I put “recipe” in quotes because the instructions allow for some adding and re-jiggering of ingredients and amounts. In this case, I dropped the leeks and substituted yellow onions, as one of the offered options, and added some grated carrots.

No bacon salt this time.

The soup was thinner this time, for reasons I’ve been unable to discern. But it did have a mellower, rounder flavor thanks to the leek omission, and the carrots added a warm sweetness. If I’d been thinking, I might have thrown in some cinnamon and ginger, but sadly, I wasn’t.

Knock on wood, this oniony soup business seems to be keeping my immune system propped up. Sami’s into her second week home from school with a very runny nose, intermittent cough and far too much energy. I’m usually the first and hardest hit when it comes to sickness, but maybe good food, regular exercise and a little good old fashioned luck of the draw are keeping me going.

Must remember this for future cold & flu seasons.

I’m now at serious risk of becoming ‘The Bacon Blog.”

In any case, with my entire family housebound due to various coughs, sneezes and sniffles, and with li’l me fighting off all these germs, I thought some oniony soup might be just the thing today.  Onions have that sort of pungency that, whether effective or not, just convinces me that it’s fighting infection and fortifying me from within.

The recipe calls for a pound of potatoes and a pound of leeks and/or yellow onions.  Potatoes: check.  Leeks: I had about 2/3 lb, so added a small yellow onion, sliced thin, to round it out.  I picked this recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking from memory because I assumed it would contain bacon.  (Potatoes + onion + bacon = what I recall as a pretty unbeatable flavor combination.)  I was wrong!  No bacon, not even any cream or milk; the entire recipe is pareve.

The recipe really is quite straightforward; slice potatoes and leeks/onions, simmer in a 4 qt pot with 2 qt of water and a tablespoon of salt, remove and mill/puree.  Voilà.

But I just couldn’t let it be, not with the sampler pack of Bacon Salt
staring me down.  I took a half cup of the onions and cooked them in a tablespoon of oil for about a minute, then added a tablespoon of Hickory flavored Bacon Salt
.

Even frying in oil, this stuff does not smell like bacon.

Nonetheless, I let that cook for a few minutes, then went ahead and added the potatoes, the balance of the leeks and onions, and the two quarts of water and proceeded to simmer as directed.

The resulting puree wound up just a shade off the not-quite-white it would otherwise have been.  I guess the bright red of the Bacon Salt counteracted the green to a nearly neutral.  And I must share that with the addition of bacon salt, the soup did come out smelling and tasting as if, somewhere in the process, real bacon matter had been introduced.

I solicited a second opinion from my husband Ben, who concurred; I trust his baconometer better than my own as he makes no bones about consuming whatsoever animal substance he sees fit, and so can compare to recent bacon experiences.

Not quite what the recipe intended, but it’s good, and it’s vegetarian and kosher, potato-ey and onion-y; a bracing soup for a weakling day.  Two thumbs up from the Katz clan.