We’ve been spoiled with a hot summer in London this year, but a couple of cooler days last week were a great reminder that autumn is slowly approaching. And to me, autumn is the time for cosy, warming, comfort meals. There are a few autumnal dishes that my Mum only made when the required ingredients were in season. One of such recipes are knedle – potato dumplings with plums. You can find a recipe for those on my blog. I’ve already made them this year, they are delicious! An example of a savoury autumnal meal that I’ve always loved is leczo – a bell pepper stew. So a few days ago, I decided to recreate it. I put a little twist on it to use ingredients available in the UK, but it turned out great! It’s simple to make and certainly hits the spot. Give it a go!

Ingredients for Polish leczo

For 4 servings you will need:

• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 3 white bell peppers
• 4 salad tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 50g chorizo*
• 10 chicken chipolatas*
• 5-6 twigs of fresh oregano
• seasoning: salt, pepper, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, mixed herbs, chili powder

* Traditionally, leczo uses good quality, smoked Polish sausage. I replaced it with Heck Chicken Italia Chipolatas and chorizo.

Also:

• small amount of oil for frying – I used low calorie oil spray
• white rice to serve with leczo

How to make Polish bell pepper stew

Make sure to wash the bell peppers and tomatoes.

Remove the cores and seeds from the peppers, then cut them into long strips, and then into smaller chunks – around half an inch long. No need to chop the peppers too finely.

Dice the onion and tomatoes too. Again, no need to make the pieces really small. Make sure not to let the juices from the tomatoes go to waste. We need all the liquid to prevent the vegetables from burning.

Cut the chorizo into small pieces.

On a pan, fry the chicken sausages until cooked through. Then, take them off the pan and let them cool down a bit.

In a large pot, sauté the onion on low heat with a bit of oil – I use low calorie oil sprays, but feel free to use whatever oil you prefer.

Once the onion has softened, add the chorizo and fry everything together for about a minute.

Add the tomatoes – with their juicy insides – and bell peppers. Cover the pot and set it on very low heat.

Cut the sausages into 1cm pieces, then add them into the pot.

Let the contents of the pot slowly cook until all of the vegetables are soft and there’s a lot of sauce. It might take about an hour – don’t try to speed it up by increasing the heat or the vegetables at the bottom of the pot might burn. Make sure to stir occasionally.

For the last few minutes of cooking the leczo, add fresh oregano leaves from 5-6 twigs. Add seasoning to taste: salt, pepper, sweet paprika, smoked paprika and mixed herbs. You can also add some chili powder for extra spice.

What to serve with Polish bell pepper stew

In my mind, leczo has to be served with rice. Ideally, white rice – whilst wholegrain rice has a bit more fibre, there’s already a lot of fibre in leczo, so using white rice won’t hurt you. And it fits much better!

Feel free to experiment with other carbs too – I’d love to hear your opinions. But for me, leczo has to go with rice!

Nutritional value of leczo

The whole recipe, not including the rice, has 1017 kcal, 30 grams of fat, 117 grams of carbs, 80 grams of protein, and 26 grams of fibre.

Assuming that you split it into 4 portions, each of them will have 254 kcal, 7.5 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs, 20 grams of protein and 6.5 grams of fibre.

Keep in mind that bell peppers vary in size, and sausages can have different nutritional values depending on the brand. The above values are an estimation based on the ingredients I used.

Ingredient swaps

If you want to make this leczo more authentic, I recommend using good quality Polish smoked sausage instead of the chicken chipolatas and chorizo. The more sausage, the better!

Alternatively, if you want to make this bell pepper stew vegan, feel free to use vegan sausages instead.

Not all colours of bell peppers are easily accessible in all countries. For example, in the UK, finding white bell peppers is a difficult task – I managed to get them in a Polish store, as they’re not commonly sold in supermarkets. In general, you can use whatever bell peppers you have. Just keep in mind that orange and red bell peppers tend to be quite sweet, while white and green are not. It’s all about the balance! If you have too many green bell peppers, consider adding a bit of sugar to your stew.

How to store leczo

You can store leczo in the fridge for 3-4 days, it will last fine.

If you want to preserve it for longer, you can freeze your leczo for a quick meal that you can defrost in a microwave.

My mum always made a huge pot of leczo and then preserved it in jars like jam. If you’re into your preserves, feel free to do that! I’ve never tried that method myself and I’m not able to provide advice on it.

Also see:

• Food
• Savoury