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Traditional Ukrainian cheese dumplings (aka Lazy Vareniki) are made with Tvorog; a homemade farmers cheese. This is an even lazier (I mean easier) version. The Ricotta cheese is inexpensive and simple, but I do have the recipe for farmers cheese posted.Well, here you have it. Enjoy!
This is a modified version of SheSimmers recipe.
Ingredients for Lazy Vareniki:
15 oz Ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt + 1/2 Tbsp of salt for water
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour + more to dust
4 Tbsp butter, soft or melted
How to make Cheese Dumplings:
1. In a medium size bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, 3 Tbsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 15 oz of Ricotta cheese just until well blended.
2. Use a spatula to mix in 1 1/2 cups of flour, add more flour if needed just until you can form a ball. Don’t over-mix or dough can become tough. The less you mix the dough the softer it will be.
3. Dust a cutting board with flour and divide the dough ball into quarters and roll each section into a 1/2″ thick strip. Cut each strip into 1/4 to 1/2-inch pieces on the diagonal (only because they are prettier at an angle).
4. Bring a pot of water with 1/2 Tbsp salt to a boil. Carefully drop in the dumplings (try to keep them close to the level of the water when dropping them in or they may splash).
5. Lightly boil for about 2 minutes without stirring until dumplings float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon into a colander and lightly rinse with cold water to remove excess starch. Toss/swirl with melted or softened butter. I boiled it in two batches using the same water, but you could probably boil them all at once.
Serve with sour cream. We love to sauté dumplings; especially leftovers. Oh yum.
Cheese Dumplings Recipe
Ingredients
- 15 oz Ricotta cheese
- 2 large eggs
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt + 1/2 Tbsp of salt for water
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour + more to dust
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, soft or melted
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, 3 Tbsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 15 oz of Ricotta cheese just until well blended.
- Use a spatula to mix in 1 1/2 cups of flour, add more flour if needed just until you can form a ball. Don't overmix or dough can become tough. The less you mix the dough the softer it will be.
- Dust a cutting board with flour, divide the dough ball into quarters and roll each section into a 1/2" thick strip. Cut each strip into 1/4 to 1/2-inch pieces on the diagonal (only because they are prettier at an angle).
- Bring a pot of water with 1/2 Tbsp salt to a boil. Carefully drop in the dumplings (try to keep them close to the level of the water when dropping them in or they may splash).
- Lightly boil for about 2 minutes without stirring until dumplings float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon into a colander and lightly rinse with cold water to remove excess starch. Toss/swirl with melted or softened butter. I boiled it in two batches using the same water, but you could probably boil them all at once.
- Serve with sour cream. We love to sauté dumplings afterwards until they are golden brown; especially leftovers. Oh yum.
I am super excited to have found this recipe! My grandma is Ukrainian and she (and later on – my mom) made them for us all the time! Note that these are not typical in Russia’s north, for instance (neither are cherry dumplings, by the way), so I am psyched to be able to make these for my husband who is from Tver’.
And thank you Natasha for the wonderful blog! I am always happy to see a fellow Russian- or Ukrainian-American sharing our culture with others. I teach Russian to adults in NYC and I just emailed the link to your blog to my students. I brought I few things I made to class before and this blog just inspired me to do more! 🙂
Dasha, you are awesome! Thanks for sharing my blog with your students. I hope you love the recipe and hope it brings back memories for you!!
I grew up in Moscow, and my mother used to make these, with tvorog, all the time.
Vareniki with sour cherries – we had a friend who visited from Ukraine, and she made those for us. As well as the real vareniki – the dough filled with tvorog filling (a lot of work, not for a Lazy person…;))
For sure! Vareniki take some work but they sure are my very favorite things in the world!! 🙂
Natasha with sugar and cinnamon 🙂
I have a son adopted from Ukraine and a daughter adopted from Russia and I like to incorporate little bits of their first culture into our family. My son especially – because he was adopted at age 14 – likes to have Ukrainian food. I made these tonight for my family and they were a huge hit! I will be adding this to the regular rotation. Thank-you!!
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing your story with me 🙂
OH MY GOSH! I’m from Ukraine, and I’m definitely going to make this sometime this week as part of a dinner, I’ll tell you what I think of them, they look delish!
Hope you love the recipe!
Do you think they will still work well without ricotta cheese? so if i only use the farmers cheese? I’m making some right now 😀
I think they would be yummy with farmers cheese; that’s the original way Ukrainians made them 🙂
Oh yes! Does this bring back childhood memories!!! My grandma used to make these! Love them! Will make them for my little trouble now! Thanks, Natasha!
You are welcome Sveta, let me know how they turn out :).
Hm, it’s an interesting idea to panfry them after boiling. Never seen that before. My husband would love this! He panfries perogies, buckwheat, potatoes, spaghetti, you name it after they have already been cooked.:) I guess different traditions in different parts of former USSR.
I agree. Never seen that before. But it _is_ interesting idea, I love it 🙂
Can I replace honey for sugar?
That should work; I bet it would taste even better! 🙂
Hello, Natasha!
I just had one quick question about the tvorog. I was walking around the store earlier today and noticed there are wetter tvorogs, and dier; for this recipe which type of tvorog would you recommend?
Thank you!
It’s hard to say without looking at it myself. You don’t want too dry or too wet. Pick the one that’s closest to ricotta cheese. Hope that helps.
Made these yesterday, doubled the recipe and they turned out great! I sautéed them like you recommended and husband just ate them up. Natasha, thanks for helping us all to be better ‘hospodinyas’. I have to say, your web site is quite popular among my relatives. My mom told me the other day that she was talking to her sister (my aunt), and she was saying that her daughters rarely ask her for recipes anymore, they just use Natasha’s kitchen all the time, lol!
Uh oh 😉 I hope your aunt isn’t unhappy with my blog! Well, as they say, nothing beats mom’s cooking so I hope they still try to get their Mama’s recipes 🙂
I’m sure they still do, but it definitely helps us be more independent 🙂
Just got done making these yummy babies!. They are delicious! Thank You for your always so yummy recepies!
Oh so happy you liked the recipe 🙂
I don’t have ricotta cheese, but I have fresh mozzarella. Do you think it will still work? Or I could just wait and buy ricotta. 🙂
I don’t think the fresh mozzarella would blend well with the rest of the ingredients. I haven’t tried it, but I don’t think it would work.
Hi Natasha. How much flour do you add? Thanks n
1 1/2 cups
I love how easy these are. I bet they’re a dream with sautéed onions and sour cream. Great recipe!!
Yes, they are, just omit the sugar in :).
I made these once with Farmer’s Cheese and absolutely LOVED them! Can’t wait to try this recipe! 🙂
Let me know if you can tell the difference after making them, between Farmer’s Cheese and Ricotta.
These look super yummy. A must try for my Hubby. One question though, you have ricotta cheese on the recipe but on your first instruction it says cottage cheese? I’m thinking cottage cheese is a typo. Thanks for another yummy recipe Natasha!
Good eyes Rosie, just got it fixed in both places, thank you :).
My grandma used to make them a lot..except she didn’t saute them.. they look delish 😉
They taste great either way :).
My mom made these too when I was little! They go great with sour cream.
They do indeed, we ate ours in two sittings :).
Oh yum! I remember my mom making these for us when we were little! Yum!!
These were my husbands memory 🙂 my mom made them plain; just the dough from pelmeni in water; my favorite!
I made these last night and they were yummy! Very easy to make. Thank You for sharing. =)
They are very easy indeed, I’m glad you like them Yana :).
I love making these, it so easy and the taste is rewarding:)
They are very easy :), my 3 year old ate them with sour cream and jam.