Lecsó is a traditional Hungarian summer dish. Well, I have improved it. Yeah, I am that confident, that once you try this, you will not want to make it differently. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
The veggies:
1 zucchini, sliced into half cm half circles
4 medium sized bell peppers
0,5 kg roma tomatoes, skins off, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch of your fav greens (parsley, chives, dill, basil, etc.)
The meat:
100 g smoked bacon, cubed
1 chorizo or Hungarian paprikás kolbász
Spices and others:
200 ml of bone broth (optional, I use organic, no salt)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sweet red Hungarian paprika (optional. I only use it if I don't have a good paprikás kolbász on hand)
2 tbs of tomato paste
1 tbs of tomato powder (optional, but makes it taste richer)
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Preheat your best skillet. When hot, turn the heat to medium heat and add the bacon and cook for a 2 minutes before you add the chorizo or kolbász. Cook until almost done, for about 4 minutes and take the bacon and your meat out.
In the rendered fat, add in the onions and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Add in the cumin and coriander and cook it until the spices a cooked. Turn the heat down and add in the paprika, if using. Be careful, because it burns fast. I usually have a bit of bone broth ready to add at this stage not to burn the paprika.
Add in the peppers and stir well. Let it cook for 5 minutes, then add the zucchini. Stew for another 5 minutes. At this stage I make a little cross on the skin of the tomatoes, put them in a small pot and cover them with boiling water for a minute or so. It makes it easier to peal the skin off. Then I chop them and add them into the lecsó.
Now, you can add the tomato paste, tomato powder and adjust seasoning to taste. Dump back the bacon and chorizo. At this stage I add in the bone broth, just because we need that extra collagen goodness for our gut, joint, skin and hair health. And I like it quite thin :) Stir everything, tun it off and let it sit for as long as you can to let the flavours marry. Top it with your greens (parsley, chives, dill, coriander, basil...). We usually eat it immediately. But because there are left over, we always promise to each other that next time, we will let the lecsó rest before we eat it, because it is soooo goooood the next day.