With life slowing down and travel non-existent thanks to the ‘rona, I’ve been trying out new recipes in the kitchen. Since I can’t travel or go out to eat in real life, I need to get my foreign food fix at home! The last recipe was adjaruli khachapuri from Georgia, which was a huge success! This last week, it was pierogi. Since then, I’ve also made Hungarian goulash and bureks!
Pierogi is a dumpling from the country of Poland, and by far one of the most popular dishes of Polish cuisine. There are a lot of different options for what filling to use for the dumplings. In general, there are either meat pierogi (beef), or cheese and potato pierogi. This recipe is for pierogi made with a cheese and potato filling. If you haven’t studied a Slavic language before, pierogi is the plural form of the word. The singular version is technically pieróg but it isn’t used, as there’s always more than one! So you don’t need to say pierogis, the word pierogi is plural.
It can be tricky finding Polish cheese since it’s not usually in your average grocery store. This recipe would ideally be made with twarog cheese, although one of my favorite restaurants uses oscypek in their pierogi, which is a smoked cheese. If you can’t find twarog, I’ve substituted with quark cheese and it worked great.
The serving size can also vary greatly. In general, 6 individual pierogi filled me up for a meal—but if I was starving, I probably could have had another one or two. When I cooked this recipe, it made 36 pierogi total. However, if I had gotten my dough a bit thinner, I would have had enough to make another couple more.
In this recipe I tried to list ingredients for both the US cooking system (cups) and for the rest of the world (grams). It’s not approximate, but it’s close enough and hopefully saves you having to google the conversions. I love pierogi and after using this recipe, I hope you will too! Here’s how to cook pierogi at home.
Table of Contents
Pierogi Recipe
Makes: 36-40 pierogi (5-6 servings)
Time Required: 60-70 minutes
Ingredients: Dough
- 4 cups flour (~500 grams)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup water (warm) (~235 ml)
Ingredients: Filling
- 1 large potato (or 2 medium potatoes)
- 3 oz (~85 grams) quark cheese
- 1 onion
Ingredients: Serving
- Olive oil (for frying)
- Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic (for seasoning)
- Bacon chunks (3 strips of bacon)
- Sour cream
Instructions For Cooking
1) Peel the potato and add to a pot of boiling water. Cook until soft.
2) Make the dough while the potatoes are boiling. In a large bowl, sift the flour and add the salt. Mix in the egg, oil, and most of the water (you might not need all of it).
3) Knead the mixture for about 10 minutes until you have a soft, stretchy dough. It should be soft, not sticky.
4) Once the dough is ready, place it in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap (or a damp cloth) to make sure the dough doesn’t dry out while you work on the filling.
5) Drain the potatoes and mash them. Try to get the mixture as smooth as possible, with no lumps. Lightly fry half the onion in olive oil and add it to the filling along with the cheese. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper and anything else you might like.
TIP: We added a bit of paprika and garlic in our filling mix!
6) Take the dough out and roll it flat on a lightly floured surface. It should be fairly thin dough – about 1/8 inch thick.
7) Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut the dough into circles.
8) Spoon the filling into each dough circle, placing about a teaspoon amount in the middle of the circle. The above photo probably has a bit too much dough in each one – we had to take quite a bit out of each when it came to seal them!
9) Fold the dough in half to form a semi-circle. Then seal the ends together by pinching them with your fingers to make a wavy shape. You can also use a fork around the edges after initially sealing them if you’d like.
10) Place the pierogi into a pot of simmering (not boiling) water. Once they rise to the surface after a few minutes, take them out of the pot. Make sure they don’t get stuck to the bottom of the pot!
TIP: If you haven’t sealed them well, they might split open—don’t panic, just take them out when you can!
11) Fry the pierogi until lightly brown with olive oil. In a separate pan, fry the rest of the onion and the bacon chunks.
12) Serve with the onion and bacon mix on top and a healthy dollop of sour cream.
What If I Want Leftovers?
When Adam and I cook, we regularly make a main meal with 4 portion sizes, so we both have leftovers for the next day. If you want leftovers, you can follow the above instructions to step 10. After they’ve been cooked, you can refrigerate them (for eating the next day) or even freeze them. Then when you’re ready to eat them, fry them up alongside some onions and bacon chunks.
If you’re interested in more Polish food, you might be interested in some of these cookbooks! You can buy Polska: New Polish Cooking on Amazon (UK) or Amazon (US). You can also buy Authentic Polish Cooking on Amazon (UK) or Amazon (US).
Poland is an amazing destination and I have visited 3 times. Krakow is one of my favorite cities in Europe, and I loved my trips to Warsaw. I’ve never written about Wroclaw on the blog, but it’s a fun city with a beautiful old town. My most recent trip to Poland took me to Gdansk, which is definitely one of the best destinations in Poland! So many people just visit Krakow, but I really think Gdansk makes a fantastic city break.
My favorite restaurant for pierogi in Poland is probably Pierogarnia Mandu in Gdansk. There might be a long wait but it’s definitely worth it! I’m incredibly blessed to have an amazing and authentic Polish restaurant where I live in York. Blue Barbakan is one of my favorite restaurants in York and their pierogi is outstanding.
However, the best pierogi I’ve ever had was when I was visiting my friend in Poland for New Year’s. Adam and I had arrived early in the morning in Krakow from the night train from Ukraine. Our friend Jan picked us up at the station, and we went back and slept until noon. He woke us up and told us, “hey, we’re going to eat soon.” We walked downstairs and his grandma had made literally 100+ pierogi!!! Delicious! So I have to say, the best pierogi award goes to Jan’s Grandma. Dziękuję bardzo!
I hope this recipe inspires you to bring a little bit of Poland into your life! And if you do get the chance to visit Poland, make sure to get yourself some pierogi! Smacznego!
Have you ever eaten pierogi before? Going to try out the recipe? Share your experiences in the comments below!
You might like my other posts:
All of my Recipe posts!
Krakow: The Perfect Gateway City
The Ultimate Guide to Gdansk, Poland
A Daytrip To Malbork Castle From Gdansk
How Much Does It Cost To Spend 5 Days In Poland?
10 Things You Should Know About Poland
All of my Poland posts!
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[…] lot in the kitchen and trying new recipes! First up was adjaruli khachapuri from Georgia, next was pierogi from Poland, goulash from Hungary, and now bureks from the […]
[…] first week we started, we made adjaruli khachapuri, one of my favorite Georgian foods. Then it was pierogi from Poland. For the most recent recipe attempt, it was Hungarian goulash! Since this post, […]