'French Women' eat leeks

November 10, 9:35 PMBaltimore Food ExaminerKit Pollard

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Veuve Cliquot on ice. Photo by Kit Pollard

I'm a huge fan of Mireille Guiliano's book, French Women Don't Get Fat. Guiliano, who has serious social and smart cred as the CEO of Veuve Cliquot, has a simple philosophy about food: appreciate and enjoy it, just in moderation. That, along with a lot of water drinking and some walking and yoga, just about sums up her secret to staying slim. (Well, there's also some good information about seasonality and local products.)

Guiliano insists that staying fit isn't about crash dieting. It's about adjusting your overall outlook and lifestyle. However, she does offer one quick little fix - a soup that was recommended by her (French) family doctor after she gained a bunch of weight as an exchange student in the US. It's called "Miracle Soup", but basically what it amounts to is leek broth.

Leeks are amazingly good for you and, according to Guiliano, if you spend two days mostly drinking water in which leeks have been boiled, and eating those boiled leeks, along with small and healthy dinners, you'll see some real results. Fast.

This is tremendously appealing to me. I like leeks, so eating nothing but for two days sounds pretty good. In theory.

Unfortunately, the one time I actually tried to this Miracle Soup, I gave up around 3 p.m. the first day of the experiment. I was - and I wish I was kidding - dizzy and exhausted from lack of eating. I'm a big baby.

But that didn't stop me from buying leeks over the weekend, with a big plan to spend today eating nothing but leek broth, while crossing my fingers and hoping to wake up a size smaller.

Unfortunately, that's not quite how today worked out. Instead, I completely ditched the leek broth idea, bought some pasta and shrimp, and made a slightly modified version of this shrimp and leek linguine recipe. Part of the modification? I added some heavy cream to the mix. I'm pretty sure I will wake up a size smaller tomorrow. Definitely.

Unfortunately, the pasta wasn't even all that great. After reading the comments from people who'd already made the recipe, I switched out the peperoncini for capers and quadrupled (at least) the wine recommended - plus I added that finishing touch of cream. But there was just too much pasta for the sauce and the lemon peels were a little strong. Overall, it was a weird combination of bland and overly flavored.

My only hope now is that next time I buy leeks, I remember the failure...so I'll suck it up and stick to the broth.