Tuscan Garden All Purpose Ranch Seasoning

You never know what’s going to show up in Aldi’s vaunted middle aisle, which plays temporary host to everything from garden pergolas to giant unicorn sprinklers to artisan pizza and lemon cookies. One of the more recent curious food finds I spotted at Aldi was a small shaker container of ranch seasoning mix that is good for all kinds of stuff: dip, salad dressing, popcorn flavoring, and more.

Tuscan Garden All Purpose Ranch Seasoning cost $2.99 at the time of publication.

This is an Aldi Find, which means it’s only in stores for a short time. It’s exclusive to Aldi, and Aldi does not offer online ordering for its specials, so after this sells out at your local store, it’s gone.

The bottle label has instructions for making ranch dip and also salad dressing, both of which require only the seasoning mix, some mayo, and buttermilk (easy to make using just milk and lemon juice, cream of tartar, or vinegar; or simply use plain yogurt). The label also says you can sprinkle this seasoning on veggies, burgers, fries, popcorn, salads, and more.

This is still a processed food product, even if it feels a little healthier to make your own dip or dressing partly from scratch. Ingredients are; dehydrated vegetables (garlic, onion, parsley), salt, buttermilk powder (skim milk, lactic acid, and cultures), sour cream powder (cultured cream, nonfat dry milk), maltodextrin, xanthan gum, spices, natural flavor, citric acid, lactic acid, and rice concentrate (to prevent caking).

If you’re watching out for allergens, this contains milk.

Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

One 1/4-teaspoon serving has 0 calories, no fat or cholesterol, 65 mg of sodium (3% DV), 1 gram of total carbohydrates (0% DV), and no fiber, added sugars, or protein.

So far, we’ve made both the dip and the salad dressing. Both the dressing and the dip are easy to whip up, and the only special ingredients I had to buy were fresh lemons (available at Aldi) to make the buttermilk.

The dip is thick and creamy with a good ranch flavor, especially after it’s spent the night or a day in the fridge and the flavors have had time to meld. We served our dip with broccoli, cauliflower, and sliced cucumbers. A few family members also ate the dip with Fritos and French fries, just to try something different.

The ranch salad dressing is good, and it’s like a thinner, less zesty-flavored version of the ranch dip. Some family members didn’t like it as much as regular bottled ranch, and it has a thinner consistency than many commercial ranch dressings, but my husband and I still thought it was good.

Ranch dip on the left, ranch salad dressing on the right.

We also sprinkled some of this seasoning on buttered microwavable popcorn. It added some fun zip to our popcorn, although whether you will like it on popcorn depends on your personal tastes.

The dip and dressing recipes from the container label are posted below.

Ranch Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon ranch seasoning
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 mayonnaise

Directions: 

In a bowl, combine 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1 tablespoon ranch seasoning. Whisk well. Whisk in 1/2 cup mayonnaise until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Keep refrigerated and use with seven days.

Ranch Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon ranch seasoning
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise

Directions: 

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld.

The Verdict:

Tuscan Garden All Purpose Ranch Seasoning comes with instructions for making ranch dip as well as ranch salad dressing. You can also sprinkle this seasoning on veggies, burgers, fries, popcorn, salads, or whatever you want. The dip and salad dressing are easy to make and are pretty good. If you’re a fan of ranch, this is worth a try.