Old Bay Seasoning

With my new venture into onion/garlic free cooking, I've definitely hit a few roadblocks. But, today I have good news! Old Bay Seasoning doesn't have garlic or onion powder! They do have some other flavors, but their Original and 30% Less Sodium Original mixes don't include these pesky things!

A couple of days ago, I wanted a sandwich for lunch and didn't have a ton of ingredients in the kitchen. (By the way, Lightlife makes a vegan lunch "meat" without garlic or onions -- their Smart Deli Ham is g/o free! The turkey is not, though). I did have Vegenaise and great northern beans at home, my preferred bean for "chicken" salad type sandwich stuff. I didn't know what I was going to season it with, though. I couldn't cut up onion for the mix or use garlic or onion powder, so for a minute I wasn't sure what I would do.

Then I remembered that I have a pretty huge tin of Old Bay Seasoning in the pantry (does a teeny tiny upper corner cabinet count as a pantry if that's what I use it for?). Anyway, I don't know what made me check, because I kind of assumed it had the no-no's in it, but I did and here's what the ingredients say: celery salt (salt, celery seed), spices (including red pepper and black pepper), and paprika. So, initially seems okay but I a bit skeptical of the "spices" label. I went ahead and made my sandwich, which was super savory tasting, but didn't seem to taste like garlic or onions. You can really taste that celery seed!

The "recipe" is just 

• 1/2 can (or about 3/4 cup) great northern beans, rinsed
•  1 tablespoon vegenaise
• few shakes of Old Bay - about 1/2 tsp
• and a few turns of fresh pepper 

Then just smoosh the beans a little, pop some bread in the toaster, spread the beans on, and slice up a tomato if you feel like it. Super yummy and a complete protein, too!
So, after lunch, to make sure,  I emailed McCormick and this is what they said:

"Dear Ms. Bisset:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We appreciate your interest in our Old Bay 30% Less Sodium Seasoning and welcome the opportunity to be of assistance to you.

At this time there is no garlic or onion products in our Old Bay 30% Less Sodium Seasoning.

If we can be of further assistance, please call us at 1-800-632-5847. If you wish to respond to this note by e-mail, please include your name and e-mail address.

We hope to have the continued pleasure of serving you.

Sincerely,
Jaclyn
Consumer Affairs Specialist

Ref # 1801177"

Woohoo!!! Now I have a savory replacement that will hopefully work for soup! I already have a vegetable soup that includes quite a bit of this stuff. Last time I made it, it had an onion in it, but hopefully this would be enough of a kick on it's own.

Check out that spice!

This is actually the regular stuff, but I prefer the 30% Less Sodium kind because I find the Original a bit too salty for me. It's still super awesome though!

Mmmmm, sandwich.