Ranch Dressing Belongs On All Salads, Even Pasta

If you are like me, ranch dressing is something you always have on hand for dipping for everything from vegetables to chicken fries. But it also works particularly well in a pasta salad. 

While recipes can vary, most include peppers, tomatoes, mozzarella, pickle juice, pepperoni, and vinegar (or other salad dressing). Try ranch as the main dressing, no matter which additions you like in your pasta salad.

To make it even creamier, you can use a powdered ranch packet mixed with mayo or sour cream, but sticking with your favorite brand of bottled ranch works just as well. For dairy-free options, there are ranch brands such as Hidden Valley's Plant Powered or Primal Kitchen's ranch dressing and marinade made with avocado oil. If you prefer to use the packet method, there are dairy-free versions of that, too.

To make ranch pasta salad, you first need to boil your noodles of choice (most recipes use bowtie or corkscrew pasta). Rinse the noodles in cold water so they do not continue to cook and become soggy. This will also remove the starch, which is great for cooking a hot pasta dish, but you don't want your noodles to stick together in a pasta salad. Then add in your ranch of choice — as little or as much as you like — to create your pasta salad dish! 

Ranch can also be used for other pasta-like dishes, including ranch spaghetti carbonara, which puts a small spin on the classic pasta dish, or Buffalo chicken pasta, a fan favorite in my house. I even put ranch in my cream cheese and hot sauce mixture before adding it to the noodles! If you want to skip the pasta entirely, ranch dressing is perfect for dipping just about anything you'd want. Think mozzarella sticks and vegetables like peppers, carrots, and celery. No matter what idea you have in mind, as long as you have ranch on hand, you have a never-ending list of food-satisfying options!