Lentilles du Puy

I love lentils and lentilles du Puy are the crème de la crème of lentils.  My French host mom introduced me to this amazing grain and she often served them with duck confit. Recently, for Trav’s birthday, I made lentilles du Puy with duck confit also.  The duck confit was from Samatan where I studied abroad in highschool.  Samatan is in the Gers or Gascogne region where their specialties are amazing things like foie gras and duck confit. When buying lentilles du Puy make sure you are getting the real thing. Look for the AOC seal on the packaging or that it says it’s from ‘du Puy’.  French green lentils are not the same thing.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of lentilles du puy
• 1 bay leaf
• few sprigs of thyme
• 1 carrot, small dice
• 1 small onion, small dice
• 1 celery, small dice
• 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp dijon
• good olive oil
• 1 shallot, fine diced
• s&p

Recipe:

(makes 4 servings)

• Rinse the lentils and drain.
• In a large pot, add the lentils, bay leaf and thyme and cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat.
• Add salt and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  Make sure you don’t overcook them.
• Meanwhile, in a saute pan, heat some olive oil and add in the diced carrots, onion and celery. Season with s&p, saute for a few minutes and set aside.

• Once the lentils are cooked, drain them well and remove the thyme and bay leaf.  Add the carrots, onion and celery (mirepoix).
• Drizzle a decent amount of good quality olive oil all over, the dijon, red wine vinegar and shallot. Mix gently and season with s&p.

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