You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry already! You can follow the dough recipe and fill with whatever you like, or try the Mushroom, Potato, and Onion Recipe Below.
I liked this creation so much I made it twice in two weeks.
Dough:
2 cups All-Purpose flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1. Add all dough ingredients together in large bowl, mix until dough forms. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until elastic, do not overwork.
2. In warm place, cover with towel or plastic wrap, rest for 20 minutes while you prepare your filling.
Filling:
1 medium yellow onion, diced into 1/2 inch squares
1 medium yellow onion, sliced into 1/2 inch slivers
1 lb. mushrooms, diced small, separated into two halves
4 large yellow potatoes
Olive oil
Sugar (white or brown, keep in mind not all white or brown sugar is vegan)
Salt & pepper
Vegetable stock
1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
1/2 plus extra Non-dairy milk such as soy or oat
Flour
1. In large stock pot, boil water. Peel Potatoes. Once boiling, carefully add potatoes to water, boil until fork tender. Drain, Set aside.
2. While potatoes boil, set large sauté pan over medium high heat, add oil. Once hot, add half of your mushrooms, make sure they have plenty of room so they aren’t crowded. If they’re crowded they will steam and get rubbery, this is why you want to cook them in batches.
Stir mushrooms once every few minutes until cooked through, don’t stir too often or they won’t brown.
About a minute before you take them off the heat, add some salt and pepper, stir once more and remove from heat and put into separate bowl.
Repeat with remaining mushrooms, separate those mushrooms into a second bowl.
3. In the same sauté pan, with a dollop of olive oil, add your diced onion and sprinkle generously with salt. Cook over medium heat until translucent and soft. Remove from pan and add to one of your bowls of mushrooms.
4. Over medium high heat, add generous dollop of olive oil to saute pan, once heated add sliced onion and generous sprinkle of salt. Reduce heat to low and sauté onions for 10 minutes. Add a generous sprinkle of sugar to your onions, stir. Cook additional 5-10 minutes until onions are brown and caramelized, watch closely so they don’t burn. Once cooked, turn off heat.
Topping:
5. Now we make the topping/dipping sauce. In the sauté pan with the onions, add remaining mushrooms.
Turn heat up to low, sprinkle mixture with flour, stir to combine, cook over low heat for one minute.
6. Add vegetable stock, pour in enough to cover the mushroom/onion mixture. Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/2 cup non-dairy milk. Turn heat to medium, bring to a simmer. Lower heat and simmer until mix begins to thicken to sauce consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat, set aside.
7. Remember your potatoes? It’s their turn. In a large bowl or the pot you boiled them in, mash the potatoes. Add some non-dairy milk, olive oil, salt and pepper, until they reach the consistency that you like. I like a pretty smooth mash. Add the mushroom and DICED onion mixture, (not the topping mixture) to your mashed potatoes. Stir thoroughly to combine.
Assembly:
Bring a large stock pot of water to boil over high heat.
8. On a floured surface or between two pieces of wax paper, roll out your pierogi dough until about 1/4 inch thickness. Using a glass or 1 cup metal measuring cup, cut out round.
9. Using a spoon or fork, fill round with about a tablespoon of potato pilling, you can add or remove as needed. Bring the edges of the dough together like a little clam, and seal shut. With a fork, press the dough with the tines to ensure it’s tightly sealed. Repeat until you have about 6 pierogi.
10. Carefully drop pierogis into gently boiling water (watch they don’t touch too much or they’ll stick to each other and tear) Boil for about 3 minutes or until pierogis float. Set Aside, ideally somewhere they can drain like a strainer. Repeat steps 9 & 10 with remaining pierogi.
11 BONUS STEP*
I like to pan fry my pierogis in some oil, almost like a pot sticker, so they have a little crunch. Once all pierogis are boiled, you can pan fry 6 at a time for about 3 minutes each side. This step is not mandatory, but does add a little something something.
You can enjoy your pierogi smothered in the delicious sauce you created, or pour the sauce into little bowls for dipping. I like to smother mine.
I have gotten varying amounts of pierogi from this recipe. My first attempt got 12, my second attempt got 25. It depends on how flexible your dough is.
Let me know your results!
Why Vegan? Animals have been my dearest companions from my earliest memories. You may be able to relate. What really got my attention was all the videos popping up of cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys living their best lives in rescue environments.
Pigs and Cows are soo playful, they like to play ball, and get scratches, snuggle up with their humans. They have best friends of the same species and best friends of different species. They mourn when they lose someone they love. I’ve witnessed all of this firsthand with our horses.
In the states we are horrified that people eat horses and dogs in other countries. I realize now that it’s absolutely no different with any other animal on this planet. None of them want to lose their lives. None of them want to lose their friends.
I finally opened my eyes to what I already knew in my heart, and made a change. For me, there is no going back. Learning to cook vegan food has been so much fun and has challenged me to improve my skills, there is no butter to fall back on here, and I don’t miss it. I use olive oil in everything (heart healthy!) and I am truly doing some of the best cooking of my life!
I’m sharing this to answer some questions, to offer my perspective, and give you a different idea to consider. I’m not here to judge where anyone is on their journey or where they may go, I’m just here to share good food.
Stay Nourished!
Amanda
Amanda Soper 