Love it or hate it, blue cheese crumbles add an undeniable punch of flavor to salads, sandwiches, burgers, and pizzas. Incorporating blue cheese into a recipe is a great gateway for learning to appreciate it if you typically stay away. Here are some of our favorite ways to use the wonderfully pungent cheese, from crostini to salad dressing.
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Grilled Summer Squash with Blue Cheese and Pecans
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For grilled squash with a uniformly crisp texture, chef Vivian Howard cuts her squash lengthwise into quarters and then removes the seedy interior. This gorgeous summer salad is tossed with a bright, lemony dressing.
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Rosemary Flatbread with Blue Cheese, Grapes, and Honey
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This rosemary flatbread is both fluffy and crusty, and the blue cheese — which goes from crumbly to creamy in the oven — melts in your mouth.
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Creamy Polenta with Three-Cheese Fonduta
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This creamy polenta with three-cheese fonduta is a luxuriously rich mixture of thick, sweet polenta and three cheeses: whole-milk ricotta, crumbly Gorgonzola, and nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano. Thyme-infused brown butter adds a woodsy, nutty bite to this indulgent side.
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Chicken Quesadillas with Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onions
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Cookbook author Melissa Clark's tangy twist on chicken quesadillas will leave you wondering how you've never tried this dish with blue cheese.
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Autumn Salad with Figs and Blue Cheese
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Food blogger Mimi Thorisson's mesclun salad is sweetened with figs, apples, and grapes yet still maintains acidic and spicy flavors from the apple cider vinegar and whole-grain mustard.
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Firecracker Shrimp with Blue Cheese Dressing
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Leave it to star chef Andrew Zimmern to cook up the ultimate football season (or any season, if you ask us) comfort food: fried shrimp dunked in blue cheese dressing.
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Beet and Blue Cheese Salad
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Chef Nicolaus Balla's beet and blue cheese salad, made with scallions, herbs, and red wine, is bright and sweet.
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Focaccia with Caramelized Onions, Pear, and Blue Cheese
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Pear and blue cheese are a classic pairing. This simple focaccia adds sweet caramelized onions and comes together in just four steps.
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Umami Burgers with Port and Stilton
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Resist the urge to pile any of the usual toppings — lettuce, tomato, ketchup — onto these burgers. "The port is your condiment," explains restaurateur Adam Fleischman.
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Charred Broccoli with Blue Cheese Dressing and Spiced Crispies
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Chicago chef Stephanie Izard amps up broccoli with a punchy vinaigrette, creamy blue cheese dressing, and an irresistibly crunchy, butter-toasted Rice Krispies topping.
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Three-Cheese Cauliflower Gratin
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If there’s a better way to eat cauliflower than this gratin, we have yetto come across it. A powerhouse of English cheeses — Montgomery’s crumbly and nutty cheddar; Ogleshield, a washed-rind Jersey cow's milk cheese; and buttery, blue-veined Colston BassettStilton — blankets cauliflower florets in a béchamel.
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Stilton-Stuffed Pickled Peppers
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Two high-impact ingredients — funky Stilton cheese and pickled sweet or spicy peppers — come together to form the ultimate one-bite snack. Pickled peppers, like spicy pepperoncini and mild Peppadew, are packed with enough flavor to stand up against strong cheeses. You can use most blue cheeses here, including Gorgonzola and Roquefort.
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Double-Cut Rib Eye with Sweet Gorgonzola Butter
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At her modern chophouse, Jar, in Los Angeles, 2002 F&W Best New Chef Suzanne Tracht's menu changes with the seasons. To celebrate summer, she says, "This juicy, sweet combo of Gorgonzola and beef alongside fresh heirloom tomatoes is how I kick off the outdoor months."
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Restoration Salad with Farro, Orange, and Blue Cheese
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"In each bite, you get a little nuttiness, a lot of chewiness, some juicy bits, a pleasant amount of bitterness, and some creamy richness," cookbook author Ann Taylor Pittman writes of this salad.
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Caramelized Onion and Bread Soup with Brûléed Blue Cheese
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In their book Wine Food, sommelier Dana Frank and recipe developer Andrea Slonecker pair funky, bright wines with flavorful, vegetable-forward dishes. In this vegetarian version of classic French onion soup, blue cheese and oloroso sherry bring new layers of flavor and depth. Notes of toasted nuts and fruit compote in the sherry pair well with caramelized onions, and its briny acidity cuts through the richness of the cheese.
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Crostini with Grilled Sweet Onions and Blue Cheese
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On the river, chef Andrae Bopp wraps whole sweet Walla Walla onions in foil and tosses them into the coals of the campfire to roast and caramelize; here we've adapted his recipe for your home grill. Don't skip the zippy honey-vinegar drizzle — it coaxes out even more flavor from the sweet onions and balances the blue cheese.
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Leftover Blue Cheese Chicken Salad Sandwich
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Chef Jonathan Waxman’s tasty chicken salad is dressed with a mix of yogurt and Gorgonzola cheese. You needn't wait until you have "leftover" cheese to make it, but the recipe only calls for two ounces.
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Macaroni and Cheese with Bacon and Blue Cheese
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This isn't your typical macaroni and cheese. Onion, bacon, and beautiful blue cheese bake together with pasta until the dish is golden and bubbling, then it's all topped with snipped chives.
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