Cheeseless Perogies

By Sari Huhtala

Once you start making homemade perogies, there’s no going back to storebought ones – your kids will boycott them. Revamp your old way of thinking and make them with spelt flour for more nutrition and try a cheeseless cheesy filling.

Perogy dough (makes about 25 perogies)

• 3 cups spelt flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/8 pound of butter or vegan butter
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 egg, whisked
• 3/4 cup warm water

Blend flour and butter in bowl till crumbly. Add rest of ingredients and mix until smooth. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a quarter of the dough to an 1/8 of an inch thickness. Using a large mouth cup as a cookie cutter, press circle cut-outs onto dough.

Take one cut-out into your hand and add a heaping tbsp of filling to the centre of the cut-out. Fold edge over to create a half moon shape and pinch edges closed. Once you have a batch ready, bring a large pot of water to boil. Once boiling, drop about 10 perogies into pot and cook until they float – about three minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon, then continue cooking the remainder of the perogies. Allow to cool and dry off on a platter. Once cooled and dry, freeze if desired or store in fridge for up to four days. To prepare perogies for a meal, heat olive oil on medium low, add chopped onions and perogies on top. Cook until lightly browned.

Vegan version

• 2 cups spelt flour • 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup olive oil • 1 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and knead till smooth. Cover bowl with a towel and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Continue with  process as in above instructions.

Filling

• 4 medium potatoes
• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 large carrot (optional)
• 1 tsp salt, garlic powder and onion powder
• 1/2 to 1 cup nutritional yeast (use 1 cup for really cheesey flavour)

Boil potatoes, sweet potato and carrot till soft. Drain fully. Mash with potato masher. Add salt and seasonings and nutritional yeast. Let cool before filling perogies.