Boiled (then often pan-fried) dumplings of unleavened dough filled with potato and cheese, served with caramelised onions and sour cream. A pillar of Canadian Slavic-heritage cooking, brought by Ukrainian settlers in the late 1800s, served at church suppers across Ontario and the Prairies.
Ukrainian-Canadian pyrohy, also perogy or pierogi, are a pillar of Canadian Slavic-heritage cooking, brought by Ukrainian and Polish settlers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Boiled (then often pan-fried) dumplings of unleavened dough are filled with potato and farmer's cheese, served with caramelised onions, bacon and sour cream. The dish is served at church suppers, weddings and community fundraisers across Ontario and the Prairies, and is a pillar of Ukrainian-Canadian identity across the country.
Soft, slightly chewy dumplings giving way to a creamy, salty, tangy potato-and-cheese filling, the caramelised onions and bacon running through, a cool dollop of sour cream on top. Eaten hot, they are hearty, savory and deeply comforting.
The dough is a simple mix of flour, egg, water and salt, rested to relax the gluten for easy rolling. It is rolled thin, cut into rounds, and a spoonful of seasoned mashed-potato-and-cheese filling is placed on each, then folded into a half-moon and sealed well by pinching. The dumplings are boiled in salted water until they float, drained, and often pan-fried in butter with onions and bacon to crisp the edges. The double cook, boil then fry, gives the soft interior and crisp edges that define the dish.
Variations
A sauerkraut version uses fermented cabbage filling. A sweet version is filled with fruit.
On the Palate
Where Ukrainian-Canadian Pyrohy sits in the Canadian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
6 steps · 1 hour 30 min
- 110 min
Make dough: mix 500g flour, 1 egg, 1 tsp salt and 200ml water; knead, rest 30 minutes.
- 212 min
For the filling: mash 500g boiled potatoes with 200g farmer's cheese, 1 caramelized onion, salt and pepper.
- 318 min
Roll the dough thin; cut 8cm rounds; place a spoon of filling on each, fold into half-moons, pinch sealed.
Watch outPinch the half-moon seams tight and fully closed — any gap and the filling leaks out into the boiling water and the pyrohy fall apart.
- 46 min
Boil the pyrohy in salted water until they float, about 4 minutes; drain.
- 510 min
In a pan, fry 2 sliced onions and 100g diced bacon in butter until golden; add the boiled pyrohy and fry to crisp the edges.
Watch outAfter boiling, fry them in the butter and onions until the edges crisp and color — that second cook is what gives the soft dumplings their golden, crisp edge.
- 64 min
Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream.
