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These aren’t the potato pancakes I posted earlier which used left-over mashed potatoes. These are finely grated, raw potatoes and onion. It’s a classic Ukrainian dish called Deruny. Our moms still make these regularly. This is actually Vadim’s post. He combined both our family recipes and it turned out perfect.
Ingredients for deruny:
- 5 medium size potatoes (about 1.5 lb)
- 1 onion
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp of all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp of sour cream
- 1 tsp of salt and pepper to taste
- oil (for frying)
How to Make Deruny:
1. Prep all the ingredients. Peel potatoes and onion.
2 .Take big bowl, grate potatoes and onion (on the star shaped grater), taking turns and mixing grated mixture. Onion juice will keep potatoes from browning:
3. Add flour, egg, sour cream and mix it well, than add 1tsp of salt and some black pepper, batter should be still liquid enough so you can easily ladle it:
4 .Warm up a skillet with 2-3 Tbsp of oil over medium/high heat. Add 1 heaping Tbsp of mixture at a time to the skillet fry on one side until golden brown in color, then flip to other side and fry for the same amount of time. Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the batter:
5. Serve deruny warm, they are best with sour cream, enjoy.
Deruny - Ukrainian Potato Pancakes
Ingredients
- 5 medium size potatoes, about 1.5 lb
- 1 onion
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp of all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp of sour cream
- 1 tsp of salt and pepper to taste
- Cooking oil
Instructions
Prep all the ingredients:
- Peel potatoes and onion:
- Take big bowl, grate potatoes and onion (on the star shaped grater), taking turns and mixing grated mixture. Onion juice will keep potatoes from browning.
- Add flour, egg, sour cream and mix it well, than add 1 tsp of salt and some black pepper, batter should be still liquid enough so you can easily ladle it.
- Warm up a skillet with 2-3 Tbsp of cooking oil over medium/high heat. Add 1 heaping Tbsp of mixture at a time to the skillet fry on one side until golden brown in color, then flip to other side and fry for the same amount of time. Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the batter.
Serve deruny warm, they are best with sour cream, enjoy.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Hi, do you iahvexto change anything if I don’t add the source cream? Thanks
Hello! I just made these and they came out amazing. I do have a question, am I able to freeze them after cooking them?
Thank you for sharing, Ether. I have always made the pancakes right away and finished them, haven’t tried freezing to advise.
Hi Natasha! I would love to make these for our Passover seder to honor Ukraine. Do you know if matzo meal or matzo cake flour could work in place of the regular flour? Thank you!
Hi Jen, I honestly haven’t tested that to advise. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
Do you think I could grate all this the night before without it being a mushy yucky mess the next day?
Hi Erica, this is best made fresh or the potatoes can brown. It’s best to cook and reheat them if you wanted to make them ahead.
Hi Natasha!
What are these traditionally served with? What do you serve them with?
Hi there, this is usually best for breakfast and best served when warm with sour cream. You can also use it as a side dish for vegetables or meat as the main dish.
Ok just made this recipe and they are amazing. As I am Lithuanian it is similar in many ways to many recipes I make. I did cheat though as I bought a machine from Lithuania that grates the potatoes perfectly getting the right texter and saving many years of my knuckles being grated. LOL I think next time I may fry in the rendered fatback. Thank you was really awesome.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Hello, Natasha,
I was wondering, what if I don’t peel the potatoes (they are organic, of course). Would this make a big difference? I’d hate to lose all the vitamins in the skin. Thank you.
best,
Lisa
Hi Lisa, I haven’t tried this with skin-on potatoes so I’m not sure how that would affect the texture. I imagine it might be more difficult to grate on the star grater of a box grater.
good point! Thank you!
We have them but don’t add the egg. That’s the way my tato made the. Love them with tomato ketchup.
Thank you for sharing that with me!
Hi Natasha) I absolutely love all of your recipes. As far as deruny, I always grade potatoes in food processor! So much easier and less time consuming. Same consistency. I always put a pinch of baking soda, but will try w/o )) Maybe they will be crispier!
That’s a great idea! Thank you for that tip Nataliya!
We made your recipe based on servings 8-8. It ended up making 16 pancakes. In your nutrition information is it not clear what a serving size is. is it 100g or 500g of pancake. Can you please help.
Hi Kirsten, using a heaping Tbsp of the mixture, it should make about 18 pancakes. You can make them larger for fewer pancakes or smaller for more pancakes.