One of the best ways to increase your nutritional intake is via your salad dressings. There are light, zesty dressings that are low in calories, and there’s nothing wrong with those. They provide complementary acidity to the salad ingredients, but some dressings with more calories offer protein, healthy fats, and fiber. And we aren’t talking about store bought dressings, people. You can have a calorie-dense dressing that is much healthier than any dressing you’d buy in store.

When you want a creamy dressing that’s nut-free and rich in fiber and protein, this ranch-inspired dressing is exactly what you need. The best part is that this dressing can double as a dip for raw vegetables. Unlike traditional ranch dressing, which contains dairy, hydrogenated oils, added sugars, and preservatives, this hemp seed ranch is healthy. It doesn’t counteract the benefits of the raw vegetables you consume in your salad like fattening store bought ranch. Aside from being free of processed ingredients, this dressing contains hemp seeds.

Hemp seeds are excellent sources of omega 3 & 6 fatty acids, and they are high quality sources of complete protein. Four tablespoons offers 15 grams of protein, but hemp seeds also contain iron, thiamine, folate, vitamin E, riboflavin, and other micronutrients that the body needs. Unlike other nuts and seeds, you don’t have to soak hemp seeds to ease the digestive process. The body can absorb and digest all the nutrients in hemp seeds without the aid of soaking them in water. They also blend easily and add wonderful creaminess to this dressing. So let’s make it!