The Tangy Salad Dressing Your Baked Potatoes Have Been Missing

The mighty potato can be cooked and prepared a thousand different ways and is equally appropriate as a side dish for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner. What's more, a single potato can make an entire meal when it's treated as a baked potato, but first you should steam it to make it extra creamy. There's not much that can't be used as a topping for this comfort food, from stews, dips, and leftovers to barbecue, chili, sauces, and various vegetables. What you don't see a lot of is salad dressing on baked potatoes, but you might be surprised at how well the combo works, especially if you're using a creamy, chunky blue cheese dressing.

Tangy, rich, and pleasantly funky, blue cheese dressing works well as a drizzle or full-on pour on potatoes. While the pungency of blue cheese varies depending on the type and variety, the cheese overall is considered sharp, salty, and earthy, making for a great counterpart to the starchy, fluffy, and mild potato. Try topping a baked potato with shredded chicken tossed in Buffalo sauce and drizzle with blue cheese dressing and a scattering of scallions. Or, spoon on a generous amount of high-quality, chunky dressing and then top with steak bites and chives for something that resembles a steak dinner with baked potato side.

If you like topping your baked potatoes with shredded beef, pork, crispy bacon, or chicken, blue cheese dressing would be a delicious complementary flavor, but the condiment works great with vegetables, too. Charred broccoli, roasted cauliflower, bitter broccoli rabe, and caramelized onions are excellent on potatoes, and even better with some dressing on top.

When I want the blue cheese to be the star in my dressing (like I would if I were to put it on top of baked potatoes), I like to make my own rather than rely on bottled dressings, which often contain no chunks of cheese at all. With that said, Hidden Valley's Blue Cheese Ranch dressing is particularly scrumptious. My go-to recipe comes together with crumbled blue cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, chives, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. This would be excellent on top of baked potatoes, along with some sweet cherry or sundried tomatoes, crumbled bacon, peppery arugula, and some leftover beef roast or steak.