Sweet Potato & Goat Cheese Feta Pierogi
I’ve been craving pierogi A LOT lately. I use to eat them all the time in the fall and winter. It was my favorite cheap meal. The store I would go grocery shopping at would have their brand name pierogi in different flavors such as; spinach & feta, garlic, cheddar cheese etc. I would fix them the same way every time. They would be boiled for a few minutes, drained then sautéed in a little butter,olive oil and onions. Then I would eat them plain or with apple sauce.
So with this craving heavy on my mind and stomach, I went on a search to find some pierogi my digestive system could handle. I searched all the natural food markets in my area for pierogi, specifically gluten free and nothing. The reason I was looking for gluten free pierogies is because I knew I wouldn’t find any made with einkorn flour (the only flour I can really digest).
Then I realized, I’m running around looking for store bought pierogi when I could just make them myself. A google search brought up many recipes on how to make pierogi. And I picked the recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. It’s a very simple recipe and it just so happened I had most of the ingredients on hand to make them. But I had to do some tweaking to the recipe first.
Changes To The Dough
For the dough the first thing I changed from the original recipe was the flour. I used einkorn flour instead of regular flour. As mention several times on this blog, einkorn flour is a flour my digestive system handles very well. I also decided to use olive oil instead of butter and cut down the amount of fat in half to two tablespoons instead of four. There were a couple of reasons why I changed the fat from butter to olive oil. First reason is I didn’t have any grass fed butter or ghee.:) But the second reason is olive oil has less saturated fat. Because I wanted to use the egg and sour cream that the recipe called for, I went with olive oil to try and make the pierogi a little healthier.
I normally don’t use eggs anymore but I had a free range local grown egg left in the fridge from when my son came to visit. So I followed the recipe and used an egg. The recipe also called for sour cream so I used my favorite lactose-free dairy product line’s sour cream, Green Valley Creamery. I normally use their yogurt and cream cheese so I knew the sour cream would work well with my system.
Changes To The Filling
Now me being who I am, I had to switch up the filling. 🙂 What came to me immediately was instead of making a regular potato and cheese filling, make a sweet potato filling and add goat cheese. And that’s what I did. For the filling I roasted two small sweet potatoes to make a cup of mashed sweet potatoes. To the sweet potatoes I added sea salt,red pepper flakes and a delicious goat and sheep’s milk feta cheese.
The End Result
I decided to make big pierogi instead of small ones. Maybe because I didn’t have the patience to do small ones and I just wanted to stuff my face. 🙂 But either way the pierogi came out so well! The filling has a sweet, tangy spicy flavor that goes so well with the tender, chewy pockets of dough that envelopes the filling. And the pierogi becomes even better when pan fried because then there’s a light crispiness on the outside. Not only that combine sautéed onion, shallots, mushrooms, or any greens and it brings the pierogi up a notch.
This recipe would make an excellent side dish or main meal for any dinner. And let’s not forget Thanksgiving is coming up, I can see a platter of these pierogi sitting right in the middle of a table for Thanksgiving.
Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese Feta Pierogi
AuthorDesireeCategoryMain MealsDifficultyIntermediateThis pierogi recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour. I made changes to the original recipe to make the pierogi easier to digest. They can be served as a side dish or instead of playing the role of a supporting actor they can be the star at your dinner table.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, salts and olive oil.
Then add the sour cream and egg. Mix thoroughly starting with a wood spoon then using your hands.
After kneading for a few minutes, the dough should come together nicely in your hands to form a soft ball of dough that is only lightly sticky.
**You should not have to add more flour.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for an hour. But it can stay refrigerated all the way up to 48 hours.
To a bowl place the sweet potatoes, goat feta, red pepper flakes and sea salt. Mix all together. And place to the side.
Once the dough is chilled. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch. My round cutter was big! I used a 3 1/2 inch round cutter. But normally you would use a smaller cutter like 2 inches. But you can basically use any size you want. Just know the size of the round cutter will determine how much pierogi you end up with.
Fill each round circle you cut with some filling. For my big circles I used about a tablespoon of filling per round.
Next step is to close the dough gently over the filling. I found it easier to pick up the dough with the filling and while holding it, gently pull the dough over the filling, pinching the edges of the dough together.
Once all the pierogi are filled. Take a fork and press the tines into the edges to seal them tighter. Place them on a parchment paper lined sheet. At this point the pierogi can be frozen or cooked in boiling water.
**I decided to freeze my pierogi to have on hand for the week. To freeze I left the pierogi on the parchment lined pan to flash freeze for about an hour then placed them in a freezer bag.
In a pot with boiling salted water place the pierogi in the pot being careful not to crowd the pot with too many. They will float to the top once they are done.
Drain the pierogi.
You can eat them like this or after boiling you can also pan fry them, which is what I like to do!
To pan fry, heat a fry pan on medium heat with a couple of tablespoons of ghee or mixture of grass fed butter and olive oil.
To the pan you can add chopped red onion, shallots and sea salt. Sauté the onions till brown then add the already boiled and drained pierogi.
Fry till the pierogi is brown and a little crispy. Personally once the pierogi is crispy I like to throw in a bit of greens like spinach or arugula once they wilt I remove them from the pan.
There's so many different variations of fillings that can be done for pierogi.
So it's hard to get bored from eating them. They are so delicious! They're filling and stick to your bones, which is great during the cool fall and winter months.
The combination of the sweet potatoes, red pepper flakes and goat feta makes for a sweet, tangy spicy flavor that goes so well with the tender, chewy pockets of dough. And the pierogi becomes even better when pan fried because then there's texture of crispiness on the outside.
Ingredients
Directions
In a large bowl mix together the flour, salts and olive oil.
Then add the sour cream and egg. Mix thoroughly starting with a wood spoon then using your hands.
After kneading for a few minutes, the dough should come together nicely in your hands to form a soft ball of dough that is only lightly sticky.
**You should not have to add more flour.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for an hour. But it can stay refrigerated all the way up to 48 hours.
To a bowl place the sweet potatoes, goat feta, red pepper flakes and sea salt. Mix all together. And place to the side.
Once the dough is chilled. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch. My round cutter was big! I used a 3 1/2 inch round cutter. But normally you would use a smaller cutter like 2 inches. But you can basically use any size you want. Just know the size of the round cutter will determine how much pierogi you end up with.
Fill each round circle you cut with some filling. For my big circles I used about a tablespoon of filling per round.
Next step is to close the dough gently over the filling. I found it easier to pick up the dough with the filling and while holding it, gently pull the dough over the filling, pinching the edges of the dough together.
Once all the pierogi are filled. Take a fork and press the tines into the edges to seal them tighter. Place them on a parchment paper lined sheet. At this point the pierogi can be frozen or cooked in boiling water.
**I decided to freeze my pierogi to have on hand for the week. To freeze I left the pierogi on the parchment lined pan to flash freeze for about an hour then placed them in a freezer bag.
In a pot with boiling salted water place the pierogi in the pot being careful not to crowd the pot with too many. They will float to the top once they are done.
Drain the pierogi.
You can eat them like this or after boiling you can also pan fry them, which is what I like to do!
To pan fry, heat a fry pan on medium heat with a couple of tablespoons of ghee or mixture of grass fed butter and olive oil.
To the pan you can add chopped red onion, shallots and sea salt. Sauté the onions till brown then add the already boiled and drained pierogi.
Fry till the pierogi is brown and a little crispy. Personally once the pierogi is crispy I like to throw in a bit of greens like spinach or arugula once they wilt I remove them from the pan.
There's so many different variations of fillings that can be done for pierogi.
So it's hard to get bored from eating them. They are so delicious! They're filling and stick to your bones, which is great during the cool fall and winter months.
The combination of the sweet potatoes, red pepper flakes and goat feta makes for a sweet, tangy spicy flavor that goes so well with the tender, chewy pockets of dough. And the pierogi becomes even better when pan fried because then there's texture of crispiness on the outside.
Notes
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