Homemade Buttermilk Bleu Cheese Dressing with Chives

A couple of years ago, my husband and I spent a few days vacationing in Denver. A few blocks from our hotel was a restaurant that was a part vintage diner, part upscale casual that had amazing food. I think we ate there 3 times. I ran in there one day for a quick lunch and ordered a grilled cheese and a wedge salad. I was really looking forward to the grilled cheese and only ordered the salad because I hadn’t eaten any green veggies in several days and I felt guilty. When the wedge salad arrived, it was this huge wedge of iceberg lettuce drizzled with blue cheese dressing and sprinkled with bacon bits, red onions, and surrounded by slices of boiled egg. My intention was to eat a few bites and discretely push it to the side and await some buttery cheesy goodness. I took one bit of that salad and my taste buds perked up immediately. This wasn’t Hidden Valley Ranch mixed with some crumbled bleu cheese. This was the real deal. Tangy, fresh, and creamy without the sugar and saltiness you can sometimes get from bottled dressings. I was hooked. I pretty much inhaled that salad and it was one of the best meals I had during the trip.  That lunch made me a believer in making my own dressings.

It’s amazing how simple it is to make homemade salad dressing. The beauty of making your own is that you know exactly what’s in it.  I’m going to talk about ingredients and ratios for other dressings in an upcoming post.  With growing season right around the corner, everyone should have 2 or 3 homemade dressings in their recipe box.  It’s best to use a really good bleu cheese for this dressing. I used Kentucky Bleu from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese. If you want more of a buttermilk ranch taste, cut back the bleu cheese to 1 oz (1/4 cup). You can also use this as a crudite dip.

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