Vareniki with Potato and Mushrooms
Vareniki (varenyky, pirogi) are stuffed dumplings from Ukraine made from unleavened dough and different fillings. Some of the more popular fillings are vegetables, boiled potatoes, salted cabbage, baked pumpkin, fruits and berries, meat, mushroom, cheese, poppy seed or buckwheat. My favorite fillings are meat, potatoes with onions and mushrooms, cottage cheese or curd cheese and cherries. Vareniki with berry or fruit fillings usually are topped with a little sugar and served with fruit syrup.
A few basic rules: the dough should always be elastic. Vareniki should never be allowed to stick to one another during cooking.
Vareniki are served hot with sour cream, shkvarki (fried pieces of lard), butter or syrup separately. Vareniki with potatoes and mushrooms are served on top with sautéed mushrooms and onions.
This dish along with borscht is considered typical in Ukrainian cuisine and are often mentioned in Ukrainian folklore. Vareniki has worldwide twins: pelmeni (Russian and Ukrainian cuisine), dumplings, manti (Turkic cuisine, as well as Hejaz and Caucasian, Central Asian and Chinese Islamic cuisines), kolduni (Belarusian and Lithuanian cuisine), ravioli (Italian cuisine), khinkali (Georgian cuisine) are all close relatives to the vareniki.
There is also lazy vareniki, shaped dumplings made by mixing tvorog (curd cheese) with eggs and flour into quick dough. The cheese-based dough is formed into a long sausage about 2 cm thick, which is cut diagonally into gnocchi, called halushky (halushki) in Ukrainian. They are quickly boiled in salted water and served with sour cream, jam or melted butter.
Usually we’re making vareniki and pelmeni with my mom. This process is long, takes no less than 3 hours, but you can make a lot of them and part can be frozen for later.
They can be enjoyed as an appetizer, main dish, an entrée, or as a dessert.
I love this homemade food!
Vareniki with Potato and Mushrooms Recipe
By Published: March 11, 2015
Vareniki (varenyky, pirogi) are stuffed dumplings from Ukraine made from unleavened dough and different fillings. Some of the more …
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 50 g butter
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 400 g flour sifted
- 300 ml water
- 600 g potatoes for the filling
- 500 g mushrooms for the filling
- 40 g butter for the filling
- 1 large onion
- salt, pepper to taste, for the filling
- vegetable oil
Instructions
- Mix the flour with the cooled melted butter in a bowl, eggs, salt and water. Knead the dough, it's supposed to be elastic and does not stick to your hands. Cover and leave for 30 minutes.
- Boil the whole potatoes until cooked, cool, peel and mash into a puree. Add butter, salt and pepper. Or you can cut the potatoes in medium-large cubes and boil.
- Finely chop the mushrooms and onion and fry in vegetable oil for about 5 minutes, add salt and pepper. Mix with mashed potatoes.
- Roll out the dough thinly, cut with a cup or glass round shapes, put the filling on each about 1 tsp, connect the edges and tightly hold them together with your fingers. Alternatively, you can roll the dough and cut it into medium pieces then roll each into a circle, dipped in flour.
- Cook vareniki for about 2-3 minutes in salted boiling water. Serve immediately.
- I like fried vareniki, so put your boiled vareniki in a pan with butter and fry on both sides over medium heat until golden brown for a couple of minutes.
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