I've tried searx, but even simple queries returned no results. I just want sometnig reasonably private that works and doesn't turn the Web into a shopping mall.
Just click on the settings icon on any SearXNG instance. You will see a list of search engines with checkboxes to enable them and the bang notation you can add to your query to limit a search to just this engine.
My suggestion would be: try to get used to it, it's really worth it.