Hell Yeah It's Vegan!

There’s a saying my Catholic grandma had that my mother always liked to repeat. It went something like this: “If there aren’t potatoes on the table, you don’t have to pray.” Well, sorry, Grandma: potatoes are on the menu tonight.

Good German that I am, I was craving cabbage. My partner in crime and I polished off our last jar and a half of ridiculously delicious homemade sauerkraut a few weeks ago, and cabbage season is impossibly far away at this point, so my prospects were dim. The last half head of cabbage stared at me mirthfully from the bottom of the fridge. Something had to be done.

As I’ve mentioned before, a friend of mine makes seriously incredible pierogies. She’s Polish and from Pittsburgh, where I’m told folks eat 11 times the amount of pierogi of any other city in the country, so it pretty much runs in her blood. But I had to make them — they were a childhood favorite, and besides, I love dumplings from around the world.

Oh yeah, and I wanted this ordeal to be quick, so I did something else only my grandma would approve of — I used potato flakes. This is not a regular practice, trust me. A gift from someone else’s trash can, just one bite of that evenly textured chalky mush brought me back to childhood, where mashed potatoes always come from a box. Please, please don’t go out and buy potato flakes — just boil and mash a couple of cups of fresh ones. But if you happen to be stuck without potatoes in the house of someone who lived through the Great Depression, by all means:

Pierogies with Cabbage and Onions

Yield: about 30 pierogies

Dough
2 c flour
½ tsp salt
¼ c soy margarine
3 tbsp water (more as needed)

Filling
2 c potato flakes
3 tbsp butter
2 c boiled water
3 tbsp vegan cheese, grated (I used cheddar)
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp vegan cream cheese, optional
salt
pepper

Topping
½ head cabbage, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp soy margarine
salt
pepper

To prepare the dough, sift together the flour and salt.

Cut in the margarine with a pastry blender or two knives. Add water and mix well. If more water is needed, add a tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together in a ball. You don’t want it to be too wet.

Dust a clean surface with flour, and knead dough for 10 minutes. Place in an oiled, covered bowl in refrigerator for half an hour.

In the meantime, start working on the topping. In a frying pan on medium heat, melt butter; add cabbage, onions, salt and pepper and sauté, covered, stirring occasionally, until cabbage has softened and onions are translucent.

Next, prepare the filling. In a medium-sized bowl, add potato flakes, vegan cheese, butter, and cream cheese (if using). Add water and whip with a fork until all ingredients are incorporated; the butter and cheese should just melt evenly into the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove dough from refrigerator; divide into thirds. Roll each section into a ball. On a lightly-floured surface, roll one ball of dough out until it’s about 1/8″ thick.

With a round cookie cutter or a glass, cut into 2½-3″ circles of dough. (Keep the scraps–you can roll them out again later.)

Place a walnut-sized amount of filling in the center of each circle. Using your fingers and a small bowl of water, dampen the edges of the dough and fold dough in half, enclosing the filling.

Pinch edges with your fingers or a fork to seal.

Bring a large pot of water with a pinch of salt to a boil. Continue rolling out the rest of the dough until all dough and filling has been incorporated into pierogies.

Boil in rounds for about 3 minutes; they’re done when they float to the top. You can serve them immediately this way,

or pan fry them until browned and crispy like I like to do. Top with cabbage and onion mixture. Serve with applesauce or sour cream.

Tags: cabbage, onion, potato

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 7:24 am and is filed under Entrees, Recipes, Vegan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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