Mix Tomato Paste With Ranch For A Sweet Yet Bold Dressing

Ranch is one of the best condiments out there — it's a salad dressing, but it can also be paired with anything from chicken wings to veggies, or even, for the biggest ranch lovers, pizza. As the most ardent ranch fans already know, the dressing doesn't need any improvement. However, you can still upgrade it by adding another ingredient to make a new, ranch-infused condiment. For a sweet yet bold version of ranch, just mix in some tomato paste.

If you love marinara sauce and you love ranch, then this tomato-infused ranch will easily become your new favorite condiment. Plus, it's really simple and easy to make at home. Start by setting aside a portion of ranch dressing — you can use a mason jar or another sealed container for storing the new condiment. Then, add in the tomato paste one tablespoon at a time, stirring then tasting it after each tablespoon to gauge how much of a tomato flavor you're looking for. If you know you want a strong tomato presence, then you can start with more than one tablespoon, just be careful not to overdo it.

You can make this concoction with store-bought ranch, of course, but it'll taste even better if you whip up a homemade version so it's at its freshest. If you're willing to put in a little extra legwork, Tasting Table has a recipe for buttermilk ranch dressing that takes just 10 minutes to make.

Now that you've made a batch of tomato ranch, it's time to start pairing it with dishes to make some delicious food combinations. Essentially, anything that you like to pair with ranch should also work well with the tomato version of ranch. For example, you can also dip veggies in tomato ranch — even tomatoes themselves. Or, if you want a dipping vessel that is a bit less healthy, fries will also taste delicious dipped in tomato ranch — it'll be like a tangier version of the classic ketchup and fry combo.

Tomato ranch will work as a dressing on many salads. While a classic cobb salad often calls for a vinaigrette dressing, you can swap that out for the richer, tangy-yet-sweet tomato ranch instead. A strawberry chicken salad could also use a creamy upgrade with a tomato ranch dressing. If you're not in the mood for a salad come lunchtime, you can use the tomato ranch as a spread on sandwiches or wraps — perhaps a turkey club, a chicken bacon ranch wrap, or even, to up the ante on the tomato-ness, a BLT.