Varenyky with salted farm cheese filling

 

Varenyky is a popular traditional dish that every Ukrainian ate growing up. This is the dish of our great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, and next generations of Ukrainians.

Here’s the idea of diversifying this dish that is so familiar to us. Today we’re going to cook yummy dumplings with soft, moist cottage cheese filling with green herbs. You can replace 1/3 of the cottage cheese with brynza (Ukrainian brine cheese) or regular, semi-hard grated cheese if you want. The filling will also taste excellent and unusual. But remember that in that case, it is better not to salt the stuffing because brynza is already salty. You can add finely chopped smoked ham to the filling to give your dumplings a smoky taste.

Ingredients:

Dough

(for approximately 50 small dumplings)

  • 500 g of wheat flour
  • 300 ml of water
  • 50 gr of dairy butter
  • 1/2 tsp of salt

Filling

  • 750 g cottage cheese (curd)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 big bunch of dill
  • 1 big bunch of spring onion

For serving

  • dairy butter 
  • sour cream
  • spring onions

Cooking

Dough

Dough

Put the flour in a large bowl, add salt, and mix well. Bring water and dairy butter to a boil in a small saucepan.

Pour hot “mixture” into the dough in a thin stream, stirring constantly. If you mix by hand, then use a large wooden spoon. If you use a mixer, then choose a “hook” nozzle. 

Mix thoroughly until smooth. If you knead the dough by hand, then after mixing the dough with a wooden spoon, wait for a little and let the dough cool down a little. Then knead it well with your hands. If the dough sticks to your hands, add a little more flour. It all depends on the moisture content of the flour.

Shape the dough into a ball and cover with a damp towel. Leave the dough to rest for 30-60 minutes. After the mentioned time, you can start molding your dumplings.

Filling

To make the filling, rinse dill and green onions. Chop them finely. Combine cottage cheese, chopped herbs, and salt in a deep bowl. Beat in eggs. Mix everything thoroughly.

Fold dumplings

Roll out the dough thinly and cut out circles with a lightly floured round cookie cutter or glass. Put about 2 tsp of the filling in the middle of the circle (or more or a little less, depending on the circle size). Fold over and seal by pressing the corners together firmly. Place the shaped dumpling on a tray or board covered with a paper towel or sprinkled with flour. Repeat until you fold all dumplings.

Tip: Cover folded dumplings with a damp kitchen towel or cling film not to let them dry out.

Dip dumplings into a large amount of salted boiling water, reboil the water, and stir the dumplings often while boiling until cooked (about 10 minutes).

Drain the boiled dumplings with cottage cheese and herbs and immediately top them generously with melted dairy butter.

Put the dumplings in a serving dish, sprinkle with chopped spring onions, and serve with fresh, chilled sour cream.

Enjoy tasty Ukrainian dumplings with salted cottage cheese filling!

“Glory to Ukraine!” (Слава Україні!)