Lecho: recipe with photo – step by step

Lecho is the national Hungarian dish. There it is often served as hot and cooked with the addition of smoked meats. And of course, vegetable lecho is harvested for the winter. Its main component is bell pepper in combination with tomatoes. There are a lot of options with a variety of additives. housewives are also happy to prepare these canned food for the winter, using numerous lecho recipes.

Lecho is also prepared in Bulgaria. This country is famous for its tomatoes and peppers. In addition to them, the composition of the Bulgarian lecho includes only salt and sugar. Despite the small amount of ingredients, the preparation turns out to be very tasty and diverges in the winter in the first place. Consider a step-by-step recipe for making Bulgarian pepper lecho with a photo.

Bulgarian lecho

Choose the ripest and sweetest tomatoes for its preparation. It is better to take red and green peppers in a ratio of 3 to 1. You can also take fruits of different colors, then the canned food will turn out elegant.

For preparation it will be required:

• sweet pepper – 2 kg;
• tomatoes – 2,5 kg;
• salt – 25 g;
• sugar – 150g.

Step by step preparation of Bulgarian lecho:

1. Wash vegetables. The seeds are removed from the pepper, the place of attachment of the stalk is cut out from the tomatoes.

   

2. We cut vegetables. We cut small tomatoes into quarters, larger tomatoes into smaller pieces.

   

2. We cut the peppers lengthwise into quarters, cut each part into longitudinal strips.

   Pieces of peppers should not be small, otherwise they will lose their shape when cooked.

   

3. We skip the tomatoes through a meat grinder.

   

4. Place chopped peppers, salt and sugar in a saucepan with tomato puree. Bring everything to a boil.

   

5. Boil lecho for 10 minutes. The fire must be small. A thick vegetable mixture should be stirred frequently.

   

6. Cooking dishes for canning. Wash jars and lids well and sterilize, jars – in the oven, boil the lids. At a temperature of 150 degrees, we keep the dishes in the oven for 10 minutes.

   Do not put wet jars in the oven, they may burst.

   

   Boil the lids for 10-15 minutes.

   

7. We pack the lecho in hot jars and, having covered it with a lid, put it in a water bath for sterilization.

   

   The temperature of the water in the pot where the jars are placed should be the same as the temperature of their contents. Half-liter jars are sterilized for half an hour, and liter jars for 40 minutes.

   You can do without sterilization, but then the cooking time for lecho should be increased to 25-30 minutes. If the tomatoes are very sweet, you will have to add 2 tbsp to the vegetable mixture. spoons of 9% vinegar.

8. Banks are hermetically sealed.

   

The pepper treat is ready.

There are many recipes for bell pepper lecho, with the addition of various products: onions, carrots, garlic, zucchini, vegetable oil, eggplant. This is how lecho is prepared for the winter step by step according to the Hungarian recipe.

The addition of onions and spices enriches the taste of these preserves.

Hungarian version of lecho

Products for cooking:

• Bulgarian pepper – 4 kg;
• Tomatoes – 4 kg;
• onions – 2 kg;
• refined vegetable oil – 300 ml;
• coarse salt – 4 teaspoons;
• sugar – 8 tbsp. spoons;
• 2 teaspoons of unground black pepper;
• 8 peas of allspice;
• 4 bay leaf;
• vinegar 9% – 6 tbsp. spoons.

Step by step process of making Hungarian lecho:

1. My vegetables, clean.

   

2. We cut the tomatoes and pass through a meat grinder.

   

3. Cut the onion into half rings and add to the tomatoes.

   

4. Cut the peppers into medium-sized strips and also add to the tomatoes.

   

5. Season the vegetable mixture with salt, spices, sugar, butter.

   

6. Simmer over low heat for about an hour after boiling. At the end, add vinegar. The mixture can burn easily, so stir often.

   

7. We lay out the finished lecho in sterile jars and roll it up.

Homemade lecho is most often prepared with the addition of garlic and carrots. Garlic, which is included in this lecho recipe, gives it a spicy point, and carrots have a sweet-spicy taste, while enriching with vitamin A.

Lecho homemade

With the addition of hot pepper, this preparation will become sharper, and a large amount of sugar will make the taste of this dish rich and bright. You can serve it with meat as a side dish, homemade lecho goes well with pasta or potatoes, or you can simply put it on bread and get a tasty and healthy sandwich. This dish contains only vegetables, so it is quite suitable for those who follow a vegetarian diet.

Products for cooking:

• carrots – 2 kg;
• fleshy tomatoes – 4 kg;
• onion – 2 kg; It is better to take onions with a white outer shell, it has a sweetish mild taste.

  

• sweet bell pepper multi-colored or red – 4 kg;
• hot pepper – 2 pods;
• garlic – 8 cloves;
• sugar – 2 glass;
• salt – 3 tbsp. spoons;
• lean oil – 600 ml;
• 9% table vinegar – 200 ml.

To prepare lecho according to this recipe, you need to wash the tomatoes, cut them into slices and scroll through a meat grinder. The resulting tomato mass should boil for 20 minutes. Fire should be medium.

Season the boiled mass with sugar, butter, salt, add finely chopped garlic and hot pepper. Stir, cook for 5-7 minutes. While the tomato mass is being cooked, we cut the sweet pepper and onion into slices, three carrots on a grater. Add vegetables to the tomato mass, cook for about 40 minutes. If you like spicy herbs, you can add them at this stage, after finely chopping them. The taste of lecho will only benefit from this.

Vinegar is added to the vegetables 10 minutes before the end of cooking.

Do not forget to stir the dish, it can easily burn.

Dishes and lids are sterilized in a convenient way. Immediately after readiness, lecho should be packaged and hermetically sealed.

There are many lecho recipes that use tomato paste instead of a tomato. It does not affect the taste of the finished product. Such a preparation does not lose anything to lecho cooked with tomatoes, on the contrary, it has a richer tomato flavor.

Lecho with tomato paste

Such a lecho can be prepared from pepper, or you can also add onions, carrots. Gives zest and the addition of spices: bay leaf, various peppers. In a word, there are a lot of options.

Products for cooking:

• sweet pepper – 2 kg;
• carrot – 800g;
• onion – 600g;
• garlic – 10 cloves;
• tomato paste – 1 kg;
• salt – 100g;
• sugar – 200g;
• vegetable oil – 240 g;
• 9% vinegar – 100g.

Season with spices to taste.

The technology for preserving this blank is slightly different from that for other types of lecho. Dilute tomato paste with the same volume of water, add salt and sugar.

In another heavy-bottomed pan, heat the oil well. Put the onion there, heat for 5 minutes.

Add the grated carrots to the onion and simmer together for 10 minutes. Add chopped sweet peppers and chopped garlic, spices. Pour the vegetables with diluted tomato paste, simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes. Vinegar must be added 5 minutes before readiness. Immediately packaged in pre-prepared sterile dishes and hermetically sealed.

Rolled cans should be turned over and insulated until completely cooled.

Lecho is also prepared in Italy. For it, tomatoes already canned in pieces are used. If pepper is available, it can be cooked at any time of the year. Such a lecho is also suitable as a preparation for the winter.

Italian pepperonata

It needs the following products:

• sweet peppers of different colors – 4 pcs.;
• canned tomatoes – 400g (1 can);
• half onion;
• extra virgin olive oil – 2 tbsp. spoons;
• sugar – a teaspoon.

Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Saute the onion in olive oil in a heavy-bottomed bowl. Add to it the pepper cut into squares and chopped tomatoes, simmer, covered with a lid for about half an hour. The finished dish is peppered, salted and seasoned with sugar.

You can eat this dish right away, or you can boil it in sterilized jars, seal it tightly and enjoy pepperonata in the winter. Enjoy your meal!

Homemade canned food is not only the pride of any housewife. They are able to diversify the menu, save money and enrich the winter diet with vitamins. Pepper lecho occupies one of the first places among homemade preparations both in terms of taste and benefits.