Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

Recipe Search

Wareneki


Wareneki, Varenyky or Perogies.
It really doesn't matter what you call them, they are wonderful.
I grew up with cottage cheese filled Wareneki, along with a sour cream and butter gravy.
My husband's Mom is Ukrainian and the filling for her recipe is
sauerkraut, hamburger and potato.
They served them with heated cream or sour cream.

Dough:
-1 cup sour cream
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-2 cups flour
-1 egg white, slightly beaten (save the yolk for the filling)
Mix ingredients into a smooth dough, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
This recipe makes enough for one of the following fillings, but can easily be doubled.

Sauerkraut , Hamburger and Potato Filling:
-1 large potato, boiled, mashed and cooled
-1/2 lb hamburger, browned, seasoned with salt and pepper. Drain any drippings and cool meat.
-1 cup sauerkraut, drained well
Mix above 3 ingredients together.

Potato Cheese and Onion filling:
-2 potatoes boiled, mashed and cooled
-1/4 cup sauteed onion, cooled
-1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Mix above three ingredients together.



Cottage Cheese Filling:
-2 cups dry curd cottage cheese (if you can't find dry, place regular cottage cheese in a fine strainer and allow moisture to drain)
-1 egg yolk, left over from the dough
-1 tsp salt
-dash pepper
Combine ingredients together well.

Method:
1. While dough is chilling make the fillings. (you can double the dough to make several kinds)
2. Take one recipe of dough and on a lightly floured counter roll it out very thin into a large rectangle.
3. Using an ice cream scoop place balls of filling along one end of dough as illustrated above.
4. Fold dough over filling as illustrated above. Using a small round cutter (or small glass) cut out Wareneki, as illustrated below.
The dough is very easy to work with and not sticky. If you find that the edges aren't sealed just pinch as needed.
5. Place the Wareneki on parchment lined cookie sheets. Keep in fridge until ready to boil, or freeze on the cookie sheets. Once they are frozen bag them for later use.

Boiling:
Bring a large pot of water with 1 tbsp butter to a boil. Drop fresh or frozen Wareneki into the boiling water and boil 5 minutes if fresh, or 10 minutes if frozen. Wareneki will float when they are done. Drain.

Gravy:
-1/4 cup butter, melted
-1 cup sour cream
In a small sauce pan melt butter, and then stir in sour cream. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 5 minutes. Salt and pepper lightly to taste.

Serving suggestions:
-sour cream
-heated whipping cream
-sauteed onions
-fried crumbled bacon
-farmer sausage or fried ham slices
-sauteed red cabbage

67 comments:

  1. Does the dough not use any flour?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The flour is the 4th ingredient on the dough recipe list. I missed it too at first!

      Delete
  2. yum!! I'll have to try the saurkraut ones.
    My nanna used to make pierogi all the time - my favourite is a sweet filling - it is farmers cheese with egg, just a hint of sugar to taste, and sometimes sultanas in it. Just lovely. You can use cottage cheese too, but we find the consistency is a bit different so we make our own cheese from scratch!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. Dough:
      -1 cup sour cream
      -1/2 tsp salt
      -1/2 tsp baking powder
      -2 cups flour
      -1 egg white, slightly beaten (save the yolk for the filling)
      Mix ingredients into a smooth dough, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
      This recipe makes enough for one of the following fillings, but can easily be doubled

      Delete
  4. Yes...looking for the flour too, lol!

    ReplyDelete
  5. oooo...
    i have never had sour kraut perogies.....yumm!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love these. We use dry curd cottage cheese in ours. My grandfather was also from Ukraine and my dad's mother from Poland. They each had their own version but oh so good. Dry curd cottage cheese is getting harder to find in the states.

    We fried onions and put in the gravy with ours. It makes me hungry just thinking about them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mmm..my favorite are cottage cheese perogies with sweet cream gravy and a Saskastoon sauce to go with it!
    I would like to try the sauerkraut ones..never had those before.

    ReplyDelete
  8. FLOUR - where forth are thou? Not in the recipe which I would LOVE to try but am afraid to without the right amount of flour...
    I'd like a wee bit of ground pork, ground cabbage and some caraway seeds... or ground pork with coarsely chopped apples - with sour cream...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i grew up loving these, Grandma made them.....
      now i am making them to send with my son off to college...
      4 generations loving them
      we like cottage cheese ones,
      with a cream gravy...
      served with Manitoba farmer sausage- YUM

      Delete
  9. Good morning....I've added the flour amount! Thanks everyone for keeping me on my toes! Now.....go make Wareneki for supper:)

    ReplyDelete
  10. looks great. My husbands mother is also Ukrainian and she makes them with potatoes, onions, and sourkraut. Every holdiday, especially Christmas Eve we eat them!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh we do love our vareniki! My family gets together to make them for Christmas dessert every year. We make them with a cheese filling and then smother them in butter and 1/2 and 1/2 and bake them till the liquid bubbles and serve them with sourcream and maple syrup or fruit syrup... For breakfast, brunch or dessert we love them!
    We have lots of Russian deli stores popping up here in the Seattle area and they sell a drier cheese that works great...

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have never been fortunate enough to try perogies with a meat filling. We grew up on the frozen perogies..until I learned to make my own:D

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello Kathy

    Pyroghy are traditionally meatless, because they are one of the 12 meatless dishes for Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner. Holobshi is also meatless for the same reason.

    In my Ukrainian grandmother's kitchen we made pyroghy with potatoes and cottage cheese, or potatoes and sauerkraut. In my mother's kitchen we sometimes added crumbled bacon and butter, but that was a diversion from the traditional, and the budget!

    The best pyroghy I have ever eaten were made by my Norwegian sister-in-law. She used oil in the dough.

    Never, never, NEVER use cheddar cheese in pyroghy. Abomination!

    Your pyroghy look yummy Kathy. Thanks for taking me down memory lane.

    anon1

    ReplyDelete
  14. I grew up with "glums wreneki" (cottage cheese perogies) and we always drizzled them with a little melted butter and then sprinkled them with brown sugar! Mmmmmm, YUM! My husband grew up covering them with strawberry or blueberry sauce.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I grew up with them being a sweet type with plums and sugar or cherries and then a white creamy sauce on top. We did have potato ones, but the plum ones were my favourite.

    ReplyDelete
  16. P.S.

    That was mock "abomination". My grandmother would be shocked to see cheddar in pyroghy. I love the cheddar/potato filling.

    I also recall grandmother tsking when she saw large pyroghy. It was only lazy cooks who made their pyroghy big.

    They had standards, our grandmothers. :P

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love left-over cottage cheese perogies re-heated in a frying pan with a bit of butter and eat them with sugar sprinkled on them.
    Kathy, your dough looks so nice as do your photos and instructions!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Glums Wareneki, my favourite. We used to have it with cream gravy and farmer sausage. Now, I hungry for this and Kielke too.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for the demo...I love cottage cheese...I never knew you could roll them and cut them with a glass...That's interesting...
    I usually opt out for Helmi's.
    The filling is identical to my mom's.

    ReplyDelete
  20. so love this blog, so many days it gives me an excuse to be in the kitchen! We usually make perogies as a family event, but your method may mean I dont have to do so much persuading! I know it's an abomination, but one of my children discovered that taco flavoured hamburger meat also makes a yummy filling. I guess all foods evolve over time!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh how fun to read the comments and by the time I read the recipe and all the fillings that I'd love to try and then the idea of having them fried with a bit of sugar. .oh yah. . that's how I love them too.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I never got the chance to taste except the frozen type potato cheese perogies, and we didnt like them, so I never bothered to learn about it.... See how bad when you taste a store bought before homemade..

    all the filling you stated looks yummy, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This is what I had for my birthday supper today. We had the cottage cheese perogies, cream gravy, farmer sausage - oh so very yummy. happy birthday to me.....But yours don't look anything like our did. LOL But thanks for sharing. I do so like that dough recipe.

    ang (danickel@mts.net)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thank you for sharing your recipe and procedure. My aunties made wonderful cottage cheese with sour cream gravy perogies. They are both in nursing homes now and no longer cook, but just seeing your recipe brought back such warm memories!

    I was reading Martha Stewart Living recently, and Martha shared her recipes for Perogies, but she doesn't have a cottage cheese version in her collection.

    Blessings to you!
    LaTeaDah

    ReplyDelete
  25. I have to try this recipe. Mine always open up... Another favourite topper in our house is homemade croutons (no flavors just butter)

    ReplyDelete
  26. I`ve been making verenike every year (at least once) since I can remember. I now use a dough of only sour cream and flour, I start out with the same amounts of each and keep adding flour until it starts to become a stiff dough. I will try this dough next time. I make the cottage cheese filling with the addition of finely chopped onion. My potato and cheese filling is potato, fried onion, cheese wiz and salt and pepper. I`ve tried with just shredded chedder and can`t get quite the right flavor. I also make the cherry verenike, always my Moms favorite, mine,and now my teenage son`s. I`m so happy to have found this sight. No one can cook quite like a Mennonite!

    ReplyDelete
  27. I`ve never tried this cutout technique, I`ve always cut out my rounds, stretched the dough, put in the filling and pinched the edges closed. Do your edges stay closed? This method looks much quicker. I suppose you`d need to roll out the dough thinner if you aren`t stretching it.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I saw a comment about dry curd cottage cheese being hard to find. I put my cottage cheese in a colander sometimes w/ cheese cloth in the bottom and let it drain overnight. Presto - dry curd; at least dry enough.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I just want to say thank you! Growing up living with a mennonite grandmother I never had these a lot of my traditional recipes to pass on to my children, and now I do! Especially this sauce..I have searched for awhile to find something close to what Oma made.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I have some cottage cheese vereniki and ham gravy that I picked up from a restaurant in Kansas. I would like to serve them for dinner tomorrow night and wondered what else to serve with them. Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  31. We usually have mennonite farmer sausage or ham with our verenike and what ever vegetable or salad we like.

    ReplyDelete
  32. The cut and seal made by pampered chef is the easiest way to seal the wareneki.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I remember making these with my grandmother when I was a little girl. She would make up a big batchs usually cottage cheese ones. Then, she'd boil up as many as I could eat and put the rest in the freezer. For special gatherings she'd boil some, fry some and bring out the cherry ones. The grown-ups liked theirs with gravy but I ate mine with corn syrup. They always shared the plate with ham, corn and some kind of fresh vegetable or fruit salad.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Is the dough more difficult to work with if it's not placed in the fridge for an hour?

    ReplyDelete
  35. I am salivating as I read about vereniki. I grew up with the cottage cheese ones with cream gravy......whipping cream and butter, simmering on low until slightly thickened.
    As my family does not all like the cottage cheese, I make a filling of mashed potatoes, crumbled crispy bacon, sour cream, green onions and the "forbidden" cheddar cheese and salt and pepper. And then top that with the "low calorie":D cream gravy.Mmmmmmm it so good.
    I am going to try the saurkraut filling...sound good.
    Florence Unrau

    ReplyDelete
  36. True Ukrainian and Mennonite ladies never had an amount of flour...you just use enough to make a "perfect" dough and that takes practice.
    I insisted that my mom taught me at least an approximate amount of flour for all those wonderful recipes.
    Florence

    ReplyDelete
  37. Thanks for your recipe! I made these yesterday for my father-in-law for Father's Day. He loved them! He has not had homemade cottage cheese wareneki since his mother passed away a several years ago. The dough really was easy to work with. We had a very nostalgic dinner.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Another comment on perogies.....I grew up with enormous sized ones.....cut approx in 4" squares, put in filling( I grew up with cottage cheese) but had to learn without cottage cheese for the "yucky" people. Mashed potatoes, real bacon, sour cream, green onions and cheddar cheese. I know, cholesterol city, but once or twice a year, yeah! You only needed 2-3 of those babies. Mmmmmmm! And topped with that good cream gravy, and a chunk of farmer sausage.
    Florence

    ReplyDelete
  39. Ok, thanks a lot, y'all. Now you made me miss my mother..

    ReplyDelete
  40. betty r, you mentioned the sweet cream gravy...is it the same as the gravy recipe above???

    ReplyDelete
  41. ccase..I don't use sour cream for my gravy, I use whipping cream. Sometimes I use 10% cream but then you have to use a bit of flour for thickener.

    ReplyDelete
  42. These are my fav!! I grew up with these with the dry cottage cheese. And yes, there is a specific way I'm to make them, too. Square pieces, where you take each corner and meet in the middle, and seal. I also freeze them, too. Thanks for the tips about drying your own cottage cheese, since it's getting hard to find here, too. For the gravy, I make a cream gravy out of the homemade farmer's sausage drippings (which I had to start making myself, too, since you can't buy good farmer's sausage where I am in ON) with a little flour to get it thick, then add milk to make it a nice sauce. I'm making it for my bday next week, too :D
    I am really loving this site, thanks ladies!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  43. I am so thankful to have found this recipe! My husband and I are vegan and I tried to find a recipe to modify to share this dish and this one works out perfectly. Yay!

    ReplyDelete
  44. I cant wait to try this! My family is Ukranian, German, Russian and Hungarian so its safe to say i grew up with a lot of great food. Thanks for having such a great site with many recipes that remind me of my childhood. Pure cottage cheese pirogies are almost impossible to find so this i appreciated. I finally found the same farmer sausage my grandma used made by Rempel meats, i used to get it at Funks but after they closed i couldnt find it for the longest time! Keep up the great recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  45. Wonderful! My family, guests and I had these at lunch today. For the dough, I substituted homemade yogurt for the sour cream. Also, I followed your cottage cheese filling recipe. I used homemade cottage cheese and added spinach (try it!). Kathy, I like your method for cutting out the wareneki! Thanks, MGCC. I love your site!

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I just made these, they are on cookie sheets hiding in the second fridge so my husband doesnt spot them so I can surprise him for dinner! He LOVES perogies but has never had homemade. I grew up with them, mom used to make them, and we used the cream gravy but made with heavy cream instead of sour cream, but I am going to try them that way this time... anyway, question... how many approx. should this make?? I have not made them in many years, with my mom when I was younger, (she has passed away so I cant ask!!) and I am not sure if I rolled my dough too thin, but I have a lot of dough left over! I doubled the dough, and made the potato filling, and the cottage cheese filling, but probably have about 1/2 batch dough left over, got about 18 of each kind. Havent cooked them yet, wondering if I should have rolled thicker dough?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comments and question. If the filling is all staying in with the thickness you rolled the dough to I think you will be fine. Once you have boiled them and tasted you will be able to tell for yourself is you think you would like the dough thicker or not. I prefer the dough rolled thinner as it's not all doughy. I'd love to hear from you as to how they turned out once boiled....and your husbands will I'm sure give you rave reviews. I have frozen left over dough and allowed it to thaw in the fridge before using. Turns out well.
      Kathy

      Delete
    2. Hi Kathy, havent been back since I posted that, but my family LOVED them, and there was enough dough left to make another small batch for lunch for me and hubby the next day! I am back on the page tonight to print the recipe as my daughter are making a HUGE batch tomorrow for our Christmas Eve dinner!! I even found a local butcher who makes fresh farmer sausage!!!
      Thanks for the great recipe and fantastic site! merry Christmas!!

      Delete
  47. I have made this recipe and is exactly as I remember my Mom's to be.. She did explain how to make but always a pinch of this or just until it feels right.. Thanks for putting amounts onto paper so my generation and the next can make..
    These are on the menu for tonight's dinner..
    Gilda

    ReplyDelete
  48. My mom used to put one half of a purple plum in the dough and also I had a brother who just like them empty so she made "empties" just for him. Always had the cream gravy and a sprinkle of sugar on top, even if they were cottage cheese or fruit.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I grew up with cottage cheese perogies smothered with a onion cream gravy and farmer saurage. The leftover perogies (and gravy) were placed in a casserole and cut up and fried in butter the next day for supper. My favourite are saskatoon and strawberries perogies, of course served with cream gravy. For those who prefer not to cook, the Livery Barn Restaurant at the Steinbach Mennonite Museum prepares wonderful Mennonite meals!

    ReplyDelete
  50. Thank you! I used your dough recipe to make perogies last night. The perogies were scrumptious!

    ReplyDelete
  51. We also grew up with perogies(Virtinukai - in Lithuanian). We made 4 fillings, 1. mashed potatoes and fried onion, 2. Cottage cheese and onion, 3. Raw hamburger and onion(don't need to fry hamburger as it cooks when being boiled), 4. And Christmas Eve Special mushrooms and fried onion. Mushroom ones were our favorite because those were made only once a year and served with a mushroom, sour cream sauce.

    ReplyDelete
  52. well..I ve had enough of store bought potatoe and cheese. cant find cottage cheese in store so im building my own. my mother made them with cottage cheese (bless her sole). thanks for the imformation.

    ReplyDelete
  53. what is recipe for Lazy Vereninki in a casserole with layers of noodle,cottage cheese,& gravy on top ?

    ReplyDelete
  54. Okay,... that does it,... just tell me the real rock solid instructions for varaniki. Yeah that's what it was called when my late Granma made it in the Mennonite community of Laird Sask back in the 1960's. AND it looked like perogies in cream sauce with real farmer sausage but I have always known I cook walmart fake Varaniki and they are not the same, dkhberg@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  55. Does the dough have to be kneaded?

    ReplyDelete
  56. Can I make this dough a day ahead and leave it in the fridge?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Karen you sure can. I'd say a day or two would be just fine. Let me know how it turns out for you.

      Delete
    2. Kathy I did make a day ahead and made the perogies yesterday.I had my Aunt from the US up visiting who is in her 70's so she helped.I had made to much filling but had no sour cream left so made the old family stand by recipe for dough.Well we got to compare doughs and this one was SO good!My aunt said she will be switching dough after all these years!LOL!It was so tender!So thank you!

      Delete
  57. Kathy, I made these yesterday with dry cottage cheese filling and they came out so perfect and with the sour cream gravy with butter, heavy cream and about a tablespoon of Ham soup base mix took me back to my childhood in Henderson Nebraska, a Mennonite community that I grew up in! Tears! THANKS! for this great recipe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Shelly, so glad to hear that they turned out. Sounds really yummy with that ham soup base.

      Delete
  58. I'm making saskatoon filled vareniki (wareneki) today, but my favourite filling is still prune plums. I always looked forward to September when my mom would make prune plum vareniki, but the spares (empties) were good, too. Dried cottage cheese were another basic filling. Sometimes in the fall we would also get buffalo berry ones, but those (buffalo berries) were often saved for parchee. I guess fillings have always depended on what area of the country you've grown up in, with cottage cheese being the base.

    ReplyDelete