Russian meat-filled dumplings are known as pelmeni. During the long winters, making them is a favorite family activity. These dumplings are a typical fast food item. On demand, large batches can be swiftly boiled or fried from frozen. In our home, we normally multiply this recipe by two and fold roughly 200 pieces. Pelmeni are frequently served with vinegar or sour cream.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 100 pelmeni |
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup warm water, or more as needed
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour for dusting
- 18 ounces ground beef
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 ½ tablespoons ice-cold water
- 1 tablespoon coarse salt
- freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Make dough: Combine egg, oil, and salt in a liquid measuring cup; add enough warm water to fill to 1 cup. Pour into a large bowl and knead in 3 cups flour until smooth and elastic. Cover with a dish towel and let dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make filling: Combine ground beef, onion, water, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl; mix thoroughly by hand or using a fork. Set aside.
- Dust a baking sheet lightly with 1 tablespoon flour; set aside.
- Roll out a portion of dough very thinly on a lightly floured surface; keep remaining dough covered with a dish towel to avoid drying out. Cut out 2 1/2-inch rounds with a cookie cutter. Place about 1 teaspoon filling on one side of each dough circle. Fold dough over and seal the edges using your fingers, forming a crescent. Join the ends and pinch them together. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Freeze pelmeni for 30 minutes to prevent them from sticking together.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a simmer. Working in batches, cook frozen pelmeni in simmering water until meat is cooked through and pelmeni float to the top, about 5 minutes. Continue cooking for 5 more minutes. Transfer to serving plates using a slotted spoon.
- You can use a mixture of 1/2 ground pork and 1/2 ground beef. You can also use ground turkey.
- You can make the meat filling by processing the filling ingredients through a meat grinder. Only use a blender or food processor if you have a special setting for meat.
- If you’re not a fan of raw onion, you can sauté the onion in butter over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes before using it in the filling.
- You can make the dough in a Kitchen Aid; mix until the dough begins to form a ball.
- In Russia, people often use a pelmeni mold to form dumplings. To use one, roll out a portion of the dough very thinly on a lightly floured surface. You should end up with a circle slightly bigger than the mold. Place onto the mold, floured-side down. Place about 1 teaspoon filling into each cell. Cover with another thinly rolled dough circle and sprinkle with flour. Roll a rolling pin over the top until pelmeni start popping out from the mold. Gather remaining dough and add a little bit of new dough to it. Roll out again, repeating the process with remaining dough and filling.
- To fry pelmeni: Melt butter or bacon grease in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté frozen pelmeni in hot butter until soft and meat is cooked through, just like a pierogi.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 212 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 25 g |
| Cholesterol | 41 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 11 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 800 mg |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
turned out amazing
I did use a ground pork and beef mixture and after cooking in water, I lightly browned them in a small amount of butter. We love pierogies, Chinese dumplings, ravioli, and these are a great addition to our stuffed dumplings category. My grandkids love to help make these.
My wife and I made these today. Absolutely delicious. We used ground turkey but otherwise followed the recipe completely. We could hear “Somewhere My Love” in the background. Froze the balance for quick use.
Great recipe for fresh pelmeni, thank you for sharing This dough does not freeze well.
An old friend of mine made these many years ago. Called it “Pair of Mondays”. I added garlic and minced mushrooms, and cooked them in beef broth, then garnished them with dill weed. They are fantastic and easy to make. After 30 years they are again a regular treat for us.
In Lebanon we have a meat pie called “Sambousek” that’s almost identical to this recipe, but it’s folded differently at the end (just a crescent shape). One other thing we do differently is cook the meat prior to frying. I just couldn’t wrap my head around not draining the grease and frying these with raw meat as in the recipe. I would love to know what happens to the grease if you fry these with the meat uncooked. They’re so much work but totally worth it in the end. My kids don’t want to waist 5 days til Easter to eat them they’re that good!
Fond memories of Pelmeni making parties. My mom and several of her friends and my aunts would sit around the dining room table “folding” pelmeni. Hundreds would be made. Since my family is Russian by way of Shanghai we have and still eat them with vinegar and soya sauce. Delicious!
Russia has just been in the news so much that we had to take it upon ourselves to learn a little bit about their culture. Luckily we were able to find this great Russian Dumpling or “Pelmeni” recipe. Open your horizon’s people, food is the great unionizer!
Just like mom used to make, delicious. The dough stayed together while boiling. I did order a Pelmeni Mold from Ebay for $7.95 first. Five stars on this!
This recipe is AMAZING! It was easier then I thought. I have no complaints. I did do one thing differently. I made beef broth and cooked it that way. It was really yummy. That is how we grew up eating it. But sometimes I want to try it fried.
I did half pork and half beef for the mixture. We made them at work one night and everyone loved them. We brushed with some garlic butter and cooked them in an airfyer.
I looooove this Pelmeni recipe! It’s simple and delicious. I personally cut the onions really small (more of a mince than a chop) and I prefer to sauté them before adding them to the ground beef. Make sure you season with an ample amount of salt and pepper, if you don’t the filling will be bland. My favorite dipping sauce to serve with these is sour cream mixed with a splash or two of white vinegar (sometimes I add dill weed too). They freeze great, just make sure to flour them before putting them in the freezer. I didn’t do this the first time and they all stuck together. Banging them on the counter to separate them was a workout LOL.
We used half hamburger and half hot sausage, added fresh dill and a few shakes of Franks hotsauce, and garlic powder to the meat mixture. We also added a lot of fresh ground pepper. The dough was very firm and hard to roll out, I suspect that because of the firm dough I wasnt able to roll them as thinly as preferred. We chose to fry them and they turned out well. We’ve got plenty of frozen ones that we’ll try to boil. We garnished with sour cream and Sriracha sauce. We will make again.
I used deer instead of beef and it still tastes good.
These were amazing! An instant classic at our house!
Delicious pelmeni recipe.. so happy to make my own since the nearest Russian store is 50 miles away.
This is very good. I do have a pelmeni mould, and made no changes to the recipe other than first sautéing the onion. I think the seasonings can be enhanced – I’m not too fond of just salt and black pepper. I will make this again and tweak the seasonings to taste.