Dried Puy lentils have a fine, sweet flavour and are a dark blue-green colour. The flavour is further sweetened by stewing with shallots, garlic, celery, carrot, parsley and bay leaf. They make excellent salads, either warm or cold, or served with meat or fish dishes. They are grown only in volcanic soil of Puy-en-Velay in southern France. They are known as the "caviar of the poor".