Home-Made Blue Cheese Dressing

GLUTEN-FREE

It's hard to find a healthy blue cheese dressing, so I made one myself.

Store-bought blue cheese dressings usually contain unhealthy ingredients like:

• Sugar
• Inflammatory fats such as vegetable oil, soybean oil, canola oil, and partially hydrogenated oils
• Artificial flavors and colors
• Modified corn starch 
• Modified egg yolk
• Stabilizers and thickeners like maltodextrin, cellulose gum and xanthan gum
• Chemical additives like phosphoric acid, propylene glycol alginate, polysorbate 60, sorbic acid, disodium phosphate, sodium benzoate, calcium disodium EDTA, autolysed yeast extract, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate

My blue cheese dressing is mostly made of fermented foods: blue cheese, cultured buttermilk, and yogurt. Studies show that fermented foods and the friendly bacteria they contain can

• Improve digestion
• Reduce inflammation
• Maintain the integrity of the gut wall
• Support the immune system
• Produce antibiotic compounds to prevent the growth of disease-causing microbes
• Reduce the risk of cancers of the gastrointestinal tract

This recipe also contains lemon zest and juice. I use citrus zest whenever I can because it contains a compound called limonene which can help to balance blood sugar and stimulate detoxification enzymes in the liver. If your lemon isn't organic, omit the zest. If you don't have fresh lemon, you can substitute white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar.

Chives are traditional but I added green scallion tops because I already had some on hand. Shallot or red onion would also work.

1/2 cup whole milk Greek yogurt
1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped scallion greens
1 small organic lemon
1¼ cup crumbled blue cheese

Stir together the yogurt and buttermilk until smooth.

Stir in the salt, pepper, scallion greens, the zest of the lemon, and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Fold in the crumbled blue cheese.

Taste for seasoning and add more lemon juice if you wish. Make any other necessary adjustments.

Serve immediately with your favorite salad or fresh vegetables for dipping, or store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

This recipe yields about 2 cups and fits perfectly in a pint-size glass mason jar.