easy as pie...roigi
March 16, 2006 2:03 PM   Subscribe

Wanna help a girl get her pierogi on?

I love pierogi and want to start making my own. I'm a vegetarian right now, which still leaves me quite a few of pierogi options, but I may be becoming a vegan sometime soon. I have looked to pierogi recipes that would not use animal products, but every dough recipe I found calls for egg or sour cream. Anyone have a pierogi dough recipe that doesn't call for those?

Also, any pierogi tips from those in the know?

Please, please, please do not turn this into a diet debate thread. Just looking for a recipe.
posted by piratebowling to Food & Drink (18 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
There's no dough recipe here, but some good tips nonetheless.
posted by meerkatty at 2:08 PM on March 16, 2006


Kind of a sidebar-

My great-aunt made pierogi with my sisters and I as kids, we used to use an overturned glass dipped in milk as the "cookie cutter" for the dough. I wonder if the same effect would be achieved with soymilk or water? (honest question, haven't made the big P in years)
posted by clango at 2:18 PM on March 16, 2006


i am now officially using pierogies as a friendship litmus test. where do all of you people come from who eat them?! why do 50% of the people i know not even know what they are?!

i was in slovakia a couple years ago and my ....second cousin once removed? made the most amazing pierogies ever, they were much smaller than, say, Mrs T's, or any other ones i've ever come across. i'm sure they had like sixty sticks of butter in them, though.

would it be too impolite to hijack this thread a little bit and see if anyone has an especially good pierogi recipe, period? i'll make up for it by spending weeks and weeks and hundreds of dollars in potatoes and flour attempting to make them vegan.
posted by soma lkzx at 2:26 PM on March 16, 2006


Best answer: Google's as in the know as anyone:
Vegan Pierogi Recipe
Which, strangely, was my Google search term as well.
posted by disillusioned at 2:48 PM on March 16, 2006


I have a totally kickass pierogi recipe from my Polish grandmother, but I can't give it to you because (1) it took 30 years for my own mother to give it to me, and she would disown me if I gave it to the internets; and (2) someday when I get tired of 18 hour days at work and long for a better life, I am going to open a little pierogi shop and me and my as yet unborn children and maybe even NortonDC if I can get him to give up his lucrative day gig are going to sit around the kitchen making millions of the little suckers end eventually earning a name and reputation for ourselves that spreads to the four corners of the earth.

Sadly, I would not be able to look forward to this delightful future if I shared my pierogi recipe with you. Sorry. I will say that the dough does call for egg, but I thought there were substitutes for that now.

Anyway, good luck!
posted by onlyconnect at 3:50 PM on March 16, 2006


i am now officially using pierogies as a friendship litmus test. where do all of you people come from who eat them?! why do 50% of the people i know not even know what they are?!

I'd guess that those 50% are not from, nor do they live, in towns with significant Eastern European populations...

My Polish great-grandmother 's recipe is something like:
Pile the flour in a tall mound on the counter. Make a big dent like a bowl in the top of the pile. Crack egg into dent. Work dough. Roll out thin. Use big water glass dipped in milk to cut circles. Fill with filling of choice. Fold over and crimp with fingers.

Amounts? Seasonings? Filling ingredients? Secrets?
Nahh, she'd just shrug and say that she didn't know and chalk it up to "you know, whatever you like" and "years of practice" and "shoo, you're distracting me."
posted by desuetude at 5:46 PM on March 16, 2006


Desuetude - we must have shared the same great-grandmother.

As for vegan pierogis, what will you dress them with? My mum always fried up bacon and onions to serve on top. I've also had a great restaurant version dressed with cheddar cheese and steamed broccoli. I suppose you could substitute soy cheese...Please post if you find an acceptable recipe / replacement for sour cream.

BTW, pierogis (storebought - and dressed with bacon & onions) are our Christmas Eve celebration dinner.
posted by TorontoSandy at 7:09 PM on March 16, 2006


If you live in Saskatchewan, these are not considered ethnic food. Everybody eats them. I have never seen the spelling you use though.

Its totally unhealthy but deep-fried with sour cream. MMMMM perogies.... The bacon and onions thing is good too.
posted by Deep Dish at 7:25 PM on March 16, 2006


also a plum perogie tastes awesome, I am not sure if they are intended as a desert though.

My grandma sometimes puts a few in a batch
posted by Deep Dish at 7:29 PM on March 16, 2006


Deep Dish - we must have shared the same grandmother.
posted by TorontoSandy at 7:54 PM on March 16, 2006


There are two different kinds of pierogi (or pieroshki or whatever) the noodle dough kind and the pastry kind. My family eats the noodle dough kind. When I visited Poland, I learned that during hard times, the noodles were frequently made without eggs. Dessert pierogi were usually made sans egg. The problem with eggless noodles is that they tend to be very tough and chewy, nice for dessert, not as nice for savory pierogi. I think a good way to make a more tender vegan noodle would be to add some gluten-free flour (such as buckwheat, 2:1 flour to other approx.) or some oil. Any oil should be chosen to not conflict with other flavors. Or you could do the whole flax seed as replacement for egg thing, I know it works in quickbreads, not so sure about how it would work in noodles (1 Tbsp flax seed +3 Tbsp water = 1 egg, blend until mucilaginous). That will have a distinct taste too, but you are trying to cook a non-vegan delight without animal products, so you gotta expect some differences.

My Grandma's Basic recipe
4 cups of flour
Pinch of salt
2 eggs (or 1 if you want to save eggs or calories)
enough water to make a pasta dough.
Mix together all ingredients (by piling flour, making a well in the center, mixing liquids in with a fork or use a stand mixer, easier) and knead for about ten minutes or until it is smooth as a baby's bottom.

Gram's filling
Pot cheese (or large curd cottage cheese)
diced onion sauteed in butter
salt and pepper
an egg or two per large tub of cheese.

Russian Filling (from friends in Poland, they don't know where the name comes from, but they grew up under Communism and Russian influence. Great stories of learning to shoot AKs behind the school building during political indoctrination class. But I digress.)
diced, boiled potatoes
plenty of pepper
salt to taste
toasted coriander seeds (I'd guess about 2 Tbsp. per lb. of potatoes)
Diced, sauteed onions (again, butter)

Mix your fillings (don't add hot onions to cheese, or it'll melt.) Roll out your dough. Cut into circles about 4" around. Put about 2 heaped Tbsp. of filling into the center of rounds. Brush water around the outer 1/4" of rounds. Folder over into a semi-circle and press out any air, be sure to keep filling off the edges or it won't seal. Press edges with a fork.

Boil a large pot of water. Salt it well. Add about six at a time. Cook until dough is done. Remove to a plate. These can be allowed to cool.

When ready to eat, fry in butter. Serve with sour cream.
You can adapt any of this to be vegan. (Fry in oil, serve with a delicate tofu mousse, or maybe not)


Dessert Pierogi
We arrived in Poland at the height of wild blueberry season, these were made many times.
Make a dough of water and flour.
Mix blueberries with enough sugar to sweeten. Allow to sit for 30 minutes or so.
Sweeten some kefir, yoghurt or sour cream.
Go through the same process as before to make the pierogi but I like the dough to be thicker. This time, just boil, don't fry. Serve hot with kefir. The dough will be chewy and the filling will be sweet, juicy blueberry stew. Tasty. Find something else to serve it with or eat it plain for a vegan dessert.
posted by Seamus at 10:01 PM on March 16, 2006


I forgot to mention that it is a good idea to let the dough rest between the kneading and the rolling. Try 30 minutes.
posted by Seamus at 10:28 PM on March 16, 2006


Response by poster: disillusioned, I tried that, I honestly googled before asking here. I really don't get why it didn't show up when I tried, but thanks you very much!
posted by piratebowling at 3:06 AM on March 17, 2006


Response by poster: TorontoSandy, it's all about the Tofutti for fake dairy products. And, yes, they have a faux sour cream. (Although, honestly, I thought fried onions, on their own, is the best pierogi topper, nothing else needed).
posted by piratebowling at 3:10 AM on March 17, 2006


Response by poster: Also, for others whoare interested, I just found a second vegan pierogi recipe.
posted by piratebowling at 3:15 AM on March 17, 2006


BTW, pierogis (storebought - and dressed with bacon & onions) are our Christmas Eve celebration dinner.

Pierogis with pot cheese and a pinch of sugar are our Christmas Eve celebration dinner, along with a ton of seafood.
posted by desuetude at 6:21 AM on March 17, 2006


From last week, a whole askme thread on...pierogis

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/33698
posted by poppo at 6:21 AM on March 17, 2006


My late Ukranian grandfather, who was also a great cook, kept his pierogi recipe very simple.

Flour, water, salt for the dough

Mashed potatoes or sauerkraut

He would then simmer oil and onions for hours.

Yum.
posted by Wiggo at 7:00 AM on March 17, 2006


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