Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings)
July 18th, 2009 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
Total cooking time: 20min
There is more than one recipe for varenyky dumplings on this website, if you are looking for some other recipe, try here: all dumplings recipes.
Lazy Varenyky (lazy vareniki, fresh cheese lazy dumplings) is a dish of Ukrainian cuisine. To prepare it you will need fresh white cheese (tvorog, quark) which can be hard to find in a local shop, so try Ukrainian / Russian / Polish shops for more luck or make it yourself.
The word “lazy” in the name reflects the fact how fast and easy this dish is to prepare. It takes less then 20 mins from putting simple ingredients together till Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings are ready to be served, and that includes boiling.
Lazy Varenyky dish is good choice for children breakfast: they include fresh cheese – a good source of the calcium for growing body. And of course they are tasty, your kids will love them!
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of fresh white cheese (tvorog, quark)
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp of sugar
- All purpose flour, about 1/2 – 1 cup (for dough and preparation)
- Salt
How to make, step-by-step:
-
To prepare lazy varenyky (fresh cheese dumplings) you will need quark (fresh cow milk white cheese, in ukrainian/russian: tvorog). I had troubles to find it in US, so if you don’t have it in your local stores, ask in Russian / Ukrainian / Polish shops, most probably you will find it there:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 1 -
You may find first several steps of lazy varenyky preparation very similar to the Fresh Cheese Pancakes steps. So we start with mashing fresh cheese in a bowl:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 2 -
Add 1 tsp of salt, sugar and an egg and mix everything:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 3 -
Add 2-3tbsp of all-purpose flour (if you like more stiff dumplings add more of flour) and knead the dough:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 4 -
Divide dough into 3-4 more or less equal parts, and form ball of each of them. Take one ball and roll it into the dough bar a bit smaller than 1 inch in diameter (remember fresh cheese dumplings will get bigger after they are boiled, so if you like smaller dumplings make diameter smaller), see the picture:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 5 -
Slice the dough bar with a knife into the pieces about 1/3 of inch. Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the dough:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 6 -
Fill cooking pot with water and put it on the high heat burner. When water become boiling salt it and drop dough pieces into the water (make sure water is really boiling, otherwise dumplings may fall apart) :
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 7 -
Wait till cheese dumplings rise to the water surface and let them to boil about 3 minutes more after this. Take ready fresh cheese dumplings out with a skimmer:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) Recipe: Step 8 -
Lazy Varevyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings) are ready! Season them with a bit of butter and server with sour cream as a dip:
Lazy Varenyky (Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings)
Thank you, Julia. I have been looking for this recipe for years. My Polish grandmother used to make these, and until I came across your website I was never able to find a recipe that gave me the flavor and texture I remember from my childhood. These are perfect – exactly like those that Nani used to make! I was actually able to find quark in a NYC Fairway Market. I vaguely remember my grandmother using a dry-curd pot cheese or cottage cheese. Since obtaining the quark is hit or miss here, next time I may try cottage cheese combined with the Friendship farmer cheese suggested by poster Yulia…or maybe I will try making my own (I have had a lot of success with making my own yogurt…perhaps it’s time to move up to cheese!) At any rate, thanks again for providing me with a means of sharing a lovely and delicious part of my childhood with my children.
P.S. Thanks also for the kompot recipes…something else I’ve been looking for since being introduced to that lovely beverage at a Brooklyn Polish restaurant. My daughter whipped up a refreshing batch of the apple and cranberry drink not long ago…delicious!
Thank you!
Another method of making “almost quark” is to use buttermilk as the base. Fill a caserole dish with buttermilk, set in oven at 175 (lowest setting possible really) and leave overnight. by morning, the whey will have separated and you have pretty adequate quark. You can decide how dry/moist you want it – works well in varenyky or german quark kuchen.. Real quark is impossible to find in Minnesota, not a problem in Canada..
Thank you for the idea! I will write it down to try along with other “recipes” for lazy ppl (like me) who want to make quark, but don’t want to do it all the way from the milk…
Btw, here in Ohio we do have couple of small European stores which carry russian, ukrainian, german, polish foods, they do have quark as well as some other things (mayo, pickled everything, breads, deli meats and cheese) which can’t be easily found elsewhere… Maybe where you are, there are such stores too?
Oh this recipe is simply awesome for those lazy days lol… I love your site and the variety of diff. recipes… Will give this a try this week and let you know how it turned out… Thanks
Thank you!
Wow! It’s so awesome that you’re spreading and sharing dishes from Ukrainian Cuisine. Lazy Varenyky are definitely my favorite, and I love to have them for breakfast. If you choose low fat cheese and no extra add ons they can be quiet healthy and filling (good for dieting!).
I cooked by your recipe and they turned out amazing. View here- http://teenage-baking.blogspot.com/search/label/Ukrainian%20Culture
Thank you for your comment, I am glad the recipe worked for you 🙂
You can use “Friendship Dairy Farmer Cheese” or any other brand Farmer Cheese which is sold in almost every decent supermarket (no need to run around looking for a Russian or Ukrainian store), though not cheap (Pathmark has it for $3.50-3.99 for 1/2 lb). You can also make it at home if you have time in advance. One Gallon of milk yields to 2lb of cheese. That makes it 4-5 times cheaper. Take one gallon of milk. Add a 3-4 spoon full’s of (non-sweetened) yogurt or sour cream. Leave in the room temperature for 24-36 hours untill curd separates from the thrusting. Put into the heated to 300F oven in a big metal pot for about 30-40 min. When cooled down, separate the curd through a large wire mesh colander lined with a good quality paper towel (bounty or viva) or some clean thin fabric (old white son’s undershirt). Collect the thrusting in a separate pot (could be used for crapes, pancakes etc.) And you got the homemade cheese in the collander that is perfect for eating fresh, baking or making lazy dumplings
Yes, I agree that making fresh cheese yourself is cheaper and often better quality option. However I never tried to make it here in US considering that all milk here is heavily pasteurized (and very ofter doesn’t even tastes like a milk), as well as some sour cream and yogurts.
I was thinking on using kefir instead.
BTW, cheese cloth
can be used instead of paper towel or thin fabric. I think, it is the best for straining extra liquid from fresh cheese.
I made these last night. I think they turned out ok for my first time cooking them. The tvorog I used was a bit more wet/moist than the kind you used and I forgot to add a bit of butter at the end. However, they did turn out tasty with sour cream! Spaceba!
You are welcome 🙂
If “dough” fills too wet you can correct it by adding a bit more flour, so it gets easier to form rolls.