If you ask me what my favorite salad dressing is I’d answer in a heartbeat: ranch. A lot of other people seem to agree with me! But, sometimes it’s nice to mix it up a little bit from time to time. I’m also a big fan of freshly cracked black pepper so this cracked pepper salad dressing sounded right up my alley and it’s so much better than I imagined. It’s not difficult to make your own dressing at home and the nice thing is that you can make it to suit your palette!

This dressing is creamy, thick, rich, and just a tad piquant thanks to the pepper. There’s also some lemon juice and chives in as well, so the flavor is kept very bright.

To add some savory flavor there’s also some parmesan cheese in the dressing, too. Normally I advise to either grate your own or use the shredded style from the deli for more flavor. But, in this instance I used the “shake-y” cheese in the green plastic container. It has a smaller texture which makes it ideal for blending into a smooth mixture like this one.

The base for the dressing is mayonnaise. You can use whichever style is your favorite and I’m partial to the olive oil mayo. But, if you substitute Miracle Whip instead the end result will turn out much sweeter than with mayo, so take that into consideration.

The dressing needs to sit for an hour so that the herbs and spices can absorb some of the moisture in the mix and “come to life” so to speak. Test your dressing only after it’s sat for a while in the fridge. I ended up adding more garlic powder and black pepper to it because those are two flavors I can’t get enough of.

As a dressing this is wonderful on salads. But, it also makes a great dip for a veggie platter or even for wings or chicken tenders, too. It truly is a versatile dressing, especially for entertaining.