At first we thought it was just great food making us feel sooooo good after eating at certain restaurants.  Then after meals there, we were seized with profound and uncontrollable napping.

Eventually, my daughter figured it out:  we were having a reaction to MSG.

So now when I want to make stuff that calls for onion soup mix, I have to improvise.  Today it occurred to me to search for a recipe.  Most of them call for both onion flakes and onion powder, which seems redundant, but maybe there’s a reason for it.  Maybe it’s what Ms. Lipton does to hers.

We now have an international farmers market in the neighborhood — yay for us! We can now go in and shop for exotic things like beef stock powder without paying the triple markup that our local chain grocery wants to exact.  I’m off to buy some now.

Thanks to towards-sustainability.com for this one.  I will probably change it up some and throw in my favorite herb blend instead of the salt, sugar and pepper.  But y’all can start here.

MSG Free Onion Soup Mix
8 tsp dried onion flakes
4 tsp beef stock powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp celery salt
pinch sugar
pinch white pepper

Mix ingredients together thoroughly and store in an airtight container or foil package.  Keeps for up to 6 months.  Equals 1 packet of soup mix.