Blue Cheese - Bleu Cheese - Great Dressing!

I was watching the Food Network on Sunday morning and saw Ina Garten make this fabulous looking Blue Cheese dressing. I missed her comments on it but it looked really good. I read the recipe on the Food Network website and headed into the kitchen to whip it up.

It's fabulous! Rarely do I look forward to packing or eating work lunches. This one actually has me excited about my work lunch salads.

This dressing has an actual blue cheese flavor versus just a creamy background with blue cheese bits. I would even use less cream/milk and leave it thicker for a dip.

I've found that many blue cheese dressing recipes contain several ingredients and I often am short one item for the recipe I'm interested in. This is a version where I would always have the ingredients on hand.

It tasted great right out of the food processor and I would use it right away. Sometimes recipes have you make the dressing in advance and then refrigerate for the flavors to meld. This is quick and ready the moment you open the food processor lid.

Blue Cheese Dressing, Adapted from Ina Garten

5 oz Danish blue cheese

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients in the food processor. Add in more cream or milk if necessary to bring to the desired consistency.

For a copy of Ina's original recipe, visit here. She did not have the milk added and I felt it definitely needed it. Without the milk, it was thick enough to be sour cream. Her version included tarragon wine vinegar but I'm not a huge fan of tarragon and I had white wine vinegar handy. Ina also used Roquefort cheese but I used Danish Blue.

One thing about making your own dressing is that the ingredients are items you know and trust. The jar of store bought blue cheese dressing in my fridge has ingredients listed that I'd have to Google to understand. Xanthan Gum. Does that sound yummy to you? "Oh honey, I just tasted the best Xanthan Gum". Not appealing. Making your own food has less processing and less unknown ingredients and will be more healthy and pleasing to you.