Sausage Leczo / Lecso (Hungarian Vegetable Stew)

Sausage Leczo / Lecso (Hungarian Vegetable Stew) – only 4 ingredients and a great use for your summer vegetables! Full of tomatoes, green peppers and onion!

My dad’s dad (my grandpa) was from Hungary and we grew up eating a delicious Hungarian stew called lecso (lay-cho). When I did research on the history of this traditional vegetable stew, however, I found that other countries have their own version. And that version is often spelled leczo.

This probably isn’t a big deal. It probably isn’t any kind of deal at all. I had several moments of wonder though, wondering if I had been spelling it wrong for 30 years. For that reason alone,  I will reference both spellings in this post.

Digging this recipe out of the family coffers was more difficult than I expected it to be. Several phone calls and emails to my dad, asking for the recipe, amounted to no response or a half response. I finally had to reach out to my uncle and my dad’s cousin. And that’s when I realized that my dad’s half response was actually the recipe.

Doh.

Lecso / leczo is so easy to make that for over a year I thought he was trying to keep the recipe from me. In reality, I just didn’t understand the recipe is very simple.

Sausage Leczo / Lecso (Hungarian Vegetable Stew)

Leczo/lecso is a vegetable stew that is part of traditional Hungarian and European cuisine. My family always adds sausage to it but if you are looking for a vegetarian soup and leave it out, you will still have a delicious soup.

To make this stew, you put your vegetables in a big pot and let them cook down until the heat and steam creates a juicy broth right from the veggies.

My dad kept telling me, “Jen, get some tomatoes and green peppers and the biggest onion you can find and put it all in a pot.” If you heard that, you would probably think something was missing too.

After my other family members reiterated the simple recipe, I set out to find the best ratio of vegetables. Luckily it is August and harvest season.

If you are lucky enough to have a vegetable garden or a nearby awesome farmer’s market, save some veggies to make this soup. If not… buy some at the store and make this soup. Basically, just make this soup. You will be glad you did!

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Sausage Leczo / Lecso (Hungarian Vegetable Stew)

Sausage Leczo / Lecso (Hungarian Vegetable Stew) - only 4 ingredients and a great use for your summer vegetables! Full of tomatoes, green peppers and onion!

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Ingredients

• 2 pounds tomato
• 2 pounds green pepper
• 1 large yellow onion
• 32 ounces smoked polish sausage, cut into 1/2 inch rounds

Instructions

1. Cut your vegetables. The tomatoes should be cut into wedges, the green peppers should be cut into strips with seeds discarded, and the onion should be cut into 6-8 wedges (depending on how large your onion is.)
2. Put the tomatoes, green pepper and onion into a large soup pot. Set heat to medium and cover the pot. Stir occasionally. After 30 minutes, add the sausage.
3. Cook for at least 30 more minutes. Soup is done when the vegetables are tender and a vegetable broth has developed.

Notes

Optional: Fry sausage rounds before adding to soup pot.

Did you make this recipe?

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Looking for more recipes for summer vegetables?

Try this easy roasted garlic basil pasta sauce

or this summer pesto pasta!

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