Polish sauerkraut and mushroom pierogi: the Christmas Eve ones, meat-free, with fried onion
The Christmas Eve pierogi that many families make the day before, everyone at the table: sauerkraut cooked with dried forest mushrooms, chopped fine and fried with onion, in a thin hot-water dough. No meat, no dairy, fried onion in oil on top. Fifty pieces, because on Christmas Eve there are never too many; half go to the freezer anyway.
Your own work in that: 1 h 30 min.
- Mushrooms soaking 30 min
- Sauerkraut cooking 40 min
- Filling 15 min
- Dough 15 min
- Dough resting 20 min
- Shaping 40 min
- Cooking 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 done
Soak the mushrooms
Rinse the mushrooms and cover with 300 ml warm water for 30 minutes (or overnight in cold). Don't pour the water away: it goes into the sauerkraut and gives the filling its forest scent.
Ingredients: 700 g sauerkraut · 40 g dried forest mushrooms · 2 pcs onions · 3 tbsp oil · 1 pcs bay leaf · 3 pcs allspice berries · 1 tsp black pepper · ½ tsp salt · 1 tsp sugar
Half an hour in warm water; the water stays
Cook the sauerkraut with the mushrooms
Squeeze the sauerkraut; if very sour, rinse it briefly. Put it in a pot with the mushrooms, their soaking water (poured off above the sediment), the bay leaf and allspice. Simmer gently 40 minutes, the first 30 covered and the last 10 uncovered, until the sauerkraut is soft and the liquid almost gone. Drain thoroughly, remove the bay leaf and allspice.
TipThe filling must be dry. Wet sauerkraut soaks the dough from inside and the pierogi come apart in the pot. Squeeze hard, even twice.
Forty minutes, then squeezed dry
Chop and fry
Chop the sauerkraut and mushrooms finely with a knife on a board; long strands pierce the dough and poke out of the edges. Dice the onions, soften in the oil 6 minutes, add the sauerkraut and fry together 5 minutes, stirring. Season with pepper, salt and, if needed, sugar. Cool completely.
TipMore pepper than seems right: it is the only sharp note in a meat-free filling. A cold filling is easier to seal and doesn't soften the dough.
Chopped fine, with onion, plenty of pepper
Knead the dough
Pour the hot water with the oil into the flour and salt, mix with a spoon, then knead by hand 6–8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Wrap in film and rest 20 minutes (the filling finishes cooling meanwhile).
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 250 ml water · 1 tbsp oil · ½ tsp salt
TipHot water gives a soft, obedient dough that rolls thin and doesn't dry out during an hour of shaping.
Smooth, soft, under film
Roll and fill
Divide the dough in 3; work with one piece, keep the rest under a bowl. Roll to 2 mm, cut 7 cm circles with a glass. Put a teaspoon of filling on each, no more: an overfilled pierog is hard to seal and splits in the pot.
Two millimetres, 7 cm circles, a teaspoon of filling
Seal
Fold each circle in half and pinch the edge firmly from the middle to the corners, pressing out the air. The edge must be clean, no sauerkraut. Lay on a floured cloth, not touching.
A clean edge, middle to corners
Cook in batches
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Drop in 12–15 pierogi at a time, stir once from the bottom. When they float, cook another 3 minutes. Lift out with a slotted spoon. Meanwhile dice the onions for serving and fry in the oil until golden.
Ingredients: 2 pcs onions · 3 tbsp oil
They float, three minutes, slotted spoon
Serve with fried onion
Pour the onion and oil over the hot pierogi. On Christmas Eve after the barszcz; on Christmas Day pan-fried golden. Freeze the rest raw on a tray, then bag them; cook from frozen a minute longer.
Fried onion in oil, a candle on the table
Before you start
For the barszcz
Smaller circles, 5 cm, and half a teaspoon of filling: uszka for Christmas Eve barszcz from the same dough and filling.
With fresh cabbage
Half sauerkraut, half shredded fresh cabbage cooked together: a milder filling, for those who find sauerkraut too sour.
They come apart
A wet filling, or sauerkraut on the edge. Squeeze the sauerkraut dry, fill less and wipe the edge with a finger before sealing.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
