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During the period of winter preparations, each housewife has a point marked – “cook lecho”. There is no more popular canning dish. For its preparation, vegetables that are available are used. There are already quite a large number of methods for preparing lecho. In addition, the set of components may differ significantly. If the classic recipe for a dish is prepared from pepper, then modern variations of lecho apply to zucchini, eggplant, and cucumbers. Each housewife has her own “signature” lecho recipe. Some require a very long time to cook, so they do not always become popular. Currently, blanks with minimal time costs are valued.
To prepare a traditional lecho for the winter, use tomato sauce. And to prepare a quality sauce, you need to spend a significant part of the day. After all, tomatoes for the sauce need:
- wash;
- cut;
- twist into a meat grinder, grind through a sieve or chop in a blender;
- boil the tomato juice to the desired consistency.
It is the last point that does not suit modern housewives with its duration. They are constantly looking for new options to make making delicious lecho less burdensome. The most suitable, in which the wonderful taste of the dish is preserved, is considered a lecho recipe with tomato paste, tomato juice or ketchup.
The nuances of a modern recipe
It is not difficult to prepare lecho from bell pepper with tomato paste, but the process requires knowledge of some features. The main attention should be paid to the quality of tomato paste. The taste of the finished vegetable salad depends on this. What to pay attention to?
on the quality of the pasta. First of all, check out its composition. It is optimal that the ingredient does not contain chemicals – preservatives, dyes, thickening additives.
It is best if the tomato paste is made from tomatoes alone without sugar and salt. But if one was not found, then adjust the amount of these components to taste, without looking back at the recipe.
Be sure to taste the taste of ready-made tomato paste before putting it in lecho. It affects the quality of vegetable lecho with tomato paste more than other components. Therefore, if you do not like the quality of the product, do not use it in the workpiece.
Before adding to the lecho, the paste is diluted with water to a semi-liquid state. The usual ratio of components is 1:2 or with a good density of ketchup 1:3.
Then the ingredient is boiled for 5-7 minutes, adding spices and seasonings if desired.
When the recipe for lecho with tomato paste requires you to pre-fry the vegetables and then pour the sauce, it is convenient to take homemade tomato juice.
Ketchup, as a substitute for pasta, comes out a little more expensive, but gives a peculiar taste to a familiar salad.
An advantageous characteristic of ready-made tomato paste for lecho is that a recipe using it does not require sterilization of the finished product. Only lids and glassware are subject to obligatory sterilization.
A set of products and the cooking process
Many people want to cook the famous Bulgarian lecho.
To get the taste of your favorite dish, you need to prepare a kilogram of sweet bell pepper:
- 250 grams of high-quality store-bought tomato paste;
- 250 ml of purified water;
- 15 g salt;
- 75 grams of sugar;
- 100 ml of vegetable oil;
- 50 ml of table vinegar (9%).
Before cooking, prepare jars and lids – wash and sterilize them thoroughly. This can be done in the usual way over boiling water and dried. There is an alternative – roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
Let’s start cooking. For lecho with tomato paste, take fleshy ripe peppers. Color and size don’t really matter. Wash the pepper well, remove the stalks, partitions and seeds. To remove the seeds, tap the peppercorns with the flat side of a knife. Now cut into pieces of the shape that you like best – strips, slices, squares.
Prepare the sauce. To do this, dilute store-bought tomato paste in a large container with water. Thick – dilute in a ratio of 1: 1, if the paste is more liquid, then it is enough to take water 1: 2.
Add vegetable oil, sugar and salt. Be sure to taste the sauce so as not to oversalt the lecho with tomato paste. Mix well and boil.
Dip the pepper slices into the boiling sauce, boil the mixture and boil for 25 minutes.
It remains to add vinegar and boil the mass again for 5 minutes.
And now, lay out the still hot fragrant dish of pepper with tomato paste in a sterile glass container, roll up the lids. Banks, according to the recommendations of culinary specialists, turn over and insulate. Once cool, transfer to winter storage.
Recipes with other vegetables
Lecho with tomato paste for the winter is often prepared with onions and carrots.
This salad has a richer taste. Due to the increased amount of ingredients, you will need more tomato paste, sugar and salt.
For one kilogram of meaty peppers you need to take:
- 400 grams of vegetables – onions and carrots;
- 5-6 cloves of garlic (put according to your taste);
- 500 g of ready-made tomato paste;
- 50 g salt and 100 g sugar;
- 100 ml of vegetable oil;
- 50 ml of vinegar.
Lecho with carrots, onions and tomato paste is cooked a little longer, but the cooking process is similar to the classic version.
First, we sterilize jars and lids in a convenient way.
Let’s move on to vegetables. We wash, we clean, we begin to grind.
Cut the pepper into large strips, grate the carrots, cut the onion into half rings, use a crush or a fine grater for garlic.
We send the onion first for heat treatment. Pour the oil into a cauldron, warm it up and lower the onion into it. Let’s warm up for 5 minutes.
Now add carrots to the cauldron and simmer with onions for 10 minutes. At the end of stewing vegetables, add garlic and bell pepper.
At the same time prepare the pasta. We mix it with water, salt, sugar and pour it into a cauldron with vegetables.
Simmering time is 40 minutes. When 5 minutes remain before the end of the process, pour in the vinegar.
After the time has elapsed, we decompose the hot tasty mixture into jars, cork and insulate. When it cools down, remove the blanket and put it in storage.
Options with unusual components for lecho
Lecho with tomato paste, the recipe of which contains rice groats, is gaining great popularity. Such a preparation is more satisfying and nutritious. Serves as an independent second course. It is very convenient when guests unexpectedly arrived or you need lunch on the road.
For 1 kg of bell pepper will be enough:
- 250 g of rice groats;
- 1 kg of onions and carrots;
- 1 a glass of sugar;
- 1 liter of purchased tomato paste (you can use homemade sauce);
- 0,5 l of vegetable oil;
- 3 tablespoons of table salt;
- 100 ml of vinegar.
All vegetables must be washed well, then chopped. We cut the pepper in this recipe coarsely, chop the carrots on a coarse grater, chop the onion in half rings.
We put all the ingredients in a saucepan at once, cook for 50 minutes after boiling. Periodically mix the hot mass, not forgetting the precautionary measures. After stewing, add vinegar and boil for another 5 minutes.
We lay it out hot in jars, roll it up with high quality, cover it with a warm blanket. As soon as the mixture has completely cooled down, remove the blanket and put the lecho with rice in the basement.
Hostess on the note
Even in a classic recipe, you can safely add your favorite spices or garlic. Put herbs and spices in tomato sauce, boil a little and then add vegetables. Allspice, cloves, bay leaf go well with Bulgarian lecho. If you want to put dill or parsley, then it is better to do this 10 minutes before the end of the stew.
To prepare lecho, choose only high-quality products. In this case, you can be sure that the winter harvest will last the desired shelf life.
Be sure to sterilize dishes and lids so that the effort spent is not lost. Due to the non-sterility of the dishes, the lecho will quickly deteriorate and be unsuitable for food.
Control the cooking time according to your needs. If you need elastic pepper in lecho, then try not to digest it.
