Holiday Salads with Blue Cheese

Published November 1, 2004.

Blue cheese makes an interesting dinner guest, inviting a wide range of other ingredients--sweet, tart, bitter, and crunchy--to the table.

The Problem

The intensity, complexity, and sophistication of blue cheese can overwhelm the flavors of an otherwise mild and subdued salad.

The Goal

We wanted to find the best companions for this pungent cheese when it's added to a salad.

The Solution

The trick to including blue cheese in a salad is to have a free hand when introducing other flavors and textures; strong cheese really shines when tasted with sweet, tart, bitter, and crunchy ingredients. A good shot of vinegar gave necessary tartness to the dressing, and a spoonful of honey performed double duty, both tempering the acidity of the vinegar and highlighting the saltiness of the cheese. As for the greens, tasters particularly liked bitter radicchio and peppery arugula mixed with milder lettuces. Sweetness and holiday crimson tones came from dried fruit (cherries), fresh fruit (apple), or beets. Good tooth-sinking texture came by way of crunchy chopped toasted nuts, fresh celery slices, or a flurry of fried shallots.

list of recipes

America’s Test Kitchen is a 2,500-square-foot kitchen located just outside of Boston. It is the home of Cook’s Country and Cook’s Illustrated magazines and is the workday destination for more than three dozen test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes until we understand how and why they work and arrive at the best version. We also test kitchen equipment and supermarket ingredients in search of brands that offer the best value and performance. You can watch us work by tuning in to America’s Test Kitchen (www.americastestkitchen.com) on public television.