Sriracha Ranch

I've become really good friends with this sriracha ranch dressing ($2.99) from Trader Joe's over the past week, using it in meals three days in a row. Why? An abundance of spring greens from a challenge meal (more on this another time) + a Costco-sized bag of avocados = a lot of salads. Although some people find salads boring, I was pretty excited because it meant I would finally get to break open the dressing that had been sitting around waiting for a few weeks. It was definitely worth the wait.

A lot of people talk about how homemade salad dressings are cheaper and/or healthier and/or tastier, but when it comes to making dressing for a salad, I can get kind of lazy. It'll usually just end up being olive oil and balsamic, and that can get a bit boring. (Or sometimes I just don't bother and throw wasabi tuna salad, or quinoa burgers with salsa, over the greens with nothing else.) It's just too much of a bother making a big batch of dressing when we don't eat salad greens consistently. That's why, to me, sometimes store-bought dressing is worth the price. More interesting ingredients, a tested balance to the flavors, and it's already done and waiting for you once the salad greens are in the bowl.

On the health side, this dressing isn't that terrible for you either. A serving is 2 tablespoons and 80 calories, 8g of fat, and 270mg of sodium. And you don't need much dressing either because it's packed with flavor. The taste is fantastic. It's got a great kick to it from the sriracha, and we appreciated (and were pleasantly surprised) that they didn't go light on the sriracha part for the dressing (like a diluted spicy mayo would have been). That heat is wonderful when added to a (plainer) salad. But while the sriracha element is strong, it also tastes like more than just a creamy hot sauce. You can taste the other seasonings that are added in to round it out as well, stuff like red pepper, garlic, onion, and more. We've only added it to spring greens and avocado so far, but that combination definitely works, and we can imagine it would be good with most salad ingredients. Would also be good for a dip.

Buy Again? Absolutely. Now to just find a reliable and affordable place to get good salad greens when we can't get to Costco (since whoever has been supplying them to Trader Joe's in our area lately has been very hit or miss)...