I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this new recipe!
Years ago we were that family that buys a huge bag of frozen pierogies at the Club Store. We would cook up those double starch treats with abandon, smothered in butter and caramelized onions. The entire 5 lb. bag would be gone in just a couple short weeks.
Enter food allergies.
No more pierogies.
No more crunchy outside, soft inside, slathered in butter and topped off with the ultimate umami – crunchy, sautéed onions and dipped in sour cream.
Sad, sad times.
I’ve played with making pierogies over the years and they were good. Okay. Passable. And, if you have any kind of food intolerance, I know that you understand passable.
Almond milk < Whole Raw Milk. Almond milk is passable. You get it.
But, today … TODAY! I give you these amazing pierogies and there is no way that anyone will be able to tell that they’re gluten-free.
They’re perfect. I wouldn’t change one thing about them.
The process is long, but it’s simple – such is making any kind of pierogie from scratch. Next time I make them I will do a double batch because it’s kind of therapeutic and fun and it makes A LOT to freeze for later.
Notes on the process:
- Prepare gluten-free pasta dough. I used America’s Test Kitchen’s gluten-free pasta recipe for these. You can find my garlic basil version here. Just omit the garlic and herbs if you don’t want them. Although, they might be really good!
- I use leftover mashed potatoes. You will need 3 cups for each recipe.
- Shred your cheese. I used sharp cheddar because it gives a great flavor but you can use your favorite shredable cheese.
- Once your pasta dough is rolled out, cut 4” circles out using a cookie cutter or large glass. Work through the rest of the dough, one piece at a time using a pasta roller or rolling very thin with a rolling pin. I placed all of the circles on a baking sheet separated by plastic wrap. I cut 42 circles from the recipe and had just a little bit of dough left that I threw away.
Look how yellow my girl’s eggs make these pirogues! I actually had to tone them down in photoshop because they didn’t even look real.
I love it!
- 1 gluten-free pasta dough recipe (see above), prepared and covered
- 3 cups cold mashed potatoes
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheese
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- ¼ tsp. garlic powder
- Mix mashed potatoes, cheese and spices together.
- Prepare pasta by cutting 4” circles out of very thin pasta sheets.
- Scoop 1 Tbls. potato mixture on the center of the circle.
- Brush water around the outside of the pasta circle with a pastry brush.
- Fold over and seal tightly, leaving no gaps.
- Place on baking sheet and keep covered with plastic wrap.
- Prepare a pot of boiling water and cook each pierogie for 4-5 minutes, working through them in batches.
- Drain well and spread out on baking sheet and cover.
- Cook or freeze for later.
* At this point you can choose to cook them further by frying them or place the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze the pierogies for later.
Frying: If you choose to fry them, sauté in butter or bacon fat with onions, cooking to your desired brownness.
Cooking from frozen: If you choose to freeze them, you may sauté them at a later time from frozen. No need to thaw them. Cook as above under frying instructions.
Serve with sour cream!
