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How often homework saves us in winter. When there is absolutely no time for cooking, you can simply open a jar of delicious and satisfying salad, which will serve as a side dish for any dish. As such a blank, you can make everyone's favorite lecho salad. It consists mainly of tomatoes and bell peppers. In this article, we will look at options for preparing a blank with the addition of carrots. And also we will experiment and instead of tomatoes, we will try to add tomato juice to one of the recipes. Let's see what wonderful blanks we get.
The choice of products for lecho with carrots for the winter
To prepare a tasty and fragrant preparation, you need to listen to experienced masters of their craft. Let's start by choosing the ingredients. The taste and appearance of lecho depends on the choice of vegetables. Tomatoes for harvesting must necessarily be fleshy and juicy. Such vegetables do not have any damage or stains. It is allowed to use tomato paste instead of fresh tomatoes. Such a product must be of high quality and fresh, otherwise you can simply ruin the dish.
Sweet bell peppers can be of absolutely any color scheme. But red fruits are most often used. They shouldn't be too soft or overripe. Only dense and coarse peppers will do. Herbal lovers can add fresh or dry herbs to lecho. Parsley, cilantro, marjoram, basil, and thyme are commonly used.
The process of making a classic lecho
I am very glad that cooking lecho does not require much time and effort. The classic version of lecho is prepared as follows:
- First you need to prepare vegetables. The sweet bell peppers are washed and all seeds and cores are removed. Then the vegetables are cut in any convenient way (half rings, large slices or strips).
- Remove the stalks from tomatoes, and then remove the skin. To do this, the tomatoes are dipped in boiling water for a couple of minutes, after which they are immediately placed under cold water. The skin will now peel off easily. Then mashed tomatoes are made using a blender or meat grinder. Some do not grind tomatoes, but simply cut them into pieces. In this case, the lecho will look like a thick appetizer or salad, and with mashed potatoes it will look more like a sauce.
- Then sunflower oil and grated tomatoes are poured into a large container. The mixture is stewed for 15 minutes. After that, add chopped bell pepper to the pan and bring the mass to a boil.
- After the dish boils, you can add salt, spices and granulated sugar to the lecho. After that, the workpiece is extinguished for half an hour over low heat. Stir the salad from time to time.
- Five minutes before complete readiness, herbs and vinegar are added to the lecho.
- After 5 minutes, turn off the heat and start pouring the salad into jars.
Thus, a classic version of lecho is being prepared. But most housewives are used to adding other ingredients to it. For example, lecho is often prepared with onions, carrots, garlic, eggplant, hot peppers, zucchini and celery. In addition, there are recipes for harvesting with honey, horseradish, cloves and cinnamon.
Correct preservation
In principle, canning lecho is no different from canning other preparations for the winter.To keep the salad well, you need to wash the jars well with baking soda. Then the containers together with the lids are sterilized in any way convenient for you and dried on a towel. Hot salad is poured into dry sterilized jars and the blank is immediately rolled up with lids.
Rolled up cans are turned over with lids and wrapped well. In this form, the lecho should stand for at least 24 hours until the workpiece has completely cooled down. If the cans do not swell and leak, then the process went right, and the conservation will be stored for a long time.
Lecho recipe with carrots
You can make a delicious lecho from the following ingredients:
- Bulgarian pepper (preferably red) - 2 kg;
- carrots - half a kilogram;
- soft fleshy tomatoes - 1 kg;
- medium-sized onions - 4 pieces;
- garlic - 8 medium cloves;
- one bunch of cilantro and one bunch of dill;
- granulated sugar - a glass;
- ground paprika and black pepper - one teaspoon each;
- sunflower oil - a glass;
- 9% table vinegar - 1 large spoon;
- table salt to taste.
Cooking process:
- Tomatoes are thoroughly washed under running water and peeled. How this can be done is described above. Then each tomato is cut into 4 slices.
- Sweet bell peppers are also washed and the stalk is cut out. Then all seeds are removed from the pepper and cut into 4 slices, like tomatoes.
- Peel the onions, wash them under running water and cut them into thin half rings.
- The carrots are peeled, washed and cut into small pieces with a knife.
- To prepare lecho, you need to prepare a cauldron or a saucepan with a thick bottom. Sunflower oil is poured into it and onions are fried on it. When it loses color, chopped carrots are added to it.
- Next, chopped tomatoes are thrown into the pan. At this stage, salt the dish.
- In this form, the lecho is stewed for about 15 minutes over medium heat. If the tomatoes are very dense or not quite ripe, then the time should be extended by another 5 minutes.
- After that, add chopped bell pepper to the salad and stew the same amount under the lid.
- Then the lid is removed, the fire is reduced to a minimum and the dish is simmering for another 10 minutes. Lecho can stick to the bottom, so do not forget to stir the salad regularly.
- Meanwhile, clean and chop the garlic finely. It can also be passed through a press. Garlic is thrown into a saucepan along with vinegar and sugar.
- Lecho is boiled for another 20 minutes, after which washed and finely chopped greens, ground paprika and pepper are added. In this form, the salad languishes for the last 10 minutes.
- Now you can turn off the stove and start rolling the cans.
Lecho with carrots and tomato juice
To prepare the salad, we need:
- high-quality tomato juice - three liters;
- Bulgarian pepper (preferably red) - 2.5 kilograms;
- garlic - one head;
- carrots - three pieces;
- parsley greens - one bunch;
- fresh dill - one bunch;
- hot red pepper - one pod;
- table vinegar - 4 tablespoons;
- granulated sugar - 100 grams;
- sunflower oil - 200 milliliters;
- table salt - 2.5 tablespoons.
Cooking lecho from carrots, tomato juice and pepper:
- The Bulgarian pepper is washed, peeled from seeds and the stalks are removed. Then it is cut into medium-sized strips.
- Carrots are peeled, washed and grated on the coarsest grater.
- Parsley with dill is washed under running water and finely chopped with a knife.
- Spicy pepper cleaned of seeds. Garlic is peeled and passed through a meat grinder together with hot pepper.
- Then all the prepared ingredients are transferred to a large saucepan and poured tomato juice... Only vinegar is left (we will add it at the end).
- The saucepan is put on a small fire and boiled under the lid for half an hour. From time to time, the salad is stirred so that it does not stick to the walls and bottom.
- 5 minutes until fully cooked, vinegar should be poured into the lecho and the salad should be brought to a boil again. Then the pan is removed from the heat and immediately begin to pour the workpiece into the jars.
This option bell pepper lecho and the juice is prepared even faster, since you do not need to sort and peel each tomato. Some people generally use diluted tomato paste instead of juice. But, it is better to prepare a salad with tomatoes or, in extreme cases, with tomato juice.
Conclusion
In winter, there is nothing better than homemade tomato and bell pepper lecho. You already know how to cook lecho. As you can see, you can add not only the usual ingredients to it, but also carrots and onions, garlic and various herbs, ground paprika and even cloves. Thus, the salad becomes more flavorful and tasty. Be sure to please your family with homemade lecho with onions and carrots.
