This dinner probably doesn’t look like much, but when my Mom told us we were having Letcho for dinner, we went crazy for it. For me to say that my siblings and I LOVE this stuff would be an understatement. It brings us back to being kids and trading our vegetables at the dinner table.

“I’ll trade my mushrooms for your green peppers”

OR

“I’ll trade your 2 pieces of meat for the rest of my rice”

etc. etc.

Surprisingly, my parents didn’t care too much that we did this. In retrospect, I guess it’s not that big of a deal. Speaking of my parents, this meal has a lot of significance for them. Maybe not a whole lot of significance, but significance none the less. This is the meal that my Opa (thats Grandpa in german) made for my Dad the first time my Mom brought him home to meet the parents back in the day when they were dating! Funny part of this story is that my Opa purposely used the spiciest sausage he could find to ‘see how much of a man’ my Dad was. It apparently didn’t scare him off because soon after they were engaged! 30+ years and 6 kids later, we all still eat and crave letcho. Its just plain ol’ good, simple Hungarian food.

This whole meal doesn’t take a lot of prep work, just some chopping of the vegetables and meat. Then after that, you sauté it all, add the rice and cook it in tomato or vegetable juice. *Side note: My Mom always made this with tomato juice, but I have found that if you make it with some vegetable juice (like V8) it adds more nutrition and tastes exactly the same. So really, its up to you. Also, if you wanted to try brown rice, go for it! I’ve never tried making this with brown rice, but it should work just fine–it just might take a little longer to cook. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post for the recipe tips! They will help you not burn your food or have to scrub your pot! Enjoy and you’re welcome.

Letcho

yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 cup mushrooms, washed and sliced

2 pre cooked sausages, slices (I used pepperoni, but you can use your favorite kind of sausage)

2 cups long grain rice

4 1/2 cups vegetable juice or tomato juice

salt

pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Pretend there’s a photo of that here.

2. Take your chopped onions and peppers and throw them into the pot. Saute 5-ish minutes.

3. Cut your mushrooms and sausage up and throw those into the pot too.