Making Homemade Ranch Dip with Dill & Parsley

Last Saturday morning I took a stroll in the garden after the milking chores were done.  A heavy dew covered all of the plants and I thought that it looked especially pretty covering the foliage on the dill in the row of herbs and lettuce.

Dew Drops on Dill

Here's another shot...

The colors of the red lettuce contrasting with the wispy dew covered dill made me think about a nice salad.  Pretty much everything we need is right here.

Nice colors on the lettuce/herb row

Coincidentally, Tricia was separating whey from kefir.  The kefir was in a cloth suspended from the cabinet and the whey was being collected in a measuring cup below.

Separating whey from kefir

You can see the whey dripping in the measuring cup below.  She captured about 2 cups.  Whey is acidic (lactic acid) and is used for preserving foods.  We're going to use it in a later post to make Ginger Carrots.

Collecting Whey

After the whey has dripped out, the curds (solids) are all that remains.  Tricia put this into a mason jar.  Remember the nursery rhyme about Little Miss Muffet sitting on a tuffet eating her curds & whey?  Well this is what she was eating.

Curds

The ingredients to make our dip/salad dressing were gathered, which included the cup of curds, fresh parsley and dill from the garden, one clove garlic, onion and kosher salt.  

Ingredients for making our ranch dressing

The immersion blender works wonders!  Simply throw everything whole into the jar.

Immersion blender makes quick work

Vroom! Vroom!

All done!

And in a matter of seconds, you have homemade ranch dip.  Tricia added a little milk to make a dressing for our fresh salad.

Just the right consistency now...

You can also dip a carrot in it.

A healthy, delicious dip or salad dressing

Fresh Dill and Carrots go great together.  We demolished the jar of ranch dressing quickly.  With temperatures in the 80's already, the lettuce is beginning to bolt and go to seed.  Once it starts the leaves become bitter, so we've been eating salads almost every meal, enjoying a nice ranch dressing to accompany it.