Make Veggie Caesar Dressing With Blue Cheese
A real Caesar salad dressing takes on the rich, salty flavor of anchovies, but not everyone eats fish. Screaming purists might insist that these people just don’t deserve a Caesar salad, but I think it’s a little harsh, especially when you can make a very good vegetarian blue cheese approximation.
Does the Caesar dressing made with blue cheese taste exactly the same as the anchovy dressing? Of course not – cheese is not fish. Could a Caesar sauce made from blue be surprisingly close, taking that salty, scared, garlic itch into oblivion? Yes. For best results, you want to use the most smelly ripe blue cheese you can find, and you want to use about three tablespoons of crumbs for every 1/2 cup butter. It works with almost any Caesar dressing recipe; just eliminate the anchovies and add the blue cheese along with the parmesan cheese. I love this recipe from Bon Appetit and am making my vegetarian version based on it. To make a dressing without fish, you will need:
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil plus 2 tablespoons olive oil (you can also use all olive oil, but it will eventually compete with a lot of other strong flavors and end up cloudy).
- 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoons blue cheese
- Lots of fresh pepper
Chop the garlic, sprinkle generously with salt, then make a paste by crushing it with a flat knife blade and pulling it through the pile to squeeze out as much of the garlic juice as possible. Place this in a bowl wide enough to fit into the head of a hand blender, along with egg yolks, mustard, and lemon juice. Place the hand blender in there and whisk the mixture, then slowly pour the butter over the top of the other ingredients. Insert the hand blender head straight into the bottom of the cup, then beat on high speed, moving it slowly up and down, until everything is beautiful and emulsified. Add the cheeses, stir until smooth, then season generously with fresh pepper and beat again.