Light & Easy Blue Cheese Dressing/Dip

Tags

Easy to make, healthy blue cheese dressing, immersion blenders, low-cal blue cheese dip/dressing, low-fat, Super Bowl recipe, Trader Joe's fat-free sour cream

I had a completely different recipe planned for today. But I got sidetracked as I spent the weekend firming up the ideas for the absent recipe. I ended up toying with a blue cheese dip to go with the fantastic smoked chicken wings I grabbed from the local Mexican grocer. On weekends, this little hole stokes its smokers and throws in a carnivore’s dream ranging from whole racks of ribs and tri-tip roasts to half chickens and meaty wings. The place also offers up a free pint of searing wing sauce with each order, so I ended up slicing a batch of  carrots and celery and enjoyed mock (but so much better) Buffalo wings.

While I absolutely love blue cheese and all of its permutations, I’m not overly fond of the high fat and calorie count that comes to the party. So, I put together a low-fat, low-cal blue cheese dressing that I think comes pretty close to the fatty fatty two by four versions. I decided to use this healthy blue cheese dressing as a blog entry this week for two reasons:

#1: I think you’ll like it. As a bonus, it’s so easy that you can practically prepare it in your sleep

#2: Next Sunday is the Super Bowl. While I don’t give a fig about the Super Bowl, it is, after all, a big food day. And wings, therefore blue cheese dressing, always hover at the top of the food list for the game. I’m all about the food.

The ingredients for this dressing are few and easy to come by.

I use crumbled blue and mix it with fat-free sour cream and fat-free Greek yogurt. I don’t use light mayo because I don’t like it. And any mayo gives the dip too much of an oily texture for my taste. Having said that, I remember the days, many decades ago, when a group of us would hit Bob’s Big Boy and order fries with a side of blue cheese dressing, completely ignoring the ketchup. I’m not sure my arteries will ever forgive me for that culinary transgression. But you won’t have to worry about that with this recipe, which can be used as a salad dressing or dip for your favorite vegetables and wings. It also works beautifully when you use your index finger as the vehicle to transport the dip from bowl to mouth. 

Light & Easy Blue Cheese Dressing

You can easily double or triple this recipe.

1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup non-fat sour cream

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, plus 1 tablespoon to stir in at the very end

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Let’s talk about fat-free sour cream for a moment. Most of it is horrible. It’s gelatinous and loaded with ingredients that have far too many syllables to be good for you. And the flavor leaves too much to be desired to even bother. My absolute favorite is Trader Joe’s Simply fat-free sour cream. It contains two ingredients: skimmed milk and vitamin A. The end.

In a deep narrow bowl, or 2-cup measuring cup, add the yogurt, sour cream and the 1/2-cup of crumbled cheese.

As for the cheese, feel free to use whichever type you like. I’m using Gorgonzola, but regular blue and, of course, if you’re flush, Roquefort is excellent.

Blend with an immersion blender until slightly smooth.

If you don’t have an immersion blender (also called a stick or hand blender), drop everything, run out and buy one. They’re inexpensive and indispensible. I use a KitchenAid and it’s been a faithful workhorse for salsas, dressings and creating perfectly pureed soups.

Add the vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper and blend until perfectly smooth — about a minute or so. You can use other vinegars, but I like the rice because it’s mild. I’ve used balsamic, but that adds color unless you use white balsamic.

This is one of the few recipes where you’ll see me using garlic powder (not garlic salt) instead of fresh garlic. I think it works best here because while I want a suggestion of garlic, I don’t want it to steal the limelight, and fresh garlic has a tendency to do that.

When the dressing is smooth, stir in the tablespoon of crumbled blue cheese. Cover and refrigerate.

I know it seems counterintuitive to blend the dressing perfectly smooth only to add crumbled blue cheese to lump it up again, but I have a pretty good reason. If you simply mash up the cheese with a fork as many of the recipes instruct, then doesn’t it stand to reason that the flavor of the cheese won’t permeate as well as if it’s thoroughly blended, so that it becomes one with the other ingredients? That’s my Zen take on this dressing. OK, so, you’ve got the smooth, uber blue cheesy dressing/dip, now what? That’s right, as you’re eating it, you need to hit creamy nuggets of cheese to balance the smooth texture and to get that burst of blue. That’s why you add the spoonful of cheese at the end. Makes sense, yes? I thought so.

I’ve given you a basic, pristine blue cheese dressing recipe that’s perfect as is, but feel free to play with additional flavors, such as minced chives, hot sauce, cayenne pepper and anything else that sounds appealing to you. I like to combine a little of the spicy wing sauce from the Mexican joint with my blue cheese dressing when I’m using it as a veggie dip because it gives me the flavor of wings without the guilt.

If you’re a blue cheese fan, I hope you give this version a try and let me know what you think.

(Go Niners! I did not say that.)

 

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Light & Easy Blue Cheese Dressing

You can easily double or triple this recipe.

1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup non-fat sour cream

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, plus 1 tablespoon to stir in at the very end

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

In a deep, narrow bowl, or 2-cup measuring cup, add the yogurt, sour cream and the 1/2-cup of crumbled cheese.

Blend with an immersion blender until slightly smooth. Add the vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper and blend until perfectly smooth — about a minute or so. When the dressing is smooth, stir in the tablespoon of crumbled blue cheese. Cover and refrigerate.