Frankly, ranch is the flavor of every cookout, every picnic, and every plate of things you're only pretending are healthy. This summer we made a version you can sprinkle - with 10 grams of protein hiding in the crunch.
There's a specific kind of summer moment ranch belongs to. A paper plate balanced on your knee. A backyard that smells like charcoal. A pile of raw vegetables you fully intend to eat, right after you dunk one more carrot. Ranch is the flavor that makes the healthy stuff disappear - the great enabler of every salad, crudité tray, and questionable snack decision from June through September.
We think about ranch a lot around here. Not the bottle - the idea of it. That cool, herby, garlicky, buttermilk-tangy thing that makes almost anything taste like summer. The problem with the bottle is that it's, well, a bottle: it drips, it separates, it melts into a sad puddle at the bottom of the cooler, and it contributes approximately nothing besides flavor.
So we asked an obviously good question: what if you could get the ranch part without the goop part? What if ranch could be something you sprinkle - crisp instead of creamy - and quietly do something useful for you while it was at it?
What we ended up with
Meet Zesty Ranch - the first new flavor we've added since we launched. We took our time getting here, because a new flavor had to earn its spot, and ranch - the great enabler of summer - earned it. It's everything the dressing gets right - cool herbs, real garlic, that tangy buttermilk finish - baked into a light, crunchy topping. You shake it over food the way you'd use flaky salt or everything-bagel seasoning. No bottle. No puddle. Just crunch.
The quietly useful part: each serving carries 10 grams of protein, so the handful you shower over lunch is doing a little background work while it makes everything taste better. Tasty first, protein always. It just happens to be summer's most agreeable flavor.
Like ranch dressing made a protein goal.
Six ways to put it to work
Zesty Ranch is genuinely hard to misuse. Add it last - that's the only rule, the same one that saves any crunch from going soggy - and it goes almost everywhere:
- Salads. The anti-crouton: it holds its nerve and brings the protein.
- Soups. Sprinkle as you serve, so it adds texture instead of drowning.
- Eggs. Scramble or fry-up, ranch edition.
- Grain bowls. Quinoa is lovely and entirely one-note. This is the second note.
- Wraps. A little crunch rolled through the middle.
- Straight from the pouch. The 3pm vending-machine hour, handled. We're not judging.
The 5-Minute Ranch Crunch Salad
The lazy-genius lunch for hot days when you refuse to turn on the stove. Serves one, no cooking and no dressing bottle - about as much effort as opening a pouch, because that's most of it.
You'll need
- A big handful of crisp romaine, or a bag of slaw mix
- A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
- Half a cucumber, in coins
- Grilled or rotisserie chicken - or chickpeas, to keep it plant-based
- Olive oil and a squeeze of lemon
- A generous handful of Zesty Ranch
What to do
- Pile the greens, tomatoes, and cucumber into your widest bowl.
- Add the chicken or chickpeas.
- Drizzle with olive oil and lemon, then toss.
- Shower the whole thing with Zesty Ranch, right before you eat, so it stays crunchy.
- That's it. Crunch immediately.
All the ranch flavor you wanted from the cookout, none of the drippy packet - plus 10 grams of protein you didn't have to think about. Frankly, it's a better deal.
Zesty Ranch is the newest addition to our savory Protein Toppings. If your salad has been a little boring lately, this is us gently suggesting a fix - say hello to Zesty Ranch.