Vegan blue cheese dressing

Vegan blue cheese dressing reminds me of many a diner-meal – eating salads out of bread bowls or countering the spiciness of buffalo sauce on a fried appetizer.

Sadly, vegetarian diners are hard to come by in my neck of the woods.

(I miss you, Chicago Diner, Spiral Diner, Champs Diner, and Fare Well!)

However, if you have a few common plant-based staples in the refrigerator & pantry, it’s easy to make your own vegan blue cheese dressing at home.

This dressing is a cross between blue cheese and ranch.

It has the chunky, crumbled bites that are reminiscent of blue cheese. No dairy here, though. The crumbles are made with tofu.

The flavorings hearken to ranch with apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, dried parsley, dried oregano, dried basil, and garlic powder.

This non-dairy blue cheese dressing recipe has shown up on my blog multiple times over the years. It’s usually an add-on to other recipes that need something cool and creamy for balance.

However, I thought it was high time to give it a post of its own.

In this post:

If you’re using the dressing as a sandwich topper, I recommend going lighter on the non-dairy milk. A thicker dressing stays in place better on sandwiches.

However, if you’re using it as a salad dressing, a little more non-dairy milk helps it to thin and spread out on leafy greens.

I like to use vacuum-packed super firm tofu for the “blue cheese” part of this dressing.

It isn’t packed in water. So it doesn’t add any additional liquid to the recipe or dilute the flavor.

Usually I buy it at Trader Joe’s. It’s one of my favorite vegan Trader Joe’s products.

But lots of other brands sell it too.

If you don’t have access to vacuum-packed tofu, you have options. You can press it first.

(Need some help? Follow the recommendations in my post on how to press tofu.)

Or you can make it with drained water-packed tofu that hasn’t been pressed.

Be careful to add the non-dairy milk into the dressing slowly, so that you don’t go overboard with the liquid.

Yes!

If you need/want to avoid soy, make sure your vegan mayo is soy-free. (Vegenaise makes a soy-free version.)

Then either omit the tofu crumbles. Or replace them with an equal amount of almond feta.

Since this is a salad dressing, some leafy greens are a good starting point.

Add this dressing to any salad. It’s particularly nice with romaine or green leaf lettuce, which are milder, and really let the dressing shine.

A vegan chef salad, perhaps?

It would also be fun on an old school wedge salad with iceberg lettuce and crumbled seitan bacon.

Blue cheese is also a nice counterpoint to spicy buffalo sauces. It provides cool relief.

• Add it to the top of a buffalo chickpea sandwich.
• Pile it on top of a buffalo Soy Curls sandwich.
• Spoon it onto a bowl of buffalo hummus.
• Roll buffalo hummus into tortilla pinwheels.
• Fire up the barbecue, and make buffalo-style grilled corn on the cob.

Keep the dressing in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to four days.

Keep in mind that the tofu may absorb liquid as it sits, thickening the dressing.

If you want to thin it out, add another splash of non-dairy milk and stir before serving.