Easy Blue Cheese Sauce: Ready In Ten Minutes
Blue cheese sauce is not only delicious, but ever so easy to make. You can have it on the table from start to finish within ten minutes. Make a roux, add milk, then cheese. Easy peasy. This recipe makes a useful sauce for pasta and steamed veg, as well as a delicious baked potato topping.
Dive Right In
- What Is A Roux?
- Why Make Blue Cheese Sauce?
- Blue Cheese Sauce
- Ingredients, Additions And Substitutions
- How To Make Blue Cheese Sauce
- How To Make Gluten-Free Cheese Sauce
- How To Use Blue Cheese Sauce
- Other Blue Cheese Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- Pin It
- The Recipe
What Is A Roux?
A roux is an equal mix of fat and flour cooked together to make the base of various sauces, including white sauce (béchamel) and gravy. Basically it’s a thickening agent and a particularly nice one if made with butter.
Why Make Blue Cheese Sauce?
Blue cheese sauce is one of those recipes you can throw together at the last minute. It doesn’t require much thought and you’ll probably have everything you need for it, bar the blue cheese.
- Avoid Waste – This recipe is a great way to use up that post-party bit of blue cheese lying neglected in the fridge.
- Bold, Distinct Flavour – Blue cheese has a sharp, tangy, and complex flavour that makes the sauce stand out. It adds a unique richness to dishes and is perfect for those who love bold tones.
- Decadent and Creamy – This sauce adds a luxurious, creamy texture to any dish, making even simple ingredients feel gourmet.
- Healthier Twist – Enjoy a delicious blue cheese sauce with the added benefit of whole grains. Wholemeal flour is higher in fibre, vitamins and minerals than white flour.
- Quick and Easy: Blue cheese sauce is quick and simple to make, which makes it a great option for adding protein and flavour to simple meals. You only need four ingredients to prepare it.
- Rich and Nutty Flavour – Wholemeal flour adds a slightly nutty, wholesome taste to the roux. This complements the sharpness of blue cheese and creates an even more complex flavour profile.
- Versatile Pairing – Blue cheese sauce pairs wonderfully with a variety of dishes. Think veggie burgers, steamed vegetables, pasta and baked potatoes. It makes a great pancake filling too. You can even use it as a dip.
Blue Cheese Sauce
Blue cheese sauce is such an easy way to add flavour and protein to a basic meal. It’s perfect for autumn and winter comfort food eating.
My favourite way to eat it is on top of a baked potato. The potato absorbs the sauce creating a most delicious mouthful. We usually accompany it with whatever vegetables we happen to have in the house. This time it was red cabbage.
Ingredients, Additions And Substitutions
You only need four ingredients to make this easy blue cheese sauce, five if you include pepper.
Blue Cheese
You can use any type of blue cheese you like for this recipe. Both crumbly and creamy types melt well. Each will bring its own character. I usually use British Stilton as it has a fairly complex flavour, but isn’t overly pungent.
Other easy to find blue cheeses in the UK are: powerful French Roquefort, sharp or sweet Italian Gorgonzola, creamy French Saint Agur, mild German Cambazola and strong Danish Blue.
Although blue cheese is quite expensive, a little goes a long way. I tend to buy it when it’s on offer.
Top Tip
Use your cheese fairly soon after buying. Blue cheese tends to develop a bitter taste if kept for too long and this will manifest itself in the sauce.
Butter
Unsalted butter is the one to go for in this recipe. You can always add salt at the end of the process if you think it needs it. Unsalted butter is also slightly richer.
You can use oil instead of butter, but it won’t have quite the same unctuousness.
Flour
Although I sometimes use plain flour when making a white sauce, I prefer to use wholemeal flour where I can. And that’s what I use for this blue cheese sauce. Wholemeal flour doesn’t make for the most attractive looking sauce, but as blue cheese gives a grey cast anyway, you can get away with it.
I sieve the flour first and discard any bran left behind to ensure there are no off-putting bits in the sauce. The smaller flecks of bran actually look quite nice.
A good gluten-free flour mix will work instead of flour if you’re gluten intolerant. Buckwheat flour works well too and provides plenty of additional nutritious goodness.
Milk
Use whole milk, rather than skimmed or semi-skimmed for this sauce. It provides the creaminess you need for a satisfying mouthfeel.
Seasoning
Depending on how salty your cheese is and how salty you like your food, you may or may not wish to add some salt. Do this at the very end so you can taste test the sauce before adding. Start with a pinch.
Either way, do add a good grinding of black pepper.
Additions
If you feel this blue cheese sauce recipe is just a little too plain for you, there are various ways you can enhance it.
For a richer, creamier version, add two tablespoons of double cream or crème fraîche.
And if you’d like something a little more sophisticated, add two tablespoonfuls of white wine or fry finely chopped shallots gently in the butter before making the roux. You can even use all three of these ideas together.
If using wine, whisk it in to the roux before adding any milk. This will enable some of the alcohol to evaporate.
How To Make Blue Cheese Sauce
Blue cheese sauce is quick and easy to make. Once you’ve made a white sauce (béchamel), it’s just a case of stirring in the cheese.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions, timings and quantities of ingredients used.
Step 1. Make Roux
Make a roux by melting the butter in a small pan over a gentle heat. Add the flour and stir until it forms a thick paste. Cook gently for a couple of minutes.
This bit is important as you want to cook out the flour, so that you can’t taste its rawness. You’ll notice a difference in colour once it’s cooked.
Step 2. Make Béchamel
Béchamel is a basic white sauce made with butter.
Add the milk to the roux, a little at a time, whisking between each addition to prevent lumps. Keep going until you’ve used all of the milk.
If you like, you can heat the milk first, this makes it less likely to get lumps. I rarely do it though, as it’s just another step and another pan to wash. As long as you add the milk slowly and keep whisking, your sauce should remain lump free.
Once all the liquid is absorbed, quickly bring the sauce to the boil, stirring from time to time. Then simmer gently with the lid off for a few minutes. The sauce is done when it coats the back of a wooden spoon without running off. Turn the heat off as soon as it’s done.
Top Tip
The ratio of roux to liquid I’ve given in the recipe card below makes a fairly thick sauce. If you prefer or need something thinner, just add more milk, or even water. Stir in a little at a time until you have the consistency you’re after.
For additional richness, add a little double cream towards the end of the cooking.
Step 3. Add Cheese
Whilst the sauce is cooking crumble or chop the cheese. Add it to the pan, along with the pepper as soon as you’ve taken the sauce off the heat.
Stir until the cheese is melted and you have a smooth sauce.
You may not need to add any salt to the sauce as blue cheese is already quite salty. Taste test and add a pinch if you think it needs it.
Step 4. Serve
Serve straight away or use the sauce whilst its still warm. It will thicken as it cools.
How To Make Gluten-Free Cheese Sauce
For a gluten-free white sauce, cheese sauce or my easy blue cheese sauce, simply swap the flour for gluten-free flour or buckwheat. They both work well.
Buckwheat flour is particularly good as it has high levels of minerals, antioxidants and fibre. It’s a particularly good source of rutin, which helps to reduce blood pressure and maintain a healthy heart (Ref: Healthline). I often use it. However, it gives the sauce a grey cast which some may find off-putting.
Vegan Cheese Sauce
I don’t have a recipe for vegan blue cheese sauce as I don’t know how you’d add the “blue” flavours. But I do have a very good one for vegan cheese sauce made with cashew nuts.
How To Use Blue Cheese Sauce
Use blue cheese sauce as a pasta sauce, in or over pancakes, with steamed vegetables or as a topping for baked potatoes. It’s particularly good poured over steamed or lightly boiled cauliflower, Calabrese and purple sprouting broccoli.
For pasta, stir a little of the pasta water into the finished cheese to make it slightly thinner. For some green power, wilt spinach into the white sauce whilst it’s cooking and before adding the blue cheese. Fried mushrooms also make a nice addition.
Veggie burgers and fritters really benefit too. Just drizzle some of the sauce over the tops or use it on the side to dip them into.
Blue cheese sauce makes a lovely alternative to ordinary cheese sauce for macaroni cheese.
It also makes an unusual dip for crudités and crackers. Serve it warm for the most delicious results.
Other Blue Cheese Recipes You Might Like
- Courgette & blue cheese quiche
- Quinoa salad with watercress, walnuts & blue cheese
- Walnut & blue cheese scones
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this easy blue cheese sauce, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or tips for béchamel?
Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, tag me @choclette8 so I can see them.
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Choclette x
Blue Cheese Sauce. PIN IT.
Easy Blue Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 30 g plain flour (or use wholemeal flour with largest bits of bran sieved out)
- 350 ml milk
- 60 g blue cheese crumbled
- good grinding black pepper
- sea salt to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Make a roux by melting the butter in a small pan over a gentle heat. Add the flour and stir. Cook gently for 2-3 minutes. This bit is important as you want to cook out the flour.30 g unsalted butter, 30 g plain flour
- Slowly add the milk, a little at a time, whisking all the while to prevent lumps.350 ml milk
- Once all the liquid is absorbed, bring the sauce to a gentle simmer, stirring from time to time. Simmer with the lid off for about 4 minutes.
- Turn the heat off, add the cheese and pepper and stir until the cheese is melted and you have a smooth sauce. Taste test and add a pinch of salt or more cheese if you think either is needed.60 g blue cheese, good grinding black pepper, sea salt to taste (optional)
- This ratio of roux to liquid makes a fairly thick sauce, if you prefer something thinner, just add more milk. Stir in a little at a time until you have the consistency you’re after.
This was amazing. Just added some garlic to the butter and added some cream at the end. This will be my go to from now on
Your additions sound delicious. So pleased you like the recipe and thanks for letting us know.
Love that pottery jug! If only hubby ate blue cheese; he says it tastes like ants. How would he know? :=)
cheers
I couldn’t stop laughing when I read this. If ants taste like blue cheese, maybe we should start eating them. The jug is lovely. I have a matching bowl too.
This looks like heart-warming fare. Can’t wait to try it on some big baked spuds.
This blue cheese sauce is excellent on baked spuds. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.