Creamy ‘Ranch’ Dressing

Lisa Feldman, the director of culinary services at the schools division of the food services company Sodexo, understands that where there is ranch dressing, there are kids who will eat vegetables. Lisa is working to devise menus for schools that meet or exceed the Department of Agriculture’s Healthier US Schools Challenge requirements. With a deep understanding of the ingredients that school lunch programs have to work with, she developed a white bean and yogurt salad dressing base. The mixture will make a dressing that has much more nutritional value, considerably less sodium, and none of the additives in the long ingredient list on a bottle of commercial ranch dressing. Lisa credits the chef and cookbook author Joyce Goldstein for the idea. This is an adaptation of the ranch that Lisa developed for schools. It can be used as a dip, but also as a salad dressing for crisp salads. Adding the ice cube to the food processor helps to break down the fiber in the bean skins so that the dressing is less grainy.