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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.
Hey Natasha Добрий Деньб I’m a Canadian living and teaching in Poltava for the last 3 years. Yesterday my girlfriend suggested Деруни з Мйса whilst we were having lunch in a restaurant and they were really delicious. I want to try making them this way….any suggestions as to how one might get the meat inside them???
Were you looking for something like this? https://natashaskitchen.com/2012/06/05/stuffed-potato-pancakes/
The best recipe for deruny! My 3 year old loves them! Thanks for posting
Thank you Helen, I love a good report :).
MMMM looks so good!!
They taste even better :D.
This recipe is awesome! Tried it this weekend and it turned out so good!
Thank you Julie, I hope you will find more favorites on the site :).
Hello Natasha!
I’m a Brazilian girl living in Europe, with many Russian and Ukrainian friends who introduced me to this delicious dish. This morning, my husband and I had the best breakfast at home thanks to your recipe. I’ve dared to make a big change though: as we don’t eat fried food, I’ve baked them in the oven instead of frying. I had no idea if it was going to work out, but it did! Your recipe is not only simple and authentic, but it also turns out to be very flexible. Congratulations for your work and “spasibo” for the tip!
Thank you for such a thoughtful and sweet comment, I’m glad you like the recipe :).
Thank you very much for sharing this:). My grandma used to cooked it every morning. So I was happy to find it:).
You are welcome Marina :).
Was in Lviv a few months ago and had some potato pancakes in a cafe, they were excellent and have been looking for the recipe every since. They were more coarse in texture, yellowish inside, appeared to be more of a patty in shape, (baked?) Any ideas?
I don’t have any baked potato pancakes, but I’ll ask around…
Baked is just a guess, it just appeared that they were lacking any oil from frying, I make patato pancakes from a recipe that my Polish grandmother used that are fried and the Ukranian ones were very different.
very nice. but so much better without the flour.
You think so? They don’t fall apart without it? I just haven’t tried it.
Just made some for the first time in my life. They are delicccc!!! Thank you so much for your help!
You’re welcome, I’m glad you enjoyed them :).
Hi Natasha, I’m originally from Belarus. Draniki (we call them that way) are our national dish. So glad you posted this recipe. I usually make them without sour cream, just put a lot of it when they are ready to eat 🙂 . The biggest problem is shredding. After 5 years, I’m still in search of automated method. So far, I figured to use my juicer for this work. I was looking for food processor with the same blade as you used, but could not find any here in US. Unfortunately, my hubby doesn’t cook or help with it. Please help! If anyone have a good suggestion, I really need it.
We’ve just done it by hand. If you do find a way, please let me know.
Love this recipe, they tasted exactly like my mom’s. I omit the sour cream (mom normally doesn’t add it and I didn’t have it on hand). I used a juicer for potatoes and onion but I had to run my hands through it after it was juiced and take out any onion pieces that have made it through. Although I add most of the juice to the mixture, I don’t use all of it and I use less flour as well 1-2 Tbsp. Thanks for sharing!!!!
That’s the best when something tastes like mom’s. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Natasha, these are wonderful, made them as a surprise for my Ukrainian girlfriend and she loved them. She left Ukraine aged 11 and was made up as it is virtually impossible to find traditional food anywhere. Thanks for your blog, we will be using many more of your ideas in our home! 🙂
Hi Craig, Thanks for stopping by and letting me know 🙂 So glad you enjoyed the potato pancakes!
Absolutely delicious! Thanks for posting the recipe, used to eat these all the time as kids, but having one today made me remember those childhood memories 😉
I love comments like yours. It’s part of the reason I have this site 🙂
We also use a blender and blend all the ingrediants together. Fast, easy and still as good!
Natasha thank you for posting this recipe, mine turned out perfect according to your recipe,not like before. i use a vitamix blender it takes 30 seconds to blend everything.
Thanks Alot for posting this recipe! Svetlana
Love how Mr. Potato Head is overlooking the process of making Potato Pancakes 🙂 I think he approved because they look fantastic.
Haha thanks. Few people notice him there 🙂
Made these for breakfast yesterday for me and my man, per your recipe! Really really liked them, especially since my mom hasn’t made them in years (used to when we were kids.. dunno what happened).
I halved the recipe and it still took me like 20 minutes to grate the 2 large potatoes I used! The grater is brand new.. got it the night before (exactly like yours… did you get it at Winco?). I wish there was an easier way. I don’t have a food processor.
Whatever, it was worth it. Thank you!
(I looked at this recipe several times and JUST noticed Mr. Potato head… cute.)
My husband does that grating in our house 🙂 I’ve been looking to buy a better grater – mine is a little uncomfortable to hold. I think it did come from Winco!
I made these again today and just grated the potato in little shreds instead of on the star-shaped hole and it was much easier and the taste/texture was still great.
Yes – Mr. Potato head is Davids friend 🙂
There is an easier way! I cut up the potatoes and onions into smaller chunks, and put everything into a blender. Just put all the ingredients in at once, making sure to put the potatoes in last, and it comes out pretty much same texture as grating…just much faster. Got the idea from my mother-in-law! 🙂 Good luck! Great recipe! Thanks Natasha!
I’ll have to try that; it does sound easier! Thanks Vita!
the epitome of appetizing!:)
This blog was bound to happen, and I’m glad it did.
Thank you Sophia – I’m glad it did too 🙂 I really enjoy it!
These look so good! thanx 4 the recipe!!!!!
Love these things!
Step 4 change “flower” to “flour”
Thank you! I’ll take the blame for that one. It’s my husbands post but I did the editing 🙂
Darn it! And here I was ready to add some carnations!
ha ha ha – it would be even funnier if someone seriously asked me what kind of flowers I used.
Just made a small batch (sans carnation) YUM!
(although a touch of dried and ground carnation petals might not be bad, a kind of peppery-spicy note to them)
love these Natasha… been looking for a recipe like this for a long time. I have been using one that calls for the potatoes to be grated larger than these and it tastes good, but it doesn’t have the same texture as these. Thanks for sharing these recipes, even though your schooling is keeping you busy. You are helping me keep my Ukrainian heritage alive in my family!
The credit goes to my husband on this one. Thank you for your sweet comment 🙂