Ranch Mashed Potatoes - Vegan and Soy Free

  I don't know if anyone else does this, but my husband used to eat mashed potatoes with ranch dressing stirred in. Legend has it that he and his sister would never eat potatoes (or any vegetable, for that matter) unless properly coated in ranch and so this is how he learned to eat them. His palette has refined somewhat now, he will eat most any vegetable except broccoli, but he does still like his ranch potatoes.
  Rather than make ranch dressing to stir into the potatoes tonight I thought I'd try just adding most of the ingredients that go into ranch. It was much easier and tasted wonderful, so I am passing the recipe on down to you!

 You can use any instant mashed potato flakes that suit your needs, just prepare them as per package direction using unsweetened plain non dairy milk in place of milk and soy free Earth Balance in place of butter, OR you can boil and mash your own potatoes using the same ingredients.

Ranch Mashed Potatoes

By the way, that other thing is a turkey patty with gravy on it.
Not the prettiest looking thing.

4 servings of hot prepared mashed potatoes
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dried dill weed
1/8 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp dried basil
a few cracks of fresh ground black pepper
2 Tbl Soy Free Earth Balance

Stir all ingredients together. That's it!
Ideally these would be slightly thinner than normal mashed potatoes (imagine that you'd poured real ranch into regular potatoes), but if you want them to still be stiffer, leave out the extra Earth Balance.

Vegan and Soy Free Ranch Dressing

  So one of the biggest things Chris misses since going dairy free is ranch dressing. We bought some from Organicville and while I thought it was ok, Chris hated it, plus is wasn't exactly cheap. One of the things about it that really put Chris off was the fact that it was sort of a beige/grey color and semi transparant.

  Well I found a recipe (another awesome one from adventures of a gluten free mom) for vegan (and easily adapted to be soy free as well) ranch dressing that is not only white and not see-through, lol, but tastes just like the Ranch of our pre-dairy-free days! It was slightly thinner than regular ranch but Chris and I both agreed that it wasn't enough to be a problem. So without further ado, the recipe:

Vegan Ranch Dressing

1 cup Vegenaise (use soy-free Vegenaise if you are avoiding soy)
1/2 tsp dried parsely
1/2 tsp chives
1/2 tsp dill
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup "buttermilk"*

*To make "buttermilk", put 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice in a measuring cup. Add enough non dairy milk to bring the total amount of liquid to 1/4 cup. Allow to sit for 5 or so minutes until the milk curdles. If using rice milk, it will not curdle but it will still work fine.

Combine all ingredients except buttermilk and stir until well blended. Slowly whisk in buttermilk. This can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week in the fridge. Enjoy!