Olha’s Varenyky (perogies) from Ukraine Although a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses may be used to stuff these dough half-moons, the most popular fillings for Christmas Eve are potatoes and cabbage.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- ½ cup water
- 6 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 pound sauerkraut
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- ½ cup butter
- 3 cups finely shredded green cabbage
- 1 cube chicken bouillon
- 2 teaspoons pepper
Instructions
- To make the dough, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add the soft butter and evaporated milk; stir gently until all the liquid is absorbed. Add water only as needed, kneading continuously until dough sticks together. Place dough into a greased bowl, turn to coat, and let rest for 30 minutes.
- To make the potato filling, place potatoes into a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. Melt 1/2 cup butter in a medium skillet, over medium heat. Saute onions in butter until tender. Mix the onions into the potatoes along with the cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- To make the sauerkraut and cabbage filling, pour the drained sauerkraut into a large saucepan. In a medium skillet, saute 2 onions in 1/2 cup butter until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir the onions into the sauerkraut along with the cabbage and chicken bouillon cube. Cook over low heat until liquid evaporates. Season with pepper and remove from heat. Allow the mixture to cool, then run through a grinder or food processor.
- Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to 1/8 inch in thickness. Cut into 3 inch circles. Place one tablespoon of filling onto one side of the circle. Fold the other half over and press the edges to seal. Place finished dumplings onto a floured tray and keep covered.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop 10 or so dumplings into the water at a time. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, then remove to a colander to drain. Place finished dumplings onto a lightly oiled dish and turn them to coat with a thin layer. This will keep them from sticking together. Serve dumplings with fried onions and sour cream. Cooled dumplings also can be fried in oil and butter for a nice crispy surface.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 636 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 82 g |
| Cholesterol | 76 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 16 g |
| Saturated Fat | 17 g |
| Sodium | 919 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 28 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Oh.my.God Okay,so I made these for extra credit for a history class project,where I talked about Ukraine. I found this recipe and thought, “hey,this should be good,it looks pretty good!” Pretty good is an understatement.It was AMAZING I’ll DEFINITELY be making this again
We loved this recipe! We are returned Oeace Corps volunteers from Ukraine (2003-05) and have eaten many delicious bowls of Varenyky!! We did make some changes. I mashed the potatoes. I also added some nonfat Greek yogurt and extra milk to the dough. I had no “smetana” in the house. The dough was wonderful and they turned out fantastically. Thank you! I wish I could post more pictures of my daughters and husband making it and the final product!
Delicious!
As others have said is a very easy recipe. I also prefer the mashed potatoes. I found that you can stick just about anything inside them; cheese, jalapenos, sauerkraut, corn, sausage. I prefer them boiled but refrying them with butter just adds a different layer of flavor. I’ve eaten about 30 in the last few days because they are that good. I even made a dessert version. Leftover ricotta cheese for a lasagna, put some cherry pie filling, deep fry until golden brown, and you end up with a quite tasty semi sweet dessert.
I made this directly as written. They were so yummy! Definitely will make again.
My daughter and I used this recipe to maker Perogies. We too mashed the potatoes, but also added sour cream to the dough mixture. It made the dough easy to work with and they turned out great.
Great dough made these ahead frozen great
OMG I loved it!! I am Ukrainian and know what quality vareneky are. These were really good.
Great recipe! The dough was tender and easy to work with
These turned out well. I’m excited to share them with my husband who has never had perogies. Like another reviewer, I too ended up with left over filling, about a third. I think part of the issue is this recipe (and every other perogie recipe I could find) does not give an actual measurement for the potatoes. Exactly what a “large” potato is varies from person to person. I used a pound of potatoes. And I think the 5lbs of flour would have been fine except that I had trouble rolling it thin. I used water instead of the sour cream someone suggested. I think next time I will try that. I just saved the left over filling as awesome mashed potatoes for another dish. As the filling goes, I thought it was a little bland and seasoned it to taste with garlic powder. It came out awesome! When boiling the perogies, follow the gnocchi rule – if it floats to the surface, it’s done. I then pan fried the perogies and seasoned with garlic salt. I pan fried onions and peppers (a MUST when it comes to serving perogies) and also seasoned with garlic salt. And combined the two. Delicious!
Absolutely amazing recipe. I made these for a foods class in school a few years ago and they were a huge hit. Fairly simple to make and they tasted awesome. I made the recipe to the full serving size so I had a bunch to throw in the freezer. They still tasted great cooked from frozen. I made these a few more times after using extra cheese and adding bacon (to the potato variety) and they were also great. Would definitely recommend.
This turned out really well! I have eaten authentic perogie before and this turned out just as good! The dough was pretty tough to roll out, though. Next time I plan to add a bit more water and see if that helps. It took me about 2.5 hrs to prepare everything and then to cook 20 of them to eat. So, you might want to add a bit more time if you are scheduling to cook this. I also had quite a bit of filling left over…not sure why, but that is ok. I’m just freezing it and will use it next time. Update: I made my second batch and used 1 1/2 cups of the evaporated milk (instead of just one), and then I added 1/2 cup water. This really helped the dough be much easier to work! Tip: When rolling out the dough, flip the dough over quite often and roll out again (maybe 5-6 times) for each part you roll out.
This was a good recipe. I used saurkraut and a can of corned beef and potatoes with some cheddar cheese for the filling. It was really tasty.
Some people might not know you have to peel the potato’s before you cube and boil them.
Love this recipe it makes the best perogies. The dough is tough to role out but I just cut into squares the run though a pasta machine on the thickest setting. with out the pasta maker it would be tough but not impossible. I also usually use more water than what it calls for it makes the dough easier to stick together when making the Perigees.
The dough turned out to be too tough and difficult to roll out.
These were really amazing. I love the option to customize the filling. They were the best perogies ever. They did take a while to make, I boiled the potatoes and made the dough the day before, then to assemble it still took me 2 hours to make a half batch of the recipe. Since my husband likes everything hot & spicy, after using half the filling/dough to make the regular recipe for the kids, I added a few healthy glugs of hot sauce to the filling for the remaining half of the batch. They were utterly amazing. Even the half batch meant I have a whole other meal in the freezer for another day. (that will be much less time consuming!) OH and yes I did fry them in butter/olive oil after boiling them. Serve w/sour cream. YUM!
yummy,,that’s all I have to say.
My roommate my first year in college was from a polish family, and her mom made me the first perogies id ever had. This recipe is very good, though it takes a bit of finesse and practice to put the filing in the dumplings the way her mom told me it was supposed to be done. i used mashed potatoes, and i put half bacon fat half butter in the skillet when i sauted them for a bit of extra flavor.
Excellent, I love this recipe
I made these for an extra credit assignment for my Ukrainian Culture class. They were definitely unlike anything I’ve ever eaten before. Tasty little things with the alternate filling… dough was hard to work with. I would also recommend frying them up at the end as suggested.