Lecho – Marinated Red Bell Peppers

This is a very common Slavic canned vegetable salad. The flavors are so simple, but nevertheless, very satisfying. It is great to have on hand to serve as a side dish and I love it so much I often eat it all by itself as a snack.  This is a very straightforward and foolproof way of making lecho. If you make a huge batch, you will need to sterilize the jars, however, I store mine in the refrigerator and eat it so quickly that sterilizing isn’t important. I love V8 vegetable juice, but you can use any kind of tomato juice.   

Yield: 5 quarts

Ingredients:

4 lbs red bell peppers

2 lbs carrots

5 large onions

1 (46 oz) bottle, vegetable (tomato) juice

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup white vinegar

4 garlic cloves

2-4 teaspoons salt

Seed the bell peppers, cut them in half lengthwise, and then slice into 2 inch chunks. If the bell pepper is big you may need to cut each piece in half. Peel and chop the carrots into 1/4” circles. Peel and slice the onions in half and into half circles.

In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, pour in ½-1 Tablespoons oil, and cook the carrots and onions in two batches. Season with ½ tsp of salt, cover and cook, stirring frequently for 8-10 min. Do the same with the peppers, in three batches. The carrots and peppers should be tender but still crisp and not falling apart.

Meanwhile, in a large pot, about 8 quarts, pour in all the vegetable juice and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat. Add each batch of vegetables as soon as they are done cooking. Add sugar, vinegar and garlic. Season with salt. (The amount will depend on how salty the vegetable juice is. If it’s low sodium juice, you will need to add more than to the regular juice.) I store the lecho in 1 quart glass canning jars.

 Make Ahead:

Lecho is wonderful to have on hand. Of course, you make it ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. Any time you need a quick side dish, all you have to do is pour it into a serving dish. It’s also a great addition to other dishes, such as Lazy Cabbage Rolls.  

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