Lentil soup Recipe

1. Peel the onion and stud with the cloves. Peel and chop the carrots. Peel and crush the garlic.
2. Rinse the lentils. Put them in a saucepan with the onion, carrots, stock cube, garlic and bouquet garni. Add 1.5 litres of cold water (adjust amount if you want a thicker or thinner soup). Bring to the boil, cover and gently simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the onion, garlic and bouquet garni. Set aside one ladle of lentils.
4. Blend the rest of the soup, and season with salt and pepper. 
5. Add the ladle of lentils into the blended soup and mix.
6. Immediately fill the jars up to 2 cm from the brim, seal tightly and proceed immediately to the heat treatment in a pressure cooker for 45 min.

To serve, warm the soup over a low heat. Cut the smoked salmon into small pieces and sprinkle over the soup.

History has it that…. The Velay Plateau has a particular microclimate which benefits the green Puy lentils that grow there. The combination of severe cold at the start of the growing season and exceptional sunshine at the ripening stage, along with the volcanic soils, gives the lentils (also know as "poor man's caviar") their unique taste.