Vegan Pierogi with Cheese Potato and Caramelized Onions

Recipe makes: Roughly 24 Pierogi

How long will it take to make these?

It depends on the person but I would say account for 1-2 hours.

# Vegan Pierogi # VeganpolishPierogi

I have quite a few polish friends and had yet to try Pierogi until I made these myself. I was greatly inspired mostly by a Polish Traveler who vlogs about traveling on YouTube and Instagram, her name is Eva Zu Beck. I’ve been watching her vlogs and YouTube for a while now and saw she was celebrating Christmas in Poland and she shared a little footage of the meal. The polish food looked amazing, and I really wanted to try making Pierogi. Pierogi they look complicated but are only just time consuming. I come to find, so worth it. The reality is there would probably be no opportunity unless I traveled to get me Pierogi so I rolled up my sleeves and made some, and will surely be making them again.

These Pierogi are somewhat inspired by traditional Polish Pierogi, aside from the fact they are not made with eggs or real butter. Actually you don’t require either to make a delicious potato’s pillow of Pierogi magic deliciousness. Nom these are insanely delicious, hearty, comforting, I can understand why they would be present at a holiday in Poland. And with respect and honor Poland I am going to share the recipe below so vegans can make these also.

I must credit 2 resources I found to be so helpful when being able to recreate these polish food pillows successfully. A blog called Connoisseurveg.com and the YouTube channel called The Polish Chef. I will link his video below.

If you really want to be successful and make a nice Pierogi think it’s totally worth it to check out his Polish Pierogi video and skip to the part where his wife shows you how to wrap the dough around the filling. There is a little technical bit to this and it’s the only challenge to making these, but it’s also fun I think.Don’t be intimidate. I found both sources to be helpful in entirety different ways. I don’t think these would have turned out as well as they did if I did not combine my resources of information and frankly the information I found varieties from both resources.

2 elements make up a Pierogi- the filing and the dough. So I will be sharing recipes for both and a method in which to prepare and roll/ wrap the dough over the filing.

Dough Recipe

• 3 cups of all- purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp of salt

• 1 cup of water

• 1/2 vegan butter melted ( I am using earth balance)

Filling Recipe

• 1 large onion diced small

• 2 russet potato’s ( peeled chopped and boiled till soft)

• 1/2 cup of white cabbage chopped fine

• 3 tablespoons of vegan cream cheese or cheese of choice ( I am using a Sedona local product called Dream Cheese)

• 3 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 1 tablespoon of vegan butter

• Salt and pepper to taste roughly 1/2 tablespoon

• 1/2 tablespoon of balsam vinegar)

Method to make the dough

1.) In a large bowl add flour and salt make a well with your hand and then procee to add melted butter, and water. Mix to combine in the bowl until ingredients start to form a ball of dough.

2.) Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and begin to knead for roughly 6-8 mins.

3.) After kneading dough, plastic wrap the dough and let rest for 15 mins- 1 hour. When you have finished prepping the filing the dough will be rested enough to prepare and stuff Pierogi.

Method to Make the Filling

We are first going to make the mashed potatoes and combine then add caramelized onion and cabbage mixture to the mashed potato’s.

1.) Start by Pre-Preparing all the ingredients: by peeling and rough chopping your potatoes, dice onion and set aside, dice cabbage and set aside, dice garlic and set aside.

2.) boil, strain and mash potatoes then add 1 tablespoon of butter and the cheese mash to further combine and set aside. Add salt to taste.

3.) In a cast iron pan add olive oil and saute the onions on medium heat for about 12-15mins stirring as they cook. Sauté till lightly brown, once lightly brown add a splash of balsamic vinegar to the onions.

4.) After adding the balsamic add the finely chopped cabbage and the garlic to the onions and cook for 5 more minutes until everything is fully cooked.

5. Add the cabbage and caramelized onion mixture together with the mashed potato mixture in and bowl and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Please before moving to the next steps. It is very important to try the filing, this is where all the flavor of the Pierogi will be.

PRE-STEP

Prepare a wide pot with 6 cup of water when Pierogi are ready they will be going in boiling water. So I suggest you start hearing the water or at least get the pot ready to go for after you finish making the dumplings. Rolling the Dough and Stuffing the Mixture

1.) Begin by a clearing some counter space so you can roll the dough out. For this you will just need a little flour to prevent sticking and a rolling pin, as well as a glass in which you can use to cut circular shapes from the dough.

2. Divide the dough in half and begin by rolling half of the dough into a 1/4 inch thick

flat disc.

3.) Using a glass 🥃 you are going to use the top of the glass to cut circular shapes out of the dough. It may be easier to wet the rim of the glass in a little water between cutting each circle. The circles ideally should be about or at least 3 inches circumference. If you have a leftover mason jar you can use this to cut circles are well. Use whatever you can find. 4.) The remaining dough leftover from the cutout can be used to roll out again to continue cutting circular shapes.

5.) Repeat with the other half of dough you previously divided you should get about 24 circles if you are using all the dough. If you have a little cookie scooper you can use this to get uniform scoops of the mixture on the dough. Otherwise we’er going for roughly 1 tablespoon of filling or a little less per Pierogi.

6.) Fold and stretch gently the two middle ends of the dough with the filling inside to begin sealing- filling in the pierogi. The edges of the dough in order to seal together must not have filling or anything touching the edges so you may need to stretch the two middles together. Using your finger seal and crimp the corners. Be very diligent when doing this otherwise the wrapper will open up when you go to boil.

So Seal Well!

7.) Prepare a lightly floured space where you can place your finished Pierogi that is ready to be boiled.

8.) Bring the pot of water that you prepared earlier to a boil. You are going to boil the dumplings for 3-4 mins. Add the dumplings very carefully to the boiling water you may want to work in small batches. The cooked Pierogi will float to the top and then you can using a slotted spoon transfer to a lightly oiled tray. The oil is to prevent the cooked Pierogi from sticking.

9.) To fry Pierogi you can add butter or olive oat to coat the pan and cook till brown on each side. 3/4 mins on each side for browning.

10.) Enjoy with a little sour cream or some more caramelized onions on top.