Treat under screw caps. Lecho from bell pepper with tomato paste for the winter - you'll lick your fingers

  • 17.02.2024

In this article we will make recipes using familiar tomatoes and peppers. The wonderful taste of lecho, prepared today, will retain its aroma until winter.

In winter, the preparation finds its place on the festive table; it is added to main courses as an additional side dish.

And I like to dip the meat dumpling into a plate of lecho, and then drag the pepper itself onto my tongue to boot. In early spring, we always take this preparation with us on a picnic.

Lecho from bell pepper and tomato for the winter

My friends like to make the preparation with vinegar. for its more stable rich taste and they say: a classic recipe.

Ingredients:

  • Tomatoes – 2 kg
  • Pepper – 3 kg
  • Vegetable oil (odorless) - 250 ml
  • Sugar - 200 g
  • Salt - 2 tbsp. spoons
  • Vinegar 9% - 100 ml (70% - 12 ml, 6% - 150 ml)

Preparing the recipe:

We pass the prepared red tomatoes through a meat grinder with a fine grid.

Place the missed tomatoes in a cauldron or any other large pan.

Add here: sugar, salt and vegetable oil. Mix everything well and put on low heat so that while it boils you have time to cut the pepper.

Peel the pepper from seeds, cut lengthwise into 4 parts and cut into strips of 5 - 6 mm.

The whole pepper cut into strips is ready.

By this time our tomatoes were boiling.

Add all the chopped peppers to the tomatoes in the cauldron.

Mix everything well and bring to a boil.

After boiling, turn the heat to low and cook for exactly 20 minutes. During this time you need to stir 2 - 3 times. 5 minutes before the end of cooking, add 100 g of vinegar, mix well and finish cooking.

After cooking the lecho, take half-liter jars (sterilized), put a funnel on top and fill them to the top with the hot mixture.

Then close the jar with a lid and roll it up with a seaming key.

One jar of lecho is ready for the winter.

So we fill other half-liter jars and roll up the lids. We got 8 cans. There is no need to turn the jars over.

Just wrap the jars in a blanket until they cool completely. The recipe is complete. We are looking forward to winter with satisfaction.

Tomato and pepper lecho - without vinegar for the winter

This no-vinegar recipe is my favorite.

We will need:

Preparing the recipe:

Cut the peeled and washed pepper into strips.

We chopped the pepper and this is what it looks like.

We put it in a large pan, in which we will cook it with tomatoes.

Cut the tomatoes into slices.

We cut 3 kg of tomatoes into 1.5 kg in each plate.

Place one plate of chopped tomatoes over the peppers.

Grate it on a medium grater and add it to the tomatoes and peppers.

Then add sugar and salt. Mix everything well.

Now let this whole mass simmer for 10 minutes over low heat. At the end of 10 minutes, add a second plate of tomatoes.

After this, continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.

When the lecho is ready, pour it into clean jars and

We're rolling up for the winter.

The recipe for those who like to eat food without vinegar for the winter is ready.

Pepper and tomato lecho - through a meat grinder with carrots

We will need:

  • 3 kg tomatoes
  • 1 kg carrots
  • 1 kg sweet pepper
  • 2 hot peppers
  • 4 heads of garlic
  • marinade (watch during cooking)

Preparing the recipe:

  1. Pass the tomatoes through a meat grinder.
  2. Pass the carrots through a meat grinder.
  3. Combine the skipped tomatoes with the skipped carrots and cook in a saucepan or cauldron for 1.5 hours.
  4. At the end of boiling, add: 1 kg of sweet pepper, 2 hot peppers and 4 heads of peeled garlic, minced. Cook for 10 minutes.
  5. Then cook the marinade: 250 ml water, 250 ml vegetable oil, 250 g sugar, 2 tbsp. spoons of salt, bay leaf, peppercorns, 1 tbsp. spoon of vinegar.
  6. Pour the marinade into the prepared mixture and cook for another 15 minutes.
  7. Pour the hot mixture into prepared jars and roll up.

Bon appetit in winter!

Recipe for lecho from peppers with tomato paste - video

Tomato paste is a great substitute for rolled tomato paste. The preparation will be tasty and aromatic.

As you can see, the recipe is quite simple and tasty. The season is in full swing, hurry up.

How to prepare lecho: from peppers, tomatoes, onions and carrots - video recipe

Check out the classic recipe for preparing vegetables.

If you carefully read the article with recipes, this is enough to prepare lecho and see it at the dinner table in winter.

Lecho is a wonderful vegetable snack, tasty and healthy. You can eat it either freshly prepared or canned. The homeland of lecho is Bulgaria. But the popularity of the dish has long crossed national and state borders. And now every zealous housewife carefully copies treasured recipes into her culinary notebook. And in her pantry she always has a dozen or two jars of this delicious snack.

Recipe with carrots

Indeed, there are many recommendations on how to make lecho for the winter. We will also do our part by sharing interesting recipes with you. The first of them is considered the simplest and fastest to prepare. You will need several kilograms of bell peppers, preferably of different colors, but of good ripeness. Wash the vegetables, peel them from cuttings and seeds and cut each one lengthwise into 4 pieces. Blanch the peppers in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Then transfer to a colander, let drain and package in sterile liter jars.

The second part of the recipe “How to make lecho for the winter” is related to filling. It is made from tomato juice. For every 2 liters you will need the following ingredients:

  • sugar and vegetable oil - 1 glass each;
  • a tablespoon of vinegar;
  • 5 onions;
  • 3 medium carrots;
  • 5-8 peas of allspice;
  • salt to taste.

Cut the onion into half rings, grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Combine all ingredients in a cast iron pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Season the peppers with boiling sauce, sterilize the jars for 20 minutes and seal. This recipe for how to make lecho for the winter can be supplemented, if desired, with a few cloves of garlic for piquancy. Well, it turns out very tasty!

Lecho acute

The next appetizer will not be inferior to the previous one in taste, but is spicier and richer. It is prepared from one and a half kilograms of bell pepper, about the same amount of tomatoes, 300 g of onion, 25-30 g of salt (more can be done to taste), 2 pinches of hot ground pepper and 2-4 tablespoons of water.

How to make lecho for the winter according to the proposed recipe? Cut the peeled pepper into strips 3-4 cm wide. Cut out the stems of the tomatoes, and cut the vegetables themselves into slices. Chop the onion into half rings. Place all ingredients in a saucepan, add salt, pepper, water and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Then spread the lecho into sterile liter jars and boil for 45 minutes, after which the preservation is rolled up. Store the workpieces in a cool place.

Lecho original

The good thing about the appetizer we are talking about is that you can add some of its ingredients at your discretion. For example, here is a lecho preparation for the winter. This recipe is called “original” for a reason, because it includes apples. For every kilogram of peppers and tomatoes, take 300 g of apples, 200 g of onions, 4 tablespoons of sugar and 2 of salt. Plus a third of a glass of water.

Cut all components into small pieces or slices. Place in cast iron, add water, sugar and salt. If desired, add bay, currant or cherry leaves. Simmer the appetizer covered for at least 20 minutes. Transfer hot into jars, sterilize for half an hour and seal. Preparing lecho for the winter, the recipe for which you have read, will delight you on cold days with a rich sweet and sour taste and is perfect not only as an appetizer, but also as a base for a sauce for meat, porridge or pasta.

Lecho with zucchini

The twist will turn out very appetizing if you add zucchini to traditional vegetables. Product consumption is as follows:

  • pepper, zucchini - 1 kg each;
  • tomatoes - 1.5 kg;
  • salt - 70-80 g;
  • sugar - 50 g;
  • water - a glass.

Here's how to prepare lecho for the winter: cut the tomatoes into slices. By the way, they can be replaced with tomato juice - 1 liter will be enough (water is then not needed). Cut the remaining vegetables into cubes. Place everything in a saucepan, add salt and sugar, add water. Let the mixture boil, then simmer for 25 minutes. Hot pack the prepared lecho for the winter into jars and sterilize for 20 minutes, then roll up.

Lecho with cucumbers

This version of the dish also appeared thanks to the culinary talents and fantasies of inventive housewives. As you have seen, the appetizer can be prepared in completely different ways: with carrots, tomato juice or natural tomatoes, onions and garlic. And you can even eat lecho with cucumbers! The recipe for the winter is very good, because canning can then be used to season dishes. You will need:

  • 3 kg of tomatoes;
  • 1.5-2 kg of sweet pepper;
  • 5.5 kg of cucumbers;
  • 300 g sugar;
  • the same amount of vinegar 6% (if its concentration is higher, then 200-250 g is enough);
  • 300 g vegetable oil;
  • 4 tablespoons (heaped) salt.

The recipe for making lecho for the winter recommends mincing tomatoes and peppers to obtain a homogeneous mass. Transfer it to a cast iron pot, pour in oil and vinegar, add salt and sugar and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Cut the cucumbers into circles and dip into the tomato mixture. Cook for another 15 minutes. To make the salad spicier, add crushed garlic. When hot, pour the mixture into sterile jars and close! Wrap up the canned food, and after a day put it in the basement.

Lecho classic

Bulgarian lecho for the winter in a classic recipe looks simple, like everything ingenious. The main thing is that the vegetables are of high quality, and the vinegar is apple cider vinegar. Plus the necessary spices. To prepare one serving of twist, you will need 3 kg of tomatoes and 2 kg of pepper. Choose yellow and green, fleshy ones - they will look beautiful in jars. You will also need:

  • sugar (4-5 tbsp);
  • salt (2-2.5 tbsp.);
  • 4% apple cider vinegar (2 l.);
  • 7-8 peas of bitter and allspice;
  • 4-6 dry clove inflorescences.

This lecho is prepared for the winter (recipes with photos will help you understand the intricacies of the technology) as follows. Remove the stems from the tomatoes. Cut them into slices and pass through a meat grinder. You can also grind it with a blender. Pour the resulting tomato into a cast iron pot or saucepan, let it boil and cook little by little over low heat, stirring, for 15 minutes.

Remove the seeds from the peppers, cut them into rings about a centimeter and a half thick and place them in the tomato. Let the mixture boil again, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 5-6 minutes.

Grind the cloves and peppercorns into powder with a mortar. Then put sugar and salt and spices into the pan. If you feel like there is not enough salt or sugar, you can add according to your taste. Let the lecho simmer over low heat for another 15 minutes until the pepper becomes soft. 5 minutes before turning off, pour in vinegar. When hot, place the snack into sterile jars and close.

Lecho in tomato sauce

And one more recipe for how to prepare lecho for the winter. Thanks to the available variety, each housewife can easily choose the options that suit her best.

For example, here is a very affordable method of preservation. For 3 kg of pepper you need half a liter of tomato sauce, the same amount of water, half a glass of vegetable oil, 6% table vinegar and sugar, a tablespoon of salt.

The peeled pepper is cut into arbitrary pieces. Water, sugar, salt, butter are added to the tomato sauce and pepper is added. Place the pan on the fire and let the vegetables boil. Then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes. At the end of cooking, pour in the vinegar, stir and remove from heat. Pour lecho into hot sterilized jars and roll up.

Lecho assorted

An appetizer made from several types of vegetables will be amazingly tasty. This is also lecho, but more varied in composition and taste. The calculation of the products needed for preparing canned food is as follows. One batch requires 4 kg of tomatoes, 0.7-1 kg of pepper, 400-500 g of eggplant, 2 large onions, salt, sugar and tarragon to taste.

Wash and prepare the vegetables: cut the tomatoes into slices, peppers, onions and eggplants into rings. Place peppers, tomatoes, onions in a thick-bottomed pan and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt, pepper, spices and simmer for another 20-25 minutes. For now, you can put the eggplants in water to remove the bitterness. Then fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown. Place the mugs into the tomato and stir. Pack the lecho into jars, sterilize for 25 minutes and screw. This appetizer will do honor to any holiday table, believe me!

Vitamin treatment

This preservation contains a large amount of vitamin C, microelements and other substances beneficial to our body. After all, lecho contains a large amount of onion - the main assistant in the fight against all kinds of colds. But everything is in order! One batch of canned food requires 4 kg of tomatoes and 1 kg of bell pepper. It can be replaced with one and a half kilograms of gogoshar - a vegetable similar to pepper, but sweeter in taste. Next, 1 kg of onions, the same amount of carrots.

What to do with all this splendor? Cut the washed and peeled peppers, onions and tomatoes into rings. Grate the carrots or cut them into small cubes or strips. Place the vegetables in a bowl and sprinkle with salt (a third of a glass). Leave them for a few hours to release more juice. Then pour in half a liter of sunflower oil, add sugar to taste and place on the stove. Once it boils, reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Then place the hot lecho into jars and sterilize them for 30 minutes. Roll it up, let it cool, take it to the pantry and enjoy this delicious winter treat!

Lecho sweet and sour

And finally, we will delight you with such a pleasant recipe. Its main charm is its rich sweet and sour taste, which stimulates the appetite and delights gourmets. The ingredients of the dish are as follows: 2 kg of tomatoes, 1.5 kg of pepper, half a kilo of onions and carrots. And also a glass of vegetable oil, a glass of sugar, half a glass of 9% vinegar (if you have 6%, then you will need three quarters of a glass). And 3 tablespoons of salt. Wash and peel the vegetables. Grind the onions and tomatoes in a meat grinder or food processor. Place on the fire and cook for an hour, stirring occasionally. Grate the carrots on a medium grater and fry them in vegetable oil for 10 minutes. Cut the pepper into strips. Add it to the tomato, add salt and sugar, vinegar. Boil for another 15 minutes. Then transfer to jars and roll up. Cover with a blanket, let cool. You can store this lecho not only in a cool cellar, but also at room temperature.

Remember the good old days, when boiled potatoes were served with all sorts of delicious “winter” salads stored in the cellar? Now, at any time of the year, you can go and buy any vegetables and fruits, but then our mothers and grandmothers diligently packed summer gifts from their own gardens into jars for the winter.

In addition to pickled cucumbers and tomatoes, almost every housewife considered it her duty to make good supplies of sweet bell peppers, and lecho was her favorite recipe.

There are many, many variations of this amazing dish. And every housewife always had some little tricks that distinguished her signature recipe from all others.

Some people are still diligently sterilizing their truly beloved folk salad, while others have improved it and now enjoy the good old lecho in a new way.

The most delicious recipe has always been the simplest bell pepper recipe, which our grandmothers made. In fact, it does not require a huge amount of spices and ingredients to prepare, but when you smear the delicate juice from the plate with a piece of bread, you are ready to lick your fingers.

2. Pour the tomato mass into a clean, large, deep saucepan.

3. Remove the seed pods from the washed peppers and cut the juicy pulp into stripes, about 8 pieces from each fruit.

Send the slices to the tomato sauce.

4. Heat to a boil over medium heat, pour in the oil and add salt and sugar. Mix everything and let it cook well for half an hour, remembering to stir periodically.

By this time, the pepper will no longer crunch like fresh, but will still retain its elasticity.

5. Chop the peeled garlic cloves and add to the tomato pepper mixture.

Cook for another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat, pour in the vinegar essence and stir well so that the acid is evenly distributed into the lecho.

6. Immediately place the still boiling winter salad in and, after rolling it up, wrap them upside down for a day.

To be on the safe side, many people send the filled jars to be sterilized for another 10 minutes before sealing, but this is at the discretion of the housewife.

After the jars have cooled completely, store them in a dark place where it is not very hot.

In general, there are quite a lot of delicious recipes for homemade lecho. For example, I found my colleague in this article on a culinary blog and highly recommend that you pay attention to them.

Recipe for lecho from bell pepper and tomato without sterilization

Not everyone likes a large amount of sunflower oil in winter preparation, as well as tomato seeds in lecho, and therefore prefers to remove them during the cooking process. This can be done using a juicer, but if you don’t have one at hand, then a regular sieve will do.

How to do this - see the recipe.

We will need:

  • Red tomato – 2 kg.
  • Garlic clove – 4 pcs.
  • Sweet pepper – 1.2 kg.
  • Granulated sugar – 6 tbsp. l.
  • 6% vinegar – 2 tbsp. l.
  • Sunflower oil – 1 tbsp. l.
  • Salt – 2 tsp.
  • Hot pepper pod – 1 pc.
  • Fresh basil – ½ bunch.

Preparation:

1. Divide thoroughly washed ripe tomatoes into quarters to make them easier to chop into a juice-like state.

2. Place the tomato slices in a blender. You can also pick basil leaves directly with your hands. Grind thoroughly until smooth.

3. To get rid of seeds and pieces of skin, rub the tomato mass through a sieve. Pour a portion of crushed tomatoes into it and use a spoon, masher or culinary spatula to “squeeze out” the pure juice with rubbing movements, and throw out the remaining “husks”.

In order not to use a lot of unnecessary dishes, you can wipe them directly into the pan in which you will then cook. Immediately send the resulting mass to cook over medium heat. and cook for a quarter of an hour while constantly skimming.

4. In order not to oversalt or overdo it with sugar, take measuring spoons in advance and, filling them without a slide, measure out the required amount of sugar and salt.

5. While the tomato juice is boiling, cut the washed and peeled sweet pepper into slices. It is enough to divide it into quarters, but you can also make thinner strips.

6. Place the pepper slices in the tomato juice and simmer for another 10 minutes.

7. If you like a very spicy taste, then the hot pepper should be chopped as finely as possible.

If not, then it is best not to chop it, but toss it straight into the pan as a whole pod, and before pouring the lecho into jars, remove it from the pan and throw it away. Grind the garlic cloves with a press and add to the previous ingredients.

8. Pour in oil and vinegar and add salt and sugar. Mix well, being careful not to break the pepper slices. Cook for 5 minutes.

9. Immediately put into sterile jars, roll up and, covering with a warm blanket, allow to cool upside down. You can store it in a cellar or in a dark, cool pantry.

In winter, opening and eating such a jar is always a pleasure!

Lecho with tomato paste from 3 kg of bell pepper

Initially, lecho was a Hungarian canning and was prepared only from fresh tomatoes. But now many people don’t want to bother with them for a long time, or there is a bad year for tomatoes, or they are not sweet and tasty enough, so many housewives resort to a little trick - using ready-made tomato paste.

We will need:

  • Bell pepper – 3 kg.
  • Boiled water – 2 l.
  • Tomato paste – 0.9 kg.
  • Garlic clove – 6 pcs.
  • Sunflower oil, 9% vinegar – 6 tbsp. l.
  • Sugar - 4.5 tbsp. l.
  • Salt - 3 tsp.
  • Hot pepper pod - 2 pcs.
  • Allspice peas, ground black pepper, cloves, coriander - to taste.

Preparation:

1. Before starting cooking, you should pay attention to the composition of tomato paste by reading the information on the packaging. Ideally, there should be nothing there except tomatoes.

If you see salt and sugar, then the amount of adding them to the salad costs about a third less.

Dilute tomato paste with water depending on its thickness. If it is liquid, then 1:2, if it is very thick, then 1:3. The tomato sauce should be of medium thickness so that the cloves and peas do not drown in it.

Spices can be added immediately, but do not overdo it, because the more of them in the cooking sauce, the stronger the specific aroma in the finished dish.

If you don’t like the spices you come across, it’s better to put them in a small cotton bag or a small square, the edges of which are tied with a long thread. Tie a thread to the handle of the pan, and dip the “lump” with spices into the sauce and pull it out only after cooking.

2. Place the pan over medium heat to boil, and at this time cut the peeled sweet peppers into oblong pieces.

3. Once the tomato sauce boils, add the chopped peppers and let it boil. Gradually the strips will be immersed in the red liquid and will cook evenly.

Try to remove the foam immediately so that thickened lumps do not appear, which will later look unsightly in the finished dish.

4. Add salt with sugar and sunflower oil and cook for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Grind the garlic cloves and hot pepper and place in a saucepan. Pour vinegar there and cook for another 7 minutes.

6. Place the boiling salad in sterile dry jars, roll up and wrap. After cooling, you can store it in any cool place.

The finished dish is bright, rich in color, aromatic and incredibly tasty.

The most delicious lecho for the winter

Do you know that Bulgarians use apple cider vinegar instead of ordinary vinegar essence in a traditional recipe? It also contains only vegetables and spices, and absolutely no oil!

It seems to me that this is truly the most delicious option, because the vegetables are filled with each other’s aromas and a touch of piquancy is given to them by a set of spices that are usually used in making homemade ketchup.

We will need:

  • Sweet red tomatoes – 3 kg.
  • Sweet pepper – 3 kg.
  • Sugar - 80 gr.
  • Salt - 40 gr.
  • Allspice peas, black peppercorns, cloves – 5 pcs.
  • 6% apple cider vinegar - 1.5 tbsp. l.

Preparation:

1. Wash fresh tomatoes and, after drying them, clean them of “butts” and any defects on the skin. Grind in any convenient way to a puree and place in a thick-bottomed pan to cook over medium heat. Cook for a quarter of an hour.

2. As soon as the puree starts to boil, try to immediately remove the foam and stir periodically so that the tomatoes do not separate or burn.

3. While the tomato puree is being prepared, cut the pre-washed and peeled peppers into wide strips. To make the salad as beautiful as possible, I recommend using multi-colored pods.

4. Grind the spices into powder or tie them in a bag with a long thread.

5. Add pepper pieces to the boiling tomato puree and let it boil, stirring occasionally so that the whole mass of vegetables is combined.

6. Omit the spices, add salt and sugar and mix. After 10 minutes, pour in apple cider vinegar and let simmer over low heat for another 5 minutes.

7. Then pour into sterile prepared jars and roll up, wrap until completely cool.

Tasty, satisfying and beautiful! What else do you need for an appetizing dish?

Video on how to prepare delicious lecho from bell peppers with vegetables

We shot this video specifically for this article. And we hope you like it. After all, making a blank for it is very, very simple. I would even say it's as simple as shelling pears.

You just need to cut everything and cook it in two stages. Then simply screw the lids on the jars.

However, see for yourself.

It's that simple. But despite the fact that there seems to be nothing complicated in preparation, this in no way detracts from all the advantages of this recipe.

I can tell you from experience, after opening such a jar, it is eaten in one sitting. And everyone, without exception, who tries and eats it, likes the preparation. And I hope you like it too.

How to prepare lecho for the winter from peppers, carrots and onions

My family really likes lecho with carrots and onions. It is prepared on the basis of a traditional recipe - there is no need to invent anything additional.

Unless fresh tomatoes are replaced with thick tomato paste to speed up the process. The highlight of this recipe is that the vegetables are pre-sautéed, and the bay leaves add piquancy.

We will need:

  • Bell pepper – 1.2 kg.
  • Carrots, onions – 0.2 kg each.
  • Tomato paste – 0.3 kg.
  • Sunflower oil – 5 tbsp. l.
  • Garlic clove – 2 pcs.
  • Hot pepper pod, bay leaf - 1 pc.
  • 9% vinegar - 1 tbsp. l.
  • Ground black pepper - to taste.

Preparation:

1. Rinse and peel all vegetables well. Cut the onion into strips or in the shape of half rings. Carrots can be chopped into strips, but it will look much more original if you make oblong strips out of them using a regular vegetable peeler.

2. Pour 2 tbsp into the pan. l. oil and when it heats up over medium heat, sauté the onion and carrot slices for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

The vegetables should become slightly soft, but in no case fried.

3. While the previous ingredients are simmering in the frying pan, quickly cut the peppers into strips and add them to the slightly softened vegetables in the frying pan.

4. Close the lid and simmer for 10 minutes. During this time, the pepper will become softer, but will retain its elasticity. This sauteing will add “satisfaction” to the finished dish.

The main thing is not to forget to stir periodically so that nothing burns and the heat treatment occurs evenly.

5. Now it’s the turn of tomato paste. Place it in a convenient container and dilute it with water until it becomes a semi-thick sauce. I usually take a very thick paste, so I dilute it in a ratio of 1:3.

Add salt, sugar and season with ground pepper. Stir and our liquid lecho base is ready.

6. Pour the tomato sauce into a deep saucepan.

Send sautéed vegetables, chopped garlic cloves and pieces of hot pepper there (you can use it as a whole pod, and then throw it away in a storage container before bottling).

And a laurel leaf will complete our culinary magic.

7. Place the pan over medium heat and let it boil. Cook with occasional stirring for 10 minutes.

Pour in vinegar and stir. After a couple of minutes, taste for salt and sugar. If it’s a little lacking according to your taste, add it.

Place the boiling dish in a sterile dry container, screw the lids on tightly and leave to cool upside down, wrapped in a warm blanket.

Ready-made lecho is ideal for boiled potatoes. It can also be served as a side dish on its own.

Grandma very often used this winter salad as a sauce when preparing cabbage rolls - believe it or not, the taste is completely different and much richer than with fresh vegetables for filling.

Any boiled or fried meat becomes much juicier and more appetizing with lecho. And if you’re really too lazy to cook, you can easily have a snack with just a couple of pieces of fresh bread.

Bon appetit and enjoying the Bulgarian winter evenings!

1. Wash the tomatoes, cut into 2–4 parts, cut out the stem. Grind the tomatoes in a blender. If you don’t have this kitchen device, then pass it through a meat grinder.


2. We take about 2.4–2.5 kg of bell pepper (preferably small), after you wash it, remove the green tail and cut out the seed box, then there will be just 2 kg of it. Cut the pepper into pieces convenient for you. According to the classics, cut into slices into 4-5 pieces.


3. Pour the crushed tomatoes into a large saucepan for cooking lecho and add vegetable oil (1/2 cup), sugar (1/2 cup) and salt (1 heaped tablespoon). It is better to take less sugar than the norm indicated by me, although... it depends on you. Mix everything and bring to a boil.


4. Add chopped peppers to boiled tomatoes and continue cooking for ~30 minutes. Stir frequently. Finally, pour in 3 tablespoons of vinegar, stir and set aside from the heat. Vinegar is added at the very end of cooking so that it does not evaporate.


5. Jars with lids must be sterilized. I sterilize jars in a kettle. Roll up the still hot pepper and tomato lecho and place it upside down in a blanket to cool completely. Every other day you can take it to the basement or other cool place. Lecho salad can be stored for 1 to 2 years!

Bon appetit!