Frugal French Friday: Asparagus-Leek Soup

September is Clean Out the Fridge Month at our house. Now that retirement is so close we can taste it, a thorough cleaning of the refrigerator is also in the offing.

(What does impending retirement taste like? Sweet, slightly intoxicating. Like generous quantities of my favorite Riesling.)

Becoming more frugal is essential. I may be retiring, but I'm still young enough that I won't be receiving Social Security checks. With that in mind, I've made sure to save scraps from every meal I've made this summer. I see a long season of soups and casseroles ahead.

Since that's the kind of food I crave as soon as temperatures drop, I'm looking forward to a delicious fall.

I froze the leftover leeks from this tart, and I had some asparagus frozen earlier in the season. It didn't take much work to find this recipe, which I cut in half.

As you can see, I served the soup with shaved Parmesan cheese. I have some rosemary crackers that provided the perfect accompaniment, along with some apple slices.

The leeks were locally grown (Immerfrost Farm), but everything else was store bought.

Cost: The only ingredient I had to buy was sour cream, which brought my total cost to $6. I don't serve large bowls of soup, so I got six servings from this recipe for a total of only $1 per serving.

Wine Pairing: A French Chablis or an American chardonnay is the recommended pairing.