Background

The Hungarian pepper and tomato stew (lecso) is one of the basic, most popular dishes in Hungarian cuisine. It’s very similar to ratatouille, but the Hungarian version only has peppers & tomatoes, spiced with paprika. Despite using only a few ingredients, there are no two households that make this dish the same way!  As I live in the UK it’s not easy to find Hungarian yellow paprika (sometimes in Turkish shops) so I make my lecho with belle peppers. Lecso can be served as a main dish (with pasta, rice or bread) or as a side dish with grilled meat. It can be preserved for the winter in jars too (particularly  the sauce version). Below is the basic, vegan recipe - diced chorizo-like sausage or bacon can be added to it (just fry them together with the onion). In my family, we also like stirring in 2- 3 lightly whisked eggs at the end, and make a sort of scrambled lecso – this is a much-loved supper of my kids (although not very aesthetic looking).