You may have seen my previous post in which I discussed finding a non-vegetable oil bleu cheese dressing at Whole Foods Market. I posted the contents of that dressing as well as some recipes I found on a quick search of the internet.
I tried the epicurious recipe (with some modifications) to some slight disappointment.
The epicurious recipe calls for:
- garlic
- salt
- dijon mustard
- lemon juice
- white wine vinegar
- olive oil
- sour cream
- crumbled bleu cheese
Because I didn't have all of the above, I used instead:
- garlic
- salt
- dijon mustard
- lime juice
- red wine vinegar
- olive oil
- sour cream
- crumbled bleu cheese
- buttermilk
In addition to substituting what I had for the called-for ingredients, I did not follow the epicurious recipe to the letter. Where the epicurious recipe calls for use of a blender, I used, instead, elbow grease and a whisk. In addition, instead of using 2 tablespoons of water, I ended up adding about 1 1/3 cups of buttermilk.
While the end result was of a good consistency: thicker than the Whole Foods dressing, but not quite as thick as commercial storebought dressings, the dressing was not as tasty as I had hoped. My wife seemed to think that the dijon mustard was the dominant flavor and she opted for storebought dressing in lieu of what we had made. I did not find the dijon mustard to be the dominant flavor, but I think the use of red wine vinegar ruined the flavor of the dressing. I felt that the dressing had a strong vinegar flavor and I added the buttermilk in the hopes that the vinegar bite would be covered-up. In the end, the buttermilk did not work. No amount of buttermilk would overcome the overpowering vinegar flavor. Perhaps it was the combination of the dijon mustard along with the red wine vinegar, but this attempt was a bust. I'll keep trying and hope to bring you a good bleu cheese dressing recipe in the near future.
UPDATE
I pulled out the dressing to add it to my grilled hamburger. I found the dressing to be less vinegary and more mellow. I think allowing the dressing to sit for a while to allow the flavors to blend helped. So if you want to make the above recipe (and probably any bleu cheese dressing recipe) you may want to make it a few hours, or a few days, before you want to eat it for the best results.
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