Zucchini lecho, the recipe for which will beis given below, can be served both hot and cold. It serves as a good addition to other food in winter. In summer, when going on a picnic, you can also use lecho, only fresh, cooked right there, in nature, on a fire. Like any food cooked on an open fire, zucchini lecho in this case becomes unusually tasty. To prepare this dish, you will need the following products based on the preparation of lecho from 3 kg of zucchini. The recipe for this dish is quite simple and does not require any special skills to prepare it.
- zucchini — 3 kg;
- onion - 0.5 kg;
- carrots - 0.5 kg;
- tomatoes - 2 kg;
- red bell pepper - 1 kg;
- sunflower oil - 1 cup;
- salt - 2 tbsp;
- sugar — 1 glass;
- rayhon (basil) or rosemary - 1 sprig;
- vinegar - 1 teaspoon;
- garlic - 1 head;
- black pepper - 1 teaspoon;
Now let's start cooking
First, peel and chop the onion and carrot.The onion can be cut into large slices, and the carrots into strips. The onion is fried in sunflower oil until golden brown. Then the carrots are added and fried as well. The zucchini is peeled and cut into large slices. The slices really should be large. The zucchini is added to the onion and carrots and fried over low heat until they become transparent. It is very important not to overcook the zucchini, otherwise you will get a shapeless mush. Zucchini, fried strictly according to the recipe, retains an appetizing appearance and excellent taste. The next step is to prepare the bell peppers and tomatoes. If you want the dish to be more tender, you need to peel these vegetables. This is easy to do if you immerse them in boiling water for a few seconds. This process is quite labor-intensive, and it is up to you to decide whether to do it or not. Lecho is also delicious if you use the peppers and tomatoes with the skins. Red bell peppers and tomatoes are minced or ground in a blender. Add ground garlic, raikhon or rosemary, salt and sugar. It should be said that garlic is much easier to peel if you divide the head into cloves. They are soaked in cold water for 10 minutes. The resulting mass is put on low heat and boiled for 10 minutes. It is necessary to stir it constantly to avoid burning. At this stage, add a teaspoon of vinegar. After 10 minutes of boiling, the fried mixture that you prepared at the very beginning is added to the sauce of bell peppers and tomatoes. That is, the fried mass of onions, carrots and zucchini. All this is cooked for another 10 minutes. That's it, the lecho is ready. If you want to prepare it for the winter, let's start preserving it.
Preserving lecho from vegetable marrows
First, you should sterilize the jars.The jars are washed well, then placed in a manty cooker for 15 minutes. They can also be sterilized in the oven or over steam coming from a boiling kettle. The finished lecho is placed in the jars, and the jars are placed in a large pan with boiling water for 10 minutes. Then the jars are taken out and rolled up with metal lids. To do all these manipulations with hot jars, it is convenient to use special tongs. Zucchini lecho, prepared according to the given recipe, if the jars are well sterilized, can be stored for quite a long time, it can be used at any time to serve on the table. It is important to use basil or rosemary, as it gives this dish a unique piquant taste. If you are preparing zucchini lecho not for canning, but for serving on the table immediately after cooking, you can add greens to it. This can be dill, cilantro or parsley. Usually all three of these herbs are added, but if you don’t like any of them, you can limit yourself to adding one or two. When preserving, greens are not added to lecho. This is important! It should be said that lecho can also be prepared from eggplants using exactly the same recipe. But the dish with zucchini has a more delicate taste. These two recipes differ from each other only in the replacement of zucchini with eggplant. All other ingredients, as well as proportions, remain the same as those given in this recipe. What to use, zucchini or eggplant, is up to you.