Blue Cheese Dressing

This is my classic Blue Cheese Dressing, a great all-rounder that I use for “everything”. It’s a dip, it’s a dressing, it’s a sauce! It’s loose enough to toss through your favourite salads, yet thick enough to cling to anything you dip into it. I can’t wait to show you how I make a big steak salad with this!

Blue Cheese Dressing

I know blue cheese is a little divisive but I’m firmly in the love-it camp! Especially in dressing / dip form. Not because the bold blue cheese flavour is mellowed, but because it becomes endlessly useable, beyond just cutting off huge hunks of cheese to balance on bread.

In this dressing form, it is thick enough so it clings to anything you dip in it (veggie sticks, buffalo wings, wedges), creamy enough for tossing through salads, and saucy enough for spooning over steak and drizzle over pizza.

Just give me an excuse to use it and I will!

Ingredients in Blue Cheese Dressing

Here’s what you need to make this. If you’re a seasoned blue cheese eater, I recommend roquefort for its bold, beautiful blue cheese flavour. If you’re a newbie feeling a bit nervous, start with Blue Castello. Blue cheese training wheels!

• Blue cheese – Any creamy blue cheese will work, just don’t use the hard crumbly sort as they won’t melt into the dressing. As for strength of blue cheese flavour, here’s a list of common ones from the strongest to mildest:

  • Roquefort – Sharp, tangy, salty, creamy and complex. My favourite!

  • Stilton – strong, rich and savoury, but rounder and less sharp than Roquefort.

  • Danish Blue / Danablu – classic blue-cheese flavour. This is a good value easy to find choice.

  • Gorgonzola Piccante – fairly strong and spicy, though creamier and less salty.

  • Bleu d’Auvergne – medium-strong, creamy and earthy.

  • Gorgonzola Dolce – mild, creamy, sweet and buttery with gentle blue flavour.

  • Blue Castello – most mild, good one for beginners! This is also easy to find, sold at grocery stores an suburban corner stores here in Australia. We love a Blue Castello!!

• Buttermilk – This is the main liquid in the dressing that thins it into a dressing consistency. Thicker than milk, thinner than sour cream, with a lovely tangy flavour. ? If you’d rather not get a whole carton just for this recipe, you can use a 50/50 mix of milk and yogurt instead.

• Mayonnaise and sour cream – These add richness and keeps the dressing a nice thick, creamy consistency. Whole-egg mayonnaise is best, the flavour is smoother and not as sweet or tangy as regular mayonnaise can be. Kewpie is also great here!

• Garlic powder – This is the only flavouring I use in blue cheese dressing, I personally feel that anything more is unnecessary as the blue cheese already adds so much flavour. I prefer using powder to fresh as it’s more earthy and suits the blue cheese flavour better. If you substitute with fresh, leave the dressing for a few hours to let the flavour mellow.

• Apple cider vinegar – Just a touch of acidity. We don’t need too much as the buttermilk already provides some. You can substitute with lemon juice.

• Worcestershire sauce (OPTIONAL) – Just a small 1/2 teaspoon (do not want to taste it), I personally feel it’s not needed if using a blue cheese with strong flavour but I’d add it if using a mild blue cheese (like blue castello).

How to make Blue Cheese Dressing

Blue cheese dressing is supposed to have some little lumps of blue cheese in it. But if you prefer to make it completely smooth, you can use a stick blender instead.

1. Mash the blue cheese with a fork until it sort of becomes crumbly. Best to use a fork rather than fingers as it’s creamy (unless you’re just looking for an excuse to suck your fingers clean of blue cheese!).

2. Whisk with the remaining ingredients until it becomes a thick creamy dressing. Whisk vigorously for 10 to 15 seconds until most of the blue cheese blends into the dressing. As mentioned above, it won’t be completely smooth, there will be some little lumps of blue cheese which is normal – everybody loves the little pops of blue cheese!

   And that’s it. Your blue cheese dressing is ready to use!

What to use Blue Cheese Dressing For

Its uses extend far beyond the basic role as a salad dressing! Here are just a few ideas:

• Salad dressing – Toss it through salads or drizzle over iceberg lettuce wedges, like pictured above!

• Dipping sauce – Buffalo wings, veggie sticks, crackers, potato chips (plain), potato wedges, chicken fingers, Fish Fingers, Popcorn chicken, bread.

• Drizzle – on pizza (especially Buffalo chicken pizza!), fries, baked potatoes, roasted potatoes, smashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, a big show-off Tomahawk Steak (or a regular one)

Fellow blue cheese lovers, tell me – what are some other ways to use blue cheese dressing?? I wanna know! – Nagi x

PS No video today because this is a quick-flick recipe. ?

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Blue Cheese Dressing

My classic all-rounder Blue Cheese Dressing. Creamy enough to toss through salads and drizzle on a wedge salad, thick enough to use as a dipping sauce for veggie stick, crackers and potato wedges. You can also use it for wings, steak, roasted veg, drizzling over pizza and, well, anything you want a little blue cheese hit!

I like to use a combination of both mayonnaise and sour cream to keep the dressing thick and creamy, but I find using only mayonnaise weighs it down and makes it overly greasy. Makes enough for a large salad for 7 – 8 people.

PS There's a perfect easy sub for buttermilk – just mix milk and yogurt together, 50/50.

Course Salad Dressing

Cuisine Western

Keyword blue cheese dressing, blue cheese sauce

Prep Time 7 minutes minutes

Servings 1.75 cups

Calories 1001cal

Author Nagi

Ingredients

• 120g / 3 oz Roquefort, or other creamy blue cheese – about 1 lightly packed cup when crumbled (Note 1)
• 1/4 cup whole-egg mayonnaise (Note 2)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup buttermilk , plus more as needed (Note 3 for substitute)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar , or lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Optional extra flavouring:

• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (good to add if using mild flavoured blue cheese)

Cups – Metric

Instructions

• Mash – Put the blue cheese in a bowl and mash with a fork until it's crumbly (blue cheese is soft so it's easy).
• Whisk – Add the remaining ingredients and whisk vigorously for about 15 seconds so the blue cheese blends in. There will be some little lumps – this is normal. Desirable! Lovely little pops of blue cheese (for completely smooth, see Note 4 ).
• Thickness – This dressing is pretty thick, ideal for dipping, and clings well to leafy greens. To loosen, add a little bit more buttermilk.

Notes

1. Blue cheese – Use a creamy or semi-soft, full-flavoured blue cheese, here’s a list of common ones from the strongest to mildest:

• Roquefort – Sharp, tangy, salty, and complex *My favourite!*
• Stilton – strong, rich and savoury, but rounder and less sharp than Roquefort.
• Danish Blue / Danablu – classic blue-cheese flavour *good value easy-to-find choice*
• Gorgonzola Piccante – fairly strong and spicy, though creamier and less salty.
• Bleu d’Auvergne – medium-strong, creamy and earthy.
• Gorgonzola Dolce – mild, creamy, sweet and buttery with gentle blue flavour.
• Blue Castello – Most mild, good one for beginners! *good value, easy-to-find choice*

Avoid very firm, dry blue cheeses as they don’t blend into the dressing as nicely.

2. Whole-egg mayonnaise – Whole egg mayo is creamier and less tangy than normal mayo. My recommended is S&W (Australia), followed by Hellman’s and Kewpie (equal second).

3. Buttermilk – Substitute 50/50 milk and yogurt, near identical consistency and flavour (tweak if needed eg if your yogurt is very thick or very thin).

4. For completely smooth dressing, blitz everything except the sour cream with a stick blender, then stir the sour cream in.

Leftovers will keep for the shorter of the shelf life of the ingredients used.

Nutrition for whole batch. 

Nutrition

Calories: 1001cal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 32g | Fat: 91g | Saturated Fat: 37g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 27g | Monounsaturated Fat: 22g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 161mg | Sodium: 2462mg | Potassium: 584mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 1511IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 839mg | Iron: 1mg

Life of Jaffle

Apparently, the one toy he desperately needs is buried under the other 47.

Oh wait, no. He wasn’t actually looking for a particular toy. Turns out the toy basket WAS the toy. And the game is called “Empty the Toy Basket”. A game we play every single day!

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