Veggie Ranch Pizza - Recipe Diaries (2024)

FAQs

Why do people put ranch dressing on pizza? ›

It's a bright herbal flavor and a slight tang to wake your palate up for the next round of glorious cheese. Essentially, the acid from the dressing cuts the grease from all that cheese and pepperoni and gets you ready for the next bite. It's a palate cleanser of sorts. Find more things you never knew about ranch.

Lower Saturated Fats: Compared to meat-heavy or extra-cheese pizzas, veggie pizzas generally contain fewer saturated fats, which is beneficial for heart health. Lower Cholesterol: Including vegetables and reduced quantities of high-fat ingredients contribute to maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.

The combination of ranch and pizza is said to have been popularized by Domino's Pizza in 1994, when the chain started including sides of the dressing with its wings and customers got ranch-curious.

Don't Ever Ask for Dipping Sauce for Your Pizza

First of all, because ranch dressing doesn't really exist here, and second of all, because no one dips their pizza in anything. Pizza varies regionally up and down the boot. In Rome, the crust is thin and crispy and in Naples, it's thick and puffy.

Ranch dressing on pizza in the Midwest

While people do this all over the place, it's especially popular in the Midwest, where folks smother their pizza in the stuff.

The majority of Americans enjoy a dipping sauce with their pizza. About a quarter (23%) say they typically have marinara sauce with their pizza, and 23% have garlic butter. A similar percentage (22%) say they dip or add ranch dressing to their pizza, and fewer (12%) have it with hot sauce.

Domino's started the ranch-pizza combo. Drizzling ranch dressing over your pizza—or dipping it—is a controversial topic, but where did the technique get started? There are different accounts from over the years, but Domino's started including ranch dressing with their chicken wings in 1994.

While many restaurants use mass produced ranch mix, they often add it to a higher-quality base. This might include milk, buttermilk, sour cream, or mayonnaise. So when you notice that the ranch in a restaurant tastes better than the bottled dressing from the store, what you're really tasting is delicious, creamy fat.

Roasted red peppers – A classic veggie pizza topping! Jarred and homemade roasted peppers both work here. Artichoke hearts – They add tangy, briny flavor to this vegetarian pizza. Red onion – Slice it thinly so that it softens and sweetens in the oven.

What is the healthiest vegetable to put on a pizza? ›

Spinach - This leafy green is a great addition to pizza as it's mild in flavor and has a soft texture. It's also loaded with nutrients such as iron, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Plus, it pairs well with other toppings such as feta cheese and garlic.

While pizza gets topped with almost anything these days, it's traditionally covered in cheese and tomatoes. Ranch dressing is full of fat and acidic tang — complementing the cheese and tomato — and works as a palate cleanser, cutting through grease and preparing you for the next bite.

The Purists, also known as "the Pizza Snobs," mainly hail from New York City, and view the drizzling, dipping or any other application of ranch dressing to pizza of any form as sacrilegious. Ed Levine, author of Pizza: a Slice of Heaven and also a New Yorker, is of the pizza snob camp.

Ranch makes an excellent dipping sauce that can add flavor and moisture to snacks and appetizers. Its cooling, tangy taste pairs perfectly with fried foods like chicken strips, fries, and onion rings. Ranch also enhances the flavor of crunchy fresh veggies when used as a dip!

Great vegetables that pair well with any pizza include bell peppers, squash, and mushrooms. Greek salad: For a burst of healthy flavor, serve your pizza with a side of Greek salad. This salad is chock-full of deliciousness with its olives, tomatoes, feta, olive oil, and cucumber.