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.



Comments

Penny said…
This looks delicious Mimi. I am excited for you. Retirement is a wonderful state of mind. You are free to concentrate on what is important to you.
Unknown said…
Only three weeks now, Penny.

I actually have leeks in my garden this year, for the first time, and I'm looking forward to making and freezing a few batches of soup for the winter.
Unknown said…
Lydia, I love the idea of having things in the freezer so I can just pop them out at night and reheat. I keep having to remind myself that this year I will be able to make soup on a weekday afternoon.
Chef Dad said…
Alas, it's not Fall yet in Texas. Temps dropped to a bone chilling high of 90 today. No really. That's a plunge of 13 degrees from yesterday. No really.

And yet, I can smell this soup and want to put on a sweater and enjoy it.
Katie Zeller said…
I was so enjoying our cooler weather - and then the heat came back. I'm still making soup, though... for the freezer. And I defrosted the freezer today - time to tidy up to make room.
Tasting retirement.... Bet it's delicious!
Unknown said…
Everything is early in Wisconsin this year, Chef Dad. Come visit!

Katie, we had that happen, too, and in fact most of our week was rather muggy here. But the cooler temps came floating in Thursday evening. I actually wore corduroy this week.

It is. Can't wait for our little mini vacation in Door County to mark the start of the un-work week.

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