By Chela Cooper, Great Kids Farm Chef Educator
Kids are much more enthusiastic about eating healthy snacks when they get to help prepare them. Students who visit Great Kids Farm often get to help make this easy and delicious ranch dressing to use as a dip when they taste farm-grown vegetables like carrots and leafy greens.
Because this dressing is made with fresh and healthy ingredients, it does not contain the preservatives, artificial ingredients, or extra salt of store-bought dressings. It is also great as a dressing for salads or as a topping for baked potatoes. This recipe can be made in a mixing bowl and stirred with a spoon or a whisk, or you can put all the ingredients into a large canning jar and have kids shake it up to mix the dip.
Great Kids Farm Ranch Dip
Ingredients:
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream or plain Greek-style yogurt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
1 tbsp. chopped fresh chives
1/2 tsp. salt
a sprinkle of fresh cracked pepper
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well until combined. Or place all ingredients in a 32 oz canning jar and cover securely with a lid. Shake the jar until all ingredients are well combined. Cover and refrigerate for up to one week.
While you are in the kitchen, remember that cooking gives lots of opportunities for reinforcing math and reading skills. Try these things when you’re making Great Kids Farm ranch dip or other simple recipes with kids.
- Read aloud the ingredient list together, and ask your child to find each item in the fridge or cupboard.
- Ask your child questions about the directions: What’s another way to say “combine”? What do you think the word “ingredients” means?
- Talk about fractions while measuring ingredients together. If 1 cup has 8 ounces, how many ounces are there in a 1/2 cup? How much more garlic powder than salt is in the recipe?
- Ask your child to think about more, less and the same. Does the recipe have more yogurt or more buttermilk? Is there less onion powder or less parsley?
- What’s another way to say “the same”?
- Depending on your child’s age, ask him or her to help measure the ingredients, and talk about being precise. It’s good practice for science experiments later on, and your ranch dip will taste better if it has precisely 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder —and not 3!