Sweet Potato Pierogies With Caramelized Onions

Pierogies are my ultimate comfort food, holiday traditional food, and overall, the dish that brings me closest to my ancestors. My grandmother would spend all day making pierogis and when she was too sick to make them herself, she would special order them from the church! The dedication to these little polish dumplings is what makes these so special; you can taste the love with every bite. This recipe is an ode to my grandmother and my polish roots and it’s proof that you can still pay respects to your traditions while taking care of the environment, our bodies and the animals that live on this planet with us! On top of that, I do know that my grandmother would have had 20+ more years with us if she knew a different way of eating as she was taken from us too soon from heart disease and diabetes.

Every culture has their dumpling but these eastern European dumplings take the cake! I used my grandmothers recipe with a few tweaks. We use cashew cream instead of sour cream, only a tiny amount of vegan butter instead of a stick…or two, sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, spelt flour instead of refined white flour, and Big Tree Farms Coco Aminos instead of sugar for our caramelized onions. These also can easily be made gluten free with a GF flour blend instead of spelt! Overall, this recipe has been looked at from every angle and has been refined to satisfy us for every curve of our bodies and every taste bud too!

You can make the filling ahead of time or even make this entire batch of pierogis the day, or week before, just don’t cook them and make sure they are lightly dusted with flour in an airtight container! If you decide to make them more than 2 days in advance, just freeze them and thaw out the night before in the fridge.

Its my honor to share this family recipe with you! Be sure to tag @chef_bai when you make these over on Instagram!

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Makes 30-35 pierogis

The Goods:

The filling:

• 4 medium sweet potatoes, chopped

• 1/2 cup cashew cream

• 1 tbsp vegan butter

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp olive oil

• 1 onion, small diced

• 1 tsp dried thyme

• 1 tsp salt

• 4 cloves garlic, diced and divided

• 1 tbsp coconut aminos

For the dough:

• 3 1/4 cups spelt flour, whole wheat flour or GF flour blend

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup cashew cream

• 2 tbsp melted vegan butter

• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened plant based milk

• 1/2 cup water

For plating:

• 1 tsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp Big Tree Farms coconut aminos

• 1 onion, sliced

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 cup sauerkraut

• 3-4 vegan sausages (optional)

• cashew cream

The Method:

1. You’ll want to make your filling first so its ready to go when you roll out your dough. Add your chopped sweet potatoes, a pinch of salt and 2 cloves of chopped garlic to a soup pot, cover the potatoes with room temp water and put on the stove over medium high heat covered. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until fork tender. Drain the potatoes and be careful to keep all the garlic in there too!

2. While the potatoes are cooking, grab a medium sauté pan and put it over medium high heat with 1 tsp olive oil. Once hot add the small diced onion, the 1/2 tsp of salt and cook while stirring frequently for about 3 minutes. You want them to get nice and soft! Next add the thyme and the garlic. Sauté and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the coco aminos and cook for about 3 more minutes until the onions start to caramelize and there is no liquid in the pan.

3. Add the caramelized onions, the cashew cream and vegan butter to the drained potatoes and mash with a potato masher. Taste test for desired flavor and add any salt if you find necessary! Sometimes I like to add a 1/2 cup of sauerkraut to this mixture to keep it super authentic. Set aside to cool while you make the dough.

4. Add the flour in pile to a large clean work surface. Make a well inside the pile of flour like you would for pasta, and sprinkle salt around the edges of the flour well or volcano as I used to call it when I was little. Pour the cashew cream in the middle as well as the melted vegan butter and 3/4 cup of the unsweetened plant milk. Slowly with a fork, start to incorporate some of the flour to the inside of the well to make your dough. If it starts to run out of the well, just use your hands to bring it all together. As you start to form a dough, slowly add in the water until you get a smooth consistency. The dough should not stick to your hands and not be super dry and cracked either. Once you get a smooth dough, knead 5-7 more times and let rest for 10 minutes on the counter.

5. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface with a light dusting of flour on the top too. Roll it out to about 1/8 of an inch evenly throughout. You may need to pick it up and help stretch the dough like pizza, I find this with a rolling pin is the easiest. If you are using gluten free flour, just keep it on the cutting board! Once rolled out, cut out circles with a large mason jar lid, a cocktail shaker or a circle cookie cutter. Cut out all the circles you can, place the circles to the side, knead the leftover dough together and repeat this process until you only have dough circles left.

6. Add 1 tbsp of the potato filling to each center of the dough circles. With a pastry brush or your fingers, brush a light amount of plant milk around the potato mixture in 1/2 the circle. Fold the circle in half and pinch the sides together to make little half moons. Use a fork to press the folded sides together and to seal them. Lightly dust with flour, set on a plate and finish the rest!

7. Get a large pot of salted boiling water ready and in a large sauté pan add the 1 tsp of olive oil and sliced onion. Sauté for 5-7 minutes and then add the coco aminos. Sauté for 5 more minutes and then add the vegan sausage for about 5 more minutes until seared on all sides. Remove onions and sausage and set aside for plating while keeping the pan on low.

8. Once you water is boiling, add about 10 pierogis at a time to the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes until they float to the top. You can start this process when your sausages are almost done. Once the pierogis float to the top, use a slotted spoon or a mesh strainer to pull them out. Shake off the water and add them to your hot saucepan. You may need to add a bit more oil so they won’t stick. Sauté’ and stir frequently with a rubber spatula for about 2-4 minutes until they start to brown on each side. Take out of the pan and repeat as necessary until you finish all of them.

9. Plate with the sausages, onions, sauerkraut and a drizzle of cashew cream. Enjoy immediately with friends and family!

Thanks so much for checking out our recipes! I hope you find something here that satisfies your cravings or encourages you to try something new. Make sure to check back every week to see our new recipes!

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