Prepare to have your mouth hugged by this creamy, tangy, spicy jalapeño ranch.
In addition to guiding the wonder that is homemade jalapeño ranch straight into your arms today, I am also telling you how much you will enjoy pouring jalapeño ranch (❤) over a garden treasure trove of vegetables arranged in a little Rainbow Veggie Bowl. Names are almost not even worth discussing since Rainbow Veggie Bowls is absolutely the cutest name for a bowl of vegetables ever, but just in case the Rainbow Veggie Bowls brings to mind things like unicorns and My Little Ponies and you’re one of those, like, sensible people who doesn’t like to think about rainbow things, alternative names for this nutrient-packed beautiful food bomb could include Earth bowls, Garden Harvest bowls, Vegetarian Happy Lunch bowls, Ranch Lovers’ bowls, Full for Days bowls, Get Yoself a Healthy Glow bowls.
Whatever you do, don’t call it a salad. This is a BOWL. No messing around – we load up the bowl with tons of amazingly healthy-delicious-filling things, and we eat it like it’s a bowl.
Now let’s think of all the vibrant foods in the world that we could dunk and drizzle and soak in creamy, tangy, spicy jalapeño ranch. Ready, set, go.
I really wish those tomatoes came from my garden but I am a failure of a young adult and, even worse, FOOD BLOGGER, who STILL does not have a garden. I’m sorry, world. I accept the fail.
I hate to be one to throw in the towel before even starting slash make excuses forever, but you guys. Some things are just not meant to be, and growing things is just not in my nature. The basil plant that I bought at the farmer’s market earlier this summer? Within one day of bringing it home – wait though I’m not. even. exaggerating – within ONE DAY, the leaves were turning black. Before being in the care of my murderous plant self just a short 24 hours earlier, it was green and vibrant and strong, but apparently all it takes is a few hours in my TLC to bring out that dark-dying-plant-black color. And yes I would love to water your plants for you while you’re gone.
Our sweet little potted plant of basil eventually found its final resting place after a good four weeks of life. I’m not annoyed at all about this since I bought the biggest possible pot at the farmer’s market expecting it to last for, well, basically forever, like basil plants should. “They’re so easy to grow!” says everyone except me and my dead basil plant.
The basil plant’s final destination became evident when we went to the cabin for two weeks and I might have, ahem, forgotten about it and left it sitting out in the sunny yard. In the middle of July. Woops. But the weird thing is that somewhere in my mind, once I remembered its lonely basil self sitting outside our house with no one to take care of it, I honestly thought it might still survive. Cause, like, rain and stuff, right?
So I didn’t bother to call the neighbors for Basil Backup because I assumed that two weeks soaking up nature completely free from my black thumb might actually do that little guy some good. When we actually did come back, I couldn’t find the plant – it was sitting right in front of me in the yard but it was so pathetically dead that it was literally beyond recognition. RIP basil.
Okay, enough about my lack of growing skills and onto the four easy steps it takes to assemble these Rainbow Veggie Bowl Babies:
So there you have it! A Rainbow Veggie Bowl smothered in Homemade Jalapeño Ranch.
FYI I debated putting ranch dressing on this salad for about two seconds because ranch has that sort of trashy reputation to it, like how I dip French fries in ranch and it’s the best thing my mouth has ever tasted and did I actually just type that outloud? Trashy or not, I had to do it for this bowl.
A fresh, bright, crunchy garden veggie salad with classic ranch is just a thing of beauty, right? Imagine it: chewy farro, earthy lentils, tangy tomatoes, cool, crisp cucumbers, sweet roasted corn piled high, sprinkled with crushed almonds or sunflower seeds, jazzed with a half of an buttery-smooth avocado because FOR THE LOVE, all covered in a blanket of straight up cool, creamy, herb-loaded, and in this case, fiery-mouth-spicy ranch dressing. The crunch factor here is off the charts. When cucumbers, snap peas, tomatoes, and corn are in the bowl, these strong veggie champs can hold their own even with a whole big splash of dressing poured over the top. None of this weaky-wilty greens business – in this salad, I MEAN BOWL, I like my veggies strong.
And the Joy of All Joys for these bowls is that you can use whatever grains, whatever beans, whatever veggies, whatever nuts and seeds, and whatever dressing you want. It’s vegetarian lunch bowl customization 101. It’s Subway and Chipotle meets whatever you have in your fridge.
Or garden.
I’m not jealous at all though seriously.
Rainbow Veggie Bowls with Jalapeño Ranch
Prep Time: 15 mins- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Yield: 6 large veggie bowls with dressing
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Rainbow Veggie Bowls with Jalapeño Ranch – layers of veggies, nuts, grains, beans, and homemade dressing. So good! A new favorite.
Ingredients
For the Jalapeño Ranch:
- 1 1/4 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dill (see notes)
- 1 handful fresh parsley leaves (about 1/4 cup)
- 1 handful chives (about 1/4 cup)
- 1 jalapeño pepper (see notes)
For the Veggie Bowls:
- 1 cup uncooked farro
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup uncooked sprouted lentils (see notes)
- 1/2 tablespoon butter or oil
- 1 1/2 cups corn kernels cut off the cob
- 1 1/2 cups sliced cherry tomatoes
- 1 1/2 cups sliced cucumbers
- 1 1/2 cups snap peas
- 1-2 avocados
- fresh herbs (I used basil)
- nuts or seeds (I used crushed almonds)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pulse all the ingredients for the dressing in a food processor until it reaches your desired consistency.
- Rinse the farro and bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a medium pot. Add the farro and cook for 30 minutes (or according to your package directions). Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, cook the lentils according to package directions.
- In a small skillet, heat the butter or oil and saute any veggies that need to be cooked (in this case, I did just the corn). Season with salt and pepper.
- Build your rainbow veggie bowls: half farro, half lentils on the bottom; arrange veggies in “stripes” on top; add a few avocado slices; sprinkle with herbs, nuts, seeds; drizzle with dressing. These are great to assemble in advance for lunches because none of the veggies get too soggy like a traditional salad. Keep the dressing separate until you’re ready to serve.
Notes
For the jalapeño pepper, I took out about half of the ribs and seeds to control the heat a little bit. If you like spicy, just toss the whole thing in there.
I used a freeze dried dill made by Litehouse that I found in the produce section, so the 1 teaspoon listed in the recipe is for that freeze dried variety specifically. Keep in mind that dried and fresh herbs have different potency – dried dill is three times stronger than fresh dill, and I’m thinking freeze dried is somewhere in the middle, so if you’re using dill from the spice aisle, use a little less than what’s listed here.
I normally don’t use sprouted lentils but I found some at the store that cooked up in 5 minutes! Score.
Serve this hot or cold!
I have made several of your salads in the past and they all have been delicious! Looks like this will also be added to my collection. Pinned!
I’m loving all the colors and textures going on in this dish, and I love your little step-by-step guide!
Thanks Mary! 🙂 Trying to keep things fresh with some new photoshop tricks.
I love everything about this bowl! amazing recipe!
This looks FANTASTIC! Oh man, and what a perfect lunch. Bowls of veggies are the best, because you can pretty much just eat your weight in produce and still feel good about it 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing!
Loving these veggie bowls, and the jalapeno ranch sounds divine! Now, I just need to figure out where to pin it because my first thought was under salads, but you say no:)
Okay, I’ll accept a salad board. But just think of it as a BOWL. 🙂
This is so gorgeous and is soooo my ideal meal.
I am drooling all over this bowl! Looks.so.good. Also, I am a terrible plant grower too. I come from a long line of farmers (on both my mother’s and father’s sides), so you would think I would have inherited a sort of natural green thumb. Nope.
Oh my goodness, yum!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
The ranch dressing on this sounds wonderful!
I share your frustrations regarding the basil. I just love having basil on hand but the supermarket packs I buy seem to last a grand total of about a day and a half … if I’m lucky! Sounds as if I wouldn’t have too much more luck with a plant! Oh well … maybe other herbs are the way to go!
Pretty much perfection in a bowl. I love summer veggies 🙂 And I’m so looking forward to hearing you all speak in October at ChoppedCon!
Thanks Melissa! I can’t wait!
Yummy, yummy, yummy!!! I usually find myself reading your blog around mid-night, drooling over your beautiful pictures! What a beautiful bowl full of colorful goodness! I’m dying to try this jalapeño ranch recipe. Thank goodness I just picked a few jalapeños from my MIL’s garden!
By the way, I planted a small herb garden this summer for the first time. I was too excited to have my very own herb garden that I forgot about my month-long vacation to Mongolia! Well, guess what? I came back to very sad looking, skinny, drooping little plants. Mother nature didn’t really take care of them in my absence. Sigh… Maybe next year…
Thank you Shinee! You and I can both try the garden thing again next year. 🙂
Don’t worry – I don’t have a garden either (although i really want one hahah)
But I love this bowl! Looks amazing!
I think I like the idea better than the actual work involved. 😀
Oh I want to try this! Now to convince my husband…
You make healthier eating so appealing. This is beautiful and sounds DELICIOUS.
Thanks Morgan! XO
This looks so pretty and healthy! I love all the vegetables and farro is my favorite. This may be dinner tonight 🙂
This looks fantastic. I think this is going to become a go-to lunch recipe for me. Luv luv luv the jalapeño ranch.
Haha, yes, Lindsay, my family and I have joked for years about our “brown thumbs”, but I like black thumb better. Because literally, everything dies when we so much as look at it! And you know how everyone says rosemary is so easy to grow (why does it seem like for every plant, there someone out there who thinks it’s easy to grow??) and it pretty much grows itself, no matter whether you flood it or forget to water it? Well, count ’em, we had *3* plants, tried over and over, even got a cutting from our friend’s huge rosemary BUSH…and they all died!! I am happy to say that we’re on number 4 and, thanks mainly to my sister and other siblings who were endowed with the most gardening ability in our family, this plant hasn’t died yet. I guess we’re too busy killing other stuff in the yard! 🙂 So good to know that we’re not only ones who don’t have our own home-grown produce section in the backyard. 😉
Oh how sad! you are NOT the only ones who rely on the farmer’s market and grocery store…
As always your posts make me smile and then fall in love with your food. Love this Rainbow Veggie Bowl and the name, immediately thought of Rainbow Bright and the happiness that comes with that 🙂
Yes! Rainbow Bright!
You both are great. I found this website via a german blog that publishes monthly incomes of food blogs. I just recently started my own foodblog that specializes on PALEO-food. But, I still have a long way to go. I just started to work with my nikon camera and bought your e-book to make better pictures. keep up your great work! Greetings from germany
Iris
How fun! Love having international readers – thanks for the comment Iris!
Jalapeño ranch… yes please!
I need to head to the grocery store for ingredients and make this now!
Don’t you have a garden or something, you country girl you?
Looks nice and fresh! Perfect for lunches.
Hi from Yangon!
Gosh, everything you make is so inspirational. I can’t wait to make a handful of these soon!
By the way, what camera do you use?
Thanks Tiffanie! I’m using a Canon 6d with a 100mm 2.8 lens.
These are such beautiful colorful bowls of goodness!!
I need to stop coming to your blog when i’m hungry! Actually, thinking about it, doesn’t even matter if i’ve just eaten as your blog still makes me hungry. Another great dish and I really like that you post up the nutrition facts, more food blogs should do this.
Thanks Ben! I personally find it really helpful to have that info so that’s why I include it – I figure if it’s useful for me, someone else can probably find it useful too. 🙂