When I was growing up, Hamburger Helper was a staple dish in our home, and it was one of my most favorite meals. Imagine my disappointment when I started keeping Kosher and learned that said Hamburger Helper wasn’t kosher. Finding a way to make a kosher HH has been on my mind for a long time so Friday night, I decided to do a bit of Internet searching to see if there were other Kosher keepers out there like me who love and miss our Hamburger Helper. I was glad to discover I’m not the only one trying to tweak this dish to make it eatable for us Kosher folks.

I was in a hurry so I printed the first Kosher Hamburger Helper recipe I found on a Web site call “What I should have learned.”

I looked to see if I had all of the necessary ingredients based on the “Ingredients” list and got to work. It didn’t take long though to realize there were some confusing parts of this recipe so I’ve added in italics the things I changed.

Kosher Hamburger Helper

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground meat (The package I had was about 1.80 lb of ground beef)
• 2 Cups egg noodles (I used 3 cups)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 Teaspoon. chili powder
• Dash of Garlic Powder (We LOVE garlic so I used numerous dashes)
• Dash of Paprika
• 2 Cups water
• 1 package of Onion Soup Mix (I used 1/2 package)
• 1 Onion chopped
• Vegetable Oil

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan with vegetable oil add chopped onion and start to caramelize onion (wait for it to brown); then add ground beef.
2. In the sauce pan add garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper, chili powder, tomato sauce (The ingredients list said nothing about tomato sauce and I couldn’t remember the HH my mother made tasting at all like tomato sauce so I left it out) and water. Add uncooked noodles and cover, stirring occasionally.
3. Cook for about 20 minutes.

The recipe also didn’t say whether or not to drain the grease off the hamburger meat before adding the remaining ingredients. Hubbie and I discussed and decided to leave it in. Not all that healthy but definitely a good choice based on the results.

Verdict:

This was one of the most delish meals I’ve ever made. My hubbie, who is a VERY picky eater, had several helpings. And my 6 year old, who won’t eat anything unless the title has the word CANDY in it, ate a bunch of the noodles from the HH. She said they tasted like chicken : ) I served it with a side of blanched asparagus, raw red and yellow bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. It was such a yummy meal and sadly, there are only enough left-overs for maybe a 1-person meal. It was THAT good.

If you were a fan of Hamburger Helper as a child or during your pre-Kosher days, this is a must-try dish for you. It’s thick, heavenly comfort food in a bowl.