Smoky Jalapeno Ranch Dressing

After previously mixing together a homemade Thousand Island dressing, Megan and I both decided we should try making a variety of different salad dressings, taking inspiration from our favorite store bought or restaurant versions. In the Greenland stop of our culinary world tour, we mentioned using smoky jalapeno ranch, which is our latest dressing concoction. Our base ingredients are mayo, sour cream, and buttermilk. If you want something more along the lines of a dip instead of a dressing, omit the buttermilk.

First all the base ingredients are mixed together thoroughly with a whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Next goes in the green seasonings for flavor and extra color: chives, dill, and parsley.

Those are followed up by the other seasonings: garlic powder, garlic salt, onion powder, and black pepper.

The "smoky" element in our case came from a few tablespoons of liquid smoke, but you could instead go an even spicier route and have the "smoky" aspect come from chipotles in adobo sauce. We've covered those spicy canned chilis in several blogs before, including our pepper comparison guide here.

Finishing off the dressing are diced jalapenos for a nice spicy kick. We used jarred jalapenos instead of fresh, as they are softer and pack a bit more flavor. If you want a crunchy element, instead use fresh jalapenos.

Here I'm spooning the finished dressing onto a salad served along with some leftover pasta casserole from the night before.

That huge bowl of ranch wasn't going to get used up in one meal, and we enjoyed this awesome salad topper  on quite a few lunches and dinners. Here we've put together salads and cookies for a picnic, with some of the dressing in a separate container.

By pouring the dressing on the pre-mixed salads at the picnic, instead of ahead of time, you prevent the lettuce and veggies from getting soggy during transportation time.

Next in our exploration of dressing will be gorgonzola vinaigrette, and we also have a few more grilling blogs coming up to cover those chicken, pork, and beef BBQ meals we didn't get to over the course of the summer.