Bell Pepper Lecho

Name: Bell Pepper Lecho with Tomatoes and Onion: Quick Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Bulgarian cuisine
Ingredients: Sweet bell peppers 0.5 kg; Tomatoes 2; Onion 1; Vegetable oil 1 tbsp; Salo or smoked bacon 30 g; Sweet ground paprika 0.5 tsp; Salt to taste; Hot pepper, black pepper optional; Sugar 0.5 tsp, optional (2 g)

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45 mins

Bell pepper lecho is exactly the way I remember it from childhood: bell peppers, onion and tomato. That said, lecho comes in many versions, with very different ingredients and cooking methods.

Lecho (lecsó) is a classic of Hungarian cuisine, and similar dishes are common across many European cuisines. French ratatouille, for example, is close to lecho in spirit. The idea is a stew of vegetables — peppers, eggplant and zucchini — in their own sauce. The humble country dish from Provence, meanwhile, has long since become the basis for incredibly elaborate and beautiful chef’s creations.

Recipes and dish names usually spell out the extra ingredients alongside the main ones. So lecho with eggplant is made the standard way, but with fried eggplant added. Lecho with tomatoes gets its name when the dish contains a lot of tomatoes. In Bulgaria, plenty of local bell peppers go into the pot, hence bell pepper lecho. The constant ingredients of lecho are sweet peppers of various colors, onion and tomatoes.

Lecho is said to have no fixed recipe. In fact, in the books of Károly Gundel, the founder of modern Hungarian cuisine, lecho appears more as a side dish or sauce than as a dish in its own right. Look closely and you’ll see that in many recipes lecho is an ingredient or part of a side dish. And the reference is always to a very simple lecho of bell peppers, tomatoes and onion. Yet even with all that simplicity, it is recommended to add sausages, meat, smoked meats, rice and even — these are very interesting recipes — beaten eggs. And the advice is always to eat lecho with fresh white bread.

Here, so-called adapted lecho recipes are more common: with zucchini, fried carrots, all sorts of thickened versions. Besides, the local “adjika”, which has nothing to do with Caucasian adjika and is more like a spicy tomato jam, is by and large similar to lecho. At least the ingredients match.

Making lecho is easy. In vegetable season these ingredients are cheap and easy to find. And it takes very little time to cook.

Bell pepper lecho is a great appetizer and side dish for sausages, meat or even shashlik. Easy to make and wonderfully tasty.

Ingredients

2 servings

Sweet bell peppers 0.5 kg
Tomatoes 2
Onion 1
Vegetable oil 1 tbsp
Salo or smoked bacon 30 g
Sweet ground paprika 0.5 tsp
Salt to taste
Hot pepper, black pepper optional
Sugar 0.5 tsp, optional (2 g)

Step-by-step recipe

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Cutting the vegetables

You can make this dish for a few people or for a big crowd – just scale the ingredients down or up as needed. The amounts given are enough to make lecho for two for breakfast.

Seed the sweet peppers and cut them into thick strips or pieces, as you like. Cut the seeded red pepper separately, half the size of the rest.
Any sweet bell peppers will do, the color doesn’t matter. But it’s worth taking at least one red pepper, purely for looks.
If you like, as a minor addition, cut a hot chili pepper, or half of one, into thin strips. By the way, along with the seeds, trim out the white ribs inside the chili: they contain most of the capsaicin, which gives the main heat.

Scald the tomatoes with boiling water, peel them and remove the seeds. The tomatoes should be as ripe, red and fresh as possible. Cut the tomato flesh into wedges or cubes. Peel the onion and cut it into thick strips.

Frying the onion and peppers

Pour vegetable oil into a sauté pan and fry a thinly sliced piece of pork salo or smoked bacon in it. Render the fat; you can take out the cracklings and eat them, or leave them in.
Fry the sliced onion until golden – over medium heat, uncovered, stirring often. Onion fried in a mix of vegetable oil and pork fat is very fragrant on its own and can already serve as a snack, especially with fresh bread.
Add the chopped red pepper and, if you decided to use it, the chopped hot pepper. Right away, add 0.5 tsp of sweet ground paprika. Stir and fry the onion with the red pepper for 3–4 mins.
Add the rest of the chopped peppers, stir and keep frying the vegetables for about 10 mins over medium heat. Don’t cover the pan: the peppers for lecho should fry.

Stewing with tomatoes

Season with salt and, if you like, some black pepper and 0.5 tsp of sugar (2 g). Black pepper and sugar usually aren’t added, but the slightly sweet taste of pepper lecho has its own charm, and many people like it. Add the chopped tomato flesh and fry for another 5 mins.
Turn the heat down to the minimum, cover the pan and stew the pepper lecho for at least 15 mins. If a lot of liquid has collected in the pan, remove the lid and, turning up the heat, cook off some of the liquid. The dish shouldn’t be runny – lecho should be quite thick.

Serving

And that’s it, the lecho is ready. All that’s left is to slice some fresh white bread and serve the lecho for breakfast.
To make lecho more filling and hearty, a few minutes before it’s done you can add whole sausages or pieces of smoked meat and stew everything together until done. Also, when you start stewing it under the lid, you can add a little rice boiled until almost done.
By the way, lecho is wonderfully tasty with fried rice: just put the rice on a plate and pour the lecho over it. Or add eggs beaten with a fork to the finished lecho, stir and let it stand for up to 10 mins so the eggs set.

Calories and macros

295 kcal

Serving ≈ 440 g

Protein5 g7% of kcal
Fat21 g68% of kcal
Carbs18 g26% of kcal

100 g67 kcalProtein 1 gFat 4.8 gCarbs 4.1 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

Which peppers and tomatoes to use

For lecho, peppers of any color will do, but use at least one red: it’s cut smaller and fried first, with the paprika. Tomatoes – the ripest and reddest you can find, peeled and seeded.

So the lecho isn’t runny

fry the peppers for lecho uncovered – they should really fry, not stew;
remove the seeds from the tomatoes;
if there’s a lot of liquid after stewing, take off the lid and cook it off over high heat.

Salo, bacon or neither

Smoked bacon gives lecho a light smoky aroma, plain salo – the mild taste of cracklings. For a meatless version, fry the onion in vegetable oil only – use 2 tbsp of it.

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Questions and answers

Can you can this lecho for winter?

No, this lecho goes straight to the table, it isn’t meant for canning. There’s no vinegar in it, it isn’t sterilized, and it’s made for two for breakfast. For winter you need a separate preserving recipe.

Can you make lecho in a skillet?

Yes, a deep skillet with a lid works instead of a sauté pan. The order is the same: fry uncovered first, then stew under the lid after adding the tomatoes.

Can you make lecho with tomato juice or tomato paste?

Yes, if you have no ripe tomatoes: instead of 2 tomatoes, use a cup of tomato juice (200 ml) or 1–2 tbsp of tomato paste (17–33 g) thinned with water. Then cook off the excess liquid uncovered.

Can you add garlic and carrots to lecho?

Yes – adapted lecho recipes with fried carrots are actually common here. Grate the carrot and fry it with the onion; finely chop the garlic and add it with the tomatoes.

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