Lecho is one of those dishes that few people can resist, unless a person is allergic to tomatoes or sweet peppers. After all, these vegetables are fundamental in harvesting recipes. Although lecho originally came to us from Hungarian cuisine, its composition and cooking recipes have changed sometimes beyond recognition. Under the difficult climatic conditions of Our Country, where winter sometimes lasts more than half a year, lecho has turned into a fireworks show of amazing aroma and taste from autumn-summer vegetables and herbs seasoned with spices, based on the preferences of the hostess. And, of course, it is, first of all, harvested in large quantities for winter storage in order to be able to enjoy its beauty, taste and aroma all year round.
If you have your own plot and tomatoes grow in large numbers on it, then you will probably make lecho from fresh vegetables. But many people prefer to cook lecho according to a simplified recipe, using freshly prepared or even purchased tomato juice. But lecho with tomato juice, despite the simplicity of its preparation, remains one of the most delicious varieties of this dish prepared for the winter.
The easiest recipe
The recipe below is not only the easiest to prepare and the number of ingredients used. In lecho prepared according to this recipe with tomato juice, Bulgarian sweet pepper retains its pleasant density and elasticity, as well as more vitamins, which is very important in the harsh winter. Despite the fact that sterilization is not used in the cooking process, the amount of vinegar in the marinade is enough for the workpiece to be well preserved under normal storage conditions.
All you need is:
- 3 kg of high quality sweet bell pepper;
- 1 liter of tomato juice;
- Xnumx g of granulated sugar;
- 60 g salt;
- Half a glass of table 9% vinegar.
It is very important to take for cooking fresh, juicy, preferably freshly picked peppers, with fleshy, thick walls. Its color can be any. From red, orange, yellow pepper you get not only a tasty and healing, but also a very beautiful dish.
Tomato juice can be used purchased, or you can squeeze it with a juicer from your own tomatoes.
According to this recipe, lecho with tomato juice for the winter should turn out about three liters of finished products.
First you need to wash and free the pepper fruits from seeds, stalk and internal partitions. You can cut peppers in any convenient way, depending on your preferences. Someone likes cutting into cubes, someone likes straws or rings.
After cutting, pour the pepper with boiling water, so that all the pieces disappear under the water and leave to steam for 3-4 minutes.
At the same time, you can prepare the marinade. To do this, in a large saucepan with a thick bottom, stir the tomato juice with salt and sugar and bring everything to a boil. Add vinegar.
Meanwhile, discard the steamed pieces of pepper in a colander and shake off excess moisture. Carefully pour the pepper from the colander into the pot with the marinade, boil and boil with stirring for about 5 minutes. Lecho with tomato juice is ready. It remains only to immediately decompose it into pre-prepared sterilized jars and cork with lids. It is not necessary to wrap the jars so that the pepper does not become too soft.
Some housewives, making lecho from bell pepper with tomato juice according to this recipe, add 1 more head of garlic and 100 ml of vegetable oil to the ingredients.
Try to cook lecho using both options, and choose the taste that you and your family will like best.
Lecho “multi-colored assortment”
This recipe for preparing lecho for the winter with tomato juice is also quite simple, but much richer in terms of the composition of the ingredients, which means that its taste will differ in originality and originality.
What you will need to find:
- Tomato juice – 2 liters;
- Bulgarian sweet pepper, peeled and chopped – 3 kg;
- Onion – 0,5 kg;
- Carrots – 0,5 kg;
- Dill and parsley greens – 100 g;
- Vegetable oil – 200 ml;
- Cumin – a pinch;
- Granulated sugar – 200 grams;
- Rock salt – 50 grams;
- Acetic essence 70% – 10 ml.
Rinse the peppers well, cut into two halves and clean out all the internal contents from the fruits: seeds, tails, soft partitions. Peel the onion from the husk, wash the carrots and remove the thin skin with a vegetable peeler.
At the second stage of cooking, the pepper is cut into strips, the onion into thin rings, and the carrots are rubbed on a coarse grater. The greens are washed, cleaned of plant debris and finely chopped.
All cooked and chopped vegetables and herbs are transferred to a large saucepan, poured with tomato juice. Salt, cumin, vegetable oil and sugar are added. The pot with the future lecho is put on fire, and the mixture is heated until boiling bubbles appear. After boiling, lecho must be boiled for another ten minutes. Then vinegar essence is added to the pan, the mixture is boiled again and immediately laid out in hot sterilized jars. After sealing, turn the jars upside down to self-sterilize.
Lecho without vinegar
Many people do not tolerate the presence of vinegar in the blanks at all. Of course, citric acid or another substitute for vinegar can be advised in such cases, but the problem usually lies in intolerance to any acid in winter preparations. A way out of this situation can be found if you use a recipe for lecho prepared with tomato juice without vinegar, but with sterilization for the winter. Below is a detailed description of the features of the manufacture of such a workpiece.
It is better to prepare tomato juice for this preservation yourself in order to be completely sure of its quality. There are two main ways to make it:
- The first – the easiest – with a juicer. The most ripe, sweet, preferably fleshy tomatoes are selected and passed through a juicer. If you do not have a juicer, you can grind the tomatoes through a meat grinder.
- The second method is used in the absence of any kitchen appliances. To do this, the tomatoes are cut into small pieces, having previously cut out the place of attachment to the branch, and laid out in a flat enameled container. After adding a little water, put on a small fire and stirring constantly, cook until completely soft. Having cooled a little, the resulting mass is rubbed through a sieve, thus separating the skin and seeds.
About one liter of tomato juice is obtained from one and a half kilograms of tomatoes.
Peppers are washed and cleaned of all excess. Cut into pieces of convenient size and shape. For one liter of tomato juice, one and a half kilograms of peeled and chopped sweet peppers should be prepared.
Tomato juice is placed in a saucepan, brought to a boil. Then 50 grams of salt and sugar are added to it and chopped bell pepper is poured on top. The mixture is gently stirred, heated to a boil and boiled for another 15-20 minutes.
While the lecho is being prepared, the jars must be sterilized and the lids boiled for at least 15 minutes. The finished lecho must be put in a prepared glass dish so that the tomato juice completely covers the peppers. Lecho can be sterilized in boiling water, but it is more convenient to use an aerogrill for these purposes.
In boiling water, half-liter jars are covered with lids on top and sterilized for 30 minutes, and liter jars for 40 minutes.
In an aerogrill, the sterilization time at a temperature of +260°C will take no more than 10 minutes. You can also sterilize jars with lids, but sealing gum must be pulled out of the latter for the duration of sterilization in order to avoid damage.
If you decide to sterilize at +150°C, then one liter jars will require 15 minutes of sterilization. Moreover, at this temperature, the gum from the covers can not be removed.
After sterilization, the finished lecho is sealed, turned upside down and cooled.
Here are just the basic recipes for making lecho with tomato juice. Any hostess, taking them as a basis, will be able to diversify the composition of the lecho to her liking.
