Homemade Lyutenitsa
This is lyutenitsa from our family recipe from the village of Trud near Plovdiv. The quantity is for a minimal amount of products - so a person can cook it like a dish, taste it, and if they like it, they can increase the dose proportionally and prepare it as winter preserves. I wanted lyutenitsa with cheese for breakfast, and since my supplies ran out and I don't want to buy store-bought stuff full of chemicals - I rolled up my sleeves and made myself one small pot.
Ingredients
| 1 kg | roasted red peppers |
| 500 g | ripe tomatoes |
| 250 g | roasted eggplant (one larger) |
| 125 g | boiled carrots (one or two carrots) |
| 1/2 head | onion, finely chopped |
| 1 clove | garlic |
| 15 g | sugar |
| 15 ml | vinegar (or 30 ml red wine) |
| 10 g | salt |
| 50 ml | oil / olive oil |
| 1 pinch | savory (chubritsa) |
| 1 pinch | black pepper |
| 1 pinch | cumin (a slightly smaller, more delicate pinch) |
Instructions
- If you want to make it the completely lazy way - the taste starts to suffer slightly, but it can be compensated to some extent. In that case, cut the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes coarsely and roast them in the oven with a little fat. It's good if you have a stem/twig from the tomatoes to leave that in as well, it gives a stronger aroma.
- When they are ready, take them out of the oven and, while hot, puree them in a blender (without the tomato stem). You can pass them through a sieve to remove seeds and skins, or you can skip this step.
- In a pot, sweat the finely chopped onion, grated carrot and garlic. Add the pureed mixture, the wine and the spices and boil down until done.
You can get closer to the smoky taste of the original lyutenitsa by adding a little smoked red pepper (paprika).
Try it! An experiment in a small pot 😊