Little green dress

This week’s recipe is an American classic, minus the eye-boggling preservatives and unpronounceables. It reads like a mini pharmacy: raw garlic, probiotic buttermilk and yoghurt, garden herbs, heart-healthy olive oil, and fresh lemon juice. Just looking at it will make you purer than a nun’s fart.

Buttermilk is very Irish — we make our beloved soda bread using freshly churned buttermilk. Despite its name, buttermilk is not at all fatty and buttery. Traditional buttermilk is simply the liquid run-off from making butter and cultured cream. Huzza!

Modern buttermilk is, more often than not, cultured like yoghurt, so watch out for farmhouse buttermilk if you want to keep things traditional. Both versions involve a healthy dose of fermentation, keeping our pipes tickety-poo (sorry!)

There’s also an almighty swag of antioxidants in this verdant green dressing, courtesy of our parsley, dill and chive bomb. We need antioxidants to disarm rogue cells in our system. These renegade cells (more commonly referred to as free radicals) act like radioactive dust in the bloodstream by damaging cell membranes and DNA. Shabby good-for-nothing poachers! For this reason, free radicals play a star role in the ageing process.

Try serving this buttermilk ranch with a Cobb salad of avocado, cos, crispy bacon, green beans and shucked corn. It’s bonktastic all on its own, tumbled through little gem lettuce, with maybe a few dollops of blue cheese or sourdough croutons.

Instagram your creations to @susanjanekitchen; @TheSundayIndo