Lazy Vareniki (Cottage Cheese Dumplings) Recipe
Lazy vareniki are just like vareniki, only made in a very simple way. The filling is mixed into the dough instead of being wrapped in a dough shell. That makes prep and cooking about as easy as it gets – no fuss, unlike a cottage cheese casserole. What you end up with are large cottage cheese dumplings, a lot like galushki, that taste just like vareniki with cottage cheese. Quick and tasty, especially when you have very little time left for breakfast.
In cooking, the word “lazy” is usually attached to a dish when it's made from the same set of ingredients as the “non-lazy” version, but the process is simplified as much as possible. Lazy cabbage rolls follow the same idea: the filling of minced meat, rice and vegetables is mixed with finely shredded cabbage, and you get patties that taste like cabbage rolls. Or lazy borscht – all the ingredients go into the water at once and cook together.
So lazy vareniki could really be called cottage cheese vareniki for the lazy cook. That said, it's a dish in its own right, a relative of klyotski, galushki, Italian gnocchi and cavatelli. When I was little, my grandmother often made vareniki for her grandchildren – the usual kind, with the cottage cheese inside the dough. But sometimes, I no longer remember why, we got the simplified version for breakfast, and we were always very happy about it.
Like anything made from boiled dough, vareniki need the right approach. The dough can fall apart while cooking or turn into something like a rubber sponge. And you certainly don't want the cottage cheese flavor to disappear, leaving only the taste of plain dough. It's essential to keep the proportions of the ingredients right and to boil the vareniki for the minimum time needed for them to be done.
Lazy vareniki usually turn out soft, with a pronounced cottage cheese flavor. The dough has very little sugar; the sweetness comes from tasty toppings poured over the dish when serving – whatever each person likes.
There's plenty of debate about whether grainy cottage cheese should be pressed smooth for the dough. We're used to homemade cottage cheese showing up in the dough as clearly visible “grains”, so we just mash it with a fork and mix it with the other ingredients. We make the mixture only slightly sweet. And almost always, when serving, we sprinkle the dish with sugar and pour melted butter over it.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Cottage cheese (low-fat) 250 g
- Egg 1
- Sugar 1 tbsp
- Wheat flour as needed
- Butter 1 tbsp
- Salt, vanilla to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- The ideal lazy vareniki are made from homemade cottage cheese. Properly made cottage cheese isn't too fatty, it's soft and not sour. Its texture is coarse-grained. Whether to press it smooth or not is a matter of taste. As a rule, we just mash the cottage cheese with a fork to get rid of lumps, and leave it at that. By the way, these days you can find quite decent store-bought cottage cheese with 2–5% fat, and it will do.
- Put the cottage cheese in a deep bowl. Add a scant 1 tbsp of sugar, a pinch of salt and vanilla. You can use concentrated vanillin, vanilla sugar or anything else. The amount of vanilla is up to you. Add the egg and the flour. It's best to sift the flour. You'll need 1–2 tbsp of flour. If the cottage cheese is “wet”, you may need more flour. But keep in mind: the less flour, the better the dish tastes.
- Knead a very soft, sticky cottage cheese dough. Dust the table or board generously with flour. Divide the mixture into 3–4 pieces, dust with flour and roll each piece into a “log” 3–3.5 cm thick. Roll out all the pieces of dough this way.
- With a sharp knife, cut the dough into pieces 2.5–3 cm apart. By the way, the size can vary quite widely. We're used to making them small enough to eat in one go, without biting – pop one in your mouth and it's gone. Dust the cut sides with flour as well. Press the sides of the dough lightly with your fingers to shape each piece into a small puck, ideally with a slight dip on both sides – that way the dough holds the melted butter better when served.
You can also freeze some of the cottage cheese pieces and boil them quickly later, for example for the kids' breakfast. Before freezing, lay them out carefully on a board or plate dusted with flour. Once they're frozen, you can transfer them to a bag to store more compactly.
- Bring 3 l of water to a boil. I've read somewhere that the water can be slightly sweetened, but I don't do that – plain water is enough. Drop all the prepared pieces of dough one at a time into rapidly boiling water. Make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Stir the vareniki in the water very gently with a spoon. Boil for 3–4 mins after they float to the surface.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vareniki to a plate, letting the water drain off well. Sprinkle them with 1 tsp of sugar. Melt a piece of butter and warm it a little, pour it over the vareniki on the plate and sit down to breakfast right away. If you've made a lot of vareniki, you don't have to boil them all at once – they keep well in the freezer, just be sure to dust the tray or board with flour.
- Cottage cheese vareniki are a fairly high-calorie dish. On their own, even without butter, they can reach 200 kcal/100 g, and a lot depends on the cottage cheese. Vareniki can also be made lighter and unsweetened – with herbs, cracklings or hard cheese. But most often these vareniki are made with just cottage cheese. When serving, you can top them with sour cream, condensed milk, jam or honey, and add fresh raspberries, strawberries and so on.
| Yield: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 240 |
| Prep time: | 10 mins |
| Cook time: | 10 mins |
| Ready in: | 20 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | Ukrainian cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.5
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