Blue cheesey dip/sauce

Blue cheesey dip/sauce

Before we were vegan, Conor and I were big cheese fans. Really big fans, and I don’t mean of silly things like cheese pizzas. Just roughly before we went vegan we went to this little village in the south of France (which was filled with a wide variety of indulgent cheeses of course) and luckily since then the variety of cheeses back in Ireland mean I’ve had no real temptation towards cheese. The only exception is blue cheese, of which I was such a big fan. I’ve tried some Sheese ‘blue cheese’ variety (which Conor brought back from Brighton for me) and was rather disappointed with it’s very very mild taste.

Back when we made the Ravioli, I mentioned how rocket heavily reminded me of the taste of blue cheese and I’ve been waiting to try make a blue cheese sauce thing from it since. Finally- here it is!

It may be a bit strong for some people (I liked my blue cheeses very strong!) so reduce the flavouring ingredients if so (the rocket and miso mostly) and increase the soya milk, or add bit by bit and see how you like it.

Ingredients:

- 60g rocket (or less, to taste)

- 1 avocado

- 1/2 cup cashew nuts

- 3-4 tsp miso paste (to taste as can get salty!)

- ~ 1/2 cup soya milk (or more if sauce/to taste)

- Spices: black pepper, dried garlic (or real), crushed mustard seeds (or mustard?)

If making as sauce can add:

- 1 tbsp dairy free butter

- 2-3tbsp flour

- More soya milk (or other milk)

1. Cut up the rocket really finely, then crush it or grind it (so some of it’s juice leaks out). Conor has a garlic crusher we used for this, but a pestle or anything else will work too. For cashew nuts, soak to soften them a bit.

2. Add avocado, soya milk, some rocket, cashew nuts to blender and blend until smooth. Add spices, miso paste and more rocket (taste as go along as can get strong!). At this stage, you can use it as a dip or over salad/sandwiches etc.

3. If making as sauce, make a roux: melt butter in a pot and add flour until butter absorbed. Add soya milk. Then add the mix from step 2 and cook a bit.

I realise it’s green and not the very most attracting looking – but you can add food colouring if you want and the taste is well worth it. The taste is the closest I’ve personally tasted to blue cheese since though, and will make it again. I’ll also be playing with this recipe a bit I think to see if I can get the consistency up from a sauce to even a Cambozola consistency using different things.