, its flavor hits the spot, and it’s a good option if you want a buttermilk-free ranch that doesn’t use a load of artificial additives.