Skip to content
veggyz

No-cook dinners · 20 minutes

Cottage-Cheese Ranch Crudité Board

Blended cottage cheese makes a thick, high-protein ranch with fresh dill and chives, so the dip carries the board instead of just decorating it.

Prep
20 min
Cook
none
Total
20 min
Serves
4
Jump to recipe
VegetarianGluten-freeEgg-freeNo cookingBlender

Cottage cheese has a texture problem, and a blender fixes it. Sixty seconds turns the curds into something thick and smooth like sour cream, with about 12 grams of protein per half cup. Add lemon, garlic and onion powder and a fistful of fresh herbs and you have a ranch that tastes like the real thing, not a health food stand-in.

The board is whatever looks best at the market. In fall that’s rainbow carrots, radishes, endive and sweet peppers; in summer, add cucumbers, snap peas and cherry tomatoes. Aim for a mix of colors and shapes, and include at least one sturdy thing for heavy-duty dipping.

The recipe

Cottage-Cheese Ranch Crudité Board

Prep 20 min · Cook none · Total 20 min · Serves 4

Ingredients

Tap to tick off as you go.

For the cottage-cheese ranch

For the board

Method

  1. Step 1: Blend the base

    Blend the cottage cheese, milk, lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder and salt for about 60 seconds, until completely smooth with no visible curds.

  2. Step 2: Stir in the herbs

    Scrape into a bowl and stir in the dill, chives, parsley and lots of black pepper. Stirring rather than blending keeps the herbs green and the dip flecked, not murky.

  3. Step 3: Crisp the vegetables

    Drop the carrots and radishes into a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes while you cut everything else. Drain and pat everything dry.

  4. Step 4: Build the board

    Set the dip in the center of a board or platter. Arrange the vegetables around it in groups, alternating colors, and tuck olives or crackers into any gaps.

Good to know

  • Blend longer than you think. Any curds left behind read as lumps, and a full minute in the blender is what makes it taste like ranch rather than cottage cheese.
  • The dip thickens in the fridge. Loosen it with a teaspoon of milk at a time before serving, and taste again for salt.
  • Dry vegetables hold more dip. Wet ones slide right through it and leave a watery trail in the bowl.

Swaps

Cottage cheese
Plain Greek yogurt, just stirred, no blender needed
Fresh herbs
1½ tsp dried dill plus 1 tsp dried parsley; let it sit 10 minutes to rehydrate
Dairy dip
Make it vegan: blend 1 cup silken tofu with 1 tbsp each lemon juice and olive oil, then season the same way
Fall vegetables
Summer mix: cucumbers, snap peas, cherry tomatoes and sliced zucchini

Questions people ask

Does blended cottage cheese taste like cottage cheese?

Not much. Blending removes the curdy texture, and with garlic, onion, lemon and herbs it tastes like a tangy sour-cream dip.

How long does cottage cheese ranch last?

About 4 days in a covered container in the fridge, or until the cottage cheese’s use-by date if that comes sooner.

What vegetables go on a crudité platter?

Choose crisp vegetables that are good raw: carrots, radishes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, endive, snap peas, cauliflower and cherry tomatoes. Mix colors and shapes, and include sturdy ones for scooping.

Get the carrots, radishes and endive from a farmer.

This recipe is only as good as what goes in it. Find a farmers market or CSA farm near you, or get a produce box delivered when there’s no market this week.

Cook this next

All no-cook dinners