Bistro Lentils and Sausage

Name: Bistro Lentils and Sausage
Yield: 4
Cuisine: French cuisine
Ingredients: lentils: 500 grams; water: 2 liter; carrots: 1; onions: 0.5; pork belly: 200 grams; cloves: 4; thyme: 2 twigs; bay leaves: 2; salt: 1 teaspoon; juniper berries: 1\2 teaspoon; Pork Sausage: 4

An absolute French Bistro Classic

Features:

Cuisine:

French cuisine

Ingredients

500 grams lentils
Du Puy Lentils
2 liter water
water should be 2.5 inches / 6 cm above the lentils)
1 carrots
0.5 onions
half and onion brown or yellow onion
200 grams pork belly
4 cloves
2 twigs thyme
fresh thym is best
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
rock salt
1\2 teaspoon juniper berries
optional
4 Pork Sausage
ideally smoked pork sausage

Directions

Lentils and sausage recipe:

This lentils and sausage recipe is a classic French lentils dish that is has been prepared in French home for decades. It is very simple to prepare and uses few ingredients, however the quality of the lentils with their super food power and the sausage used in this dish is what really makes it shine.

The two star ingredients in this easy lentil recipe are the world famous French green lentils (du Puy) combine with the Morteau sausages. Those two are coming from specific region mainly Auvergne region (central france) for the lentils and Franche compte region for the sausage.

Two ingredients for a match made in heaven for this lentil dish:

The green lentils used for that dish have the ability of not splitting when cooked and as a result you get a nice full grainy pot of lentils instead of a bunch of floating lentils skins,
The Morteau sausages is a specialty from the Jura mountainous region in France and has a taste of their own where the sausages are smoked for at least 48 hours with sawdust from conifer and juniper.

Of course, if you are not in France it will be difficult to find all the ingredients especially the sausages so you will have to adapt. Now the good news is that Du puy lentils are actual now grown all over North America, Canada and Australia so any online or grocer should have them. For the sausage, you can virtually use any type of cook or uncooked pork sausages and you will still end up with great results.

As this is my own version of the recipe I have added some pork belly (it can be smoked or smoked) to boost the flavours in the lentils. In any case, this is really a one-pot lentils recipe to try at home.

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Steps

1 Done	START WITH THE FOOD PREPARATION - Peel and cut your carrot in slices ( 1cm thick) - Peel and half the onion (prick the cloves on one half the onions) - Chop your pork belly in rough slices (as shown on video) - Rinse the du puy lentils under fresh clear water (use a sieve) and reserve them
2 Done	COOK THE LENTILS - Put the rinsed lentils in large saucepan or Dutch oven. - Cover the lentils with around 2 liters of cold water ( as a rough guide the water should sit around 5 or 6 cm / 2.5 inches) above the lentils) - Add all of the carrot, half an onion, the pork belly and all of the aromatic herbs (bay leaf, thyme and juniper if you have some) - Bring to the boil. - When the water boils, discard the impurities floating on top using a spoon. - Partly cover the pot with a lid (as shown in the video) and leave to cook for 15 / 20 minutes. (15 minutes will give you lentils that are more firm). - Around 10 minutes into the cooking, check the lentils, remove the impurities on top again, add a teaspoon of rock salt and continue to cook until done. Note that salt can vary depending if you are using a salty or smoked pork belly, so be careful not to make it too salty.
3 Done	COOK THE SAUSAGES (WHEN THE LENTILS ARE ALMOST DONE) As to the sausages, it is best is to cook them when you are almost ready to serve the lentils. You can also cook the sausages and add them straight into the lentils when they are finished cooking. That will add more flavor and will transform the dish in a real one pot meal that you can just put on the table. Note that any type of sausages can be used its really up to you and your taste.
4 Done	SERVE THE LENTILS In France the meal is served in a family way: just the pot on the table and everyone helps themselves. However, you can also plate the dish if you like (as shown in the video). The most important is the nudge of unsalted butter in the lentils. It's a match made in heaven (at least for me ;o) A fresh baguette of course would be a nice addition too. Enjoy