As the years have gone by, I’ve come to appreciate Bob’s Red Mill more and more for many reasons, but especially these two: One, they’re getting what were once difficult-to-find whole grains, legumes, and other ingredients (unsweetened coconut, for example), into mainstream American markets. The other has been their willingness to respond to trends in food and to create or find new and innovative products, like well-performing gluten-free flour, or fava and chickpea flours.
My team and I were sad to learn about Bob Moore’s passing in February at the age of 94. Bob was an innovator, and we were lucky to have him in our world, and we’re lucky to know that his legacy will live on — he has a terrific team that believes heartily in his mission.
Because we’re committed to transparency, we wanted to let you know that we’re getting compensated to promote Bob’s. We try to be thoughtful about how we make money, and so we only partner with brands and organizations that we know well and believe in. Bob’s is one of those, and we’re glad to have reasons to promote them. – mb
There’s ranch—that hidden dressing mix or bottle you have stashed away for guilty pleasures—and then there’s real ranch, where you unbridle the secret to the telltale tang we know as “ranch” and rule the summer recipe rodeo. That essence doesn’t come from liquid buttermilk or even mayonnaise. The surprise ingredient is buttermilk powder.
Since buttermilk powder is made by dehydrating buttermilk (and should have nothing else added) it’s shelf-stable, concentrated, and versatile. You can of course mix it with water for pancakes, biscuits, cakes—and as the foundation of, yes, dressings, marinades, and smoothies.
The three recipes here take a different tack: buttermilk powder as seasoning. In the burgers, the patties are coated in the stuff, spiked with a little or a lot of extra spice. There’s almost as much buttermilk powder as mayonnaise in the potato salad, only here it’s flavored with lots of fresh herbs and lemon. And you can even use it to season stir-fries; we combined equal parts snap peas and coarse bread crumbs for a hearty side.
Buttermilk-Crusted Backyard (or Stovetop) Burgers
Blizzarding your burgers in buttermilk powder before cooking has a couple surprising benefits. Most important, it creates a crust and seals in juices, even at relatively low temperatures. So you can get a good char on even the thickest sliders without drying out the inside. (See the main recipe for grilling or the variation that follows for stovetop cooking.)
Snap Peas with Ranch-y Breadcrumbs
Buttermilk powder works magic in stir-fries. During cooking it dissolves to tame the tooth-breaking crunch of coarse breadcrumbs, which in turn lends the familiar tang of ranch dressing to the whole thing. What you get is a texture explosion that eats like pleasantly chewy couscous, punctuated with the crisp crunch of snap peas.
Green Goddess Smashed Potato Salad
Buttermilk powder is the little secret in this lighter, innovative potato salad turns a ton of herbs and a little mayonnaise into a totally customizable crowd-pleaser.
The Bob’s Red Mill products we feature on The Bittman Project are usually available in everyday supermarkets and natural food stores. In case you can’t find something, we recommend purchasing online at Bob’s Red Mill store on Amazon or Vitacost.
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