Traditional Varenyky Recipe: Potato, Cheese, Cherry and Lenten Fillings

Active time: ~1¼ hours | Total time: ~1½ hours | Serves: 4 | Difficulty: Medium

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Quick Overview

1. Mix a soft dough of flour, water, salt and oil, and let it rest while you make the filling
2. Choose a filling: potato with fried onion, farmer’s cheese, or sour cherries
3. Roll the dough thin, cut circles with a glass, fill them and pinch the edges shut
4. Boil in salted water until the varenyky float, then a few minutes more
5. Serve savory varenyky with fried onion and sour cream, sweet ones with sour cream
6. For Christmas Eve, make the lenten version further down: no egg, no dairy

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What Varenyky Are

Varenyky are Ukrainian boiled dumplings: rounds of unleavened dough folded over a filling and pinched into half-moons. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine’s entry on traditional foods calls them the favorite dish made of flour, with fillings of cheese, potato and cheese, cabbage, meat, fish, buckwheat or plum, and lists fried onions, fried bacon and sour cream as the usual toppings.¹ Today the classic fillings are potato, farmer’s cheese (syr, a soft fresh curd cheese), sour cherries and stewed or fried cabbage.²

Polish pierogi are the same idea, half-moon dumplings made from a nearly identical dough, though pierogi tend to be a little larger.³ This article gives one everyday dough with three fillings, and a separate egg-free version with sauerkraut and mushrooms for Sviat Vechir, Ukrainian Christmas Eve.

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History and Cultural Roots

Most varenyky made now use white wheat flour, but older ones often didn’t. A 2026 Ukrainska Pravda feature notes that they were often made with buckwheat flour or whatever flour a household had, rye, wheat or a mix, and that the filling could be almost anything: fried cabbage, poppy seed, viburnum and other berries, apples, stewed dried fruit, boiled beans, pea purée, millet or buckwheat porridge.² In Poltava region and southern Chernihiv region cooks even made “varenyky with sand,” filled with flour browned in hot rendered fat.² The names multiplied as well: a dumpling with no filling was a bezdushnyk, a very large one a shvartsaba, a cabbage one a kapustsenyk.²

Varenyky also turned up at fixed points in the year. On the feast of the Forty Martyrs a cook made forty varenyky, halushky or pampushky, one for each martyr, and gave them all away. In central Polissia varenyky were required on the feasts of St Barbara, St Sava and St Nicholas, and on St Barbara’s day beekeepers threw a poppy-seed-and-honey varenyk at a tree: if it stuck, the tree would make a good hive. On the second day of a wedding the bridesmaids brought varenyky to the bride, and women brought them to a new mother with the wish that she would always be “as full as a varenyk.”²

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Varenyky on the Holiday Table

Sviat Vechir

The Christmas Eve holy supper is a meal of twelve ritual dishes with no meat and no milk. In the Hutsul order recorded in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, boiled potato dumplings, pyrohy or varenyky, come third, after beans and fish.⁴ A 2025 Explainer piece on the twelve dishes says varenyky were among the required dishes in most regions: made lenten, shaped the day before by the whole family, and served without sour cream, with oil and fried onion.⁵ The lenten varenyky below follow that pattern. The other dishes of the supper are collected on our Sviata Vecheria menu.

Shchedryi Vechir (Malanka)

Shchedryi Vechir, the Generous Evening, takes its name from a generous table, and meat dishes are meant to dominate it. A 2024 Dzerkalo Tyzhnia piece lists varenyky with sour cream there too, alongside pancakes and pies with cheese and meat.⁶

Cheese Week (Masnytsia)

In the week before Great Lent, meat is already off the table but dairy is not. A 2019 Ukrainska Pravda article, drawing on an interview with an ethnographer, says that in the past pancakes weren’t made for this week in Ukraine; every house had varenyky instead, most often with cheese.⁷ In Cherkasy region the boiled varenyky were covered with butter and sour cream and baked in the oven.⁷ The cheese varenyky below are the ones for this week.

Kupalo

For midsummer night, the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine’s entry on the Kupalo festival lists a supper of eggs, varenyky and liquor as an integral part of the festivities.⁸

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Traditional Varenyky Recipe

This recipe was compiled by Heritage Healthy Kitchen from a comparison of published recipes; the sources are listed at the end of this article. Figures that are Heritage Healthy Kitchen’s own estimates rather than taken from a published source are marked as such.

The published recipes agree on the dough: plain wheat flour and water in roughly a two-to-one ratio by weight, a little salt, often a spoonful or two of oil, sometimes an egg instead of part of the water, rested for 15 minutes to an hour before rolling.^9,3,10,11 For about 350g of flour the potato filling runs from 300g of potatoes up to about 900g, with one or two onions fried in oil.^9,3,10 Cheese fillings use 300–500g of farmer’s cheese, usually with a yolk or a whole egg and one to three tablespoons of sugar.^11,12,13,14 Sour cherry fillings use 300–680g of pitted cherries with sugar and a spoonful of cornstarch or semolina to hold the juice.^15,16,17 The amounts below sit inside those ranges. The number of varenyky a batch makes, the gram weights of the onions, the boiling times for each filling and the serving sizes are Heritage Healthy Kitchen’s estimates.

The dough

Ingredients (makes about 30–35 varenyky, an estimate)

• 360g (3 cups) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 180ml (¾ cup) water, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 egg (optional); if you use it, reduce the water to about 130ml (½ cup)

How to make the dough

1. Mix. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl, add the water and oil, and stir with a spoon until the flour is wet.⁹ If you use the egg, beat it into the water first and cut the water to about 130ml; the amount is an estimate.
2. Knead. Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface into a smooth, elastic dough that no longer sticks to your hands.^9,2
3. Rest. Cover the bowl or wrap the dough in cling film and leave it for at least 15–20 minutes while you make the filling.^9,3

Filling one: potato and fried onion

• 500g (about 1 lb) floury potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
• 2 onions (about 300g), finely diced: one for the filling, one for serving
• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
• ¼–⅓ teaspoon ground black pepper
• Salt, to taste

How to make the potato filling

1. Boil the potatoes. Cover the potatoes with water and boil 15–20 minutes, until a knife goes in easily. Drain.⁹
2. Fry the onions. Fry both diced onions in the oil over medium heat until golden.⁹ Allow 10–15 minutes; this is an estimate, and the onion should be soft and sweet, not sharp.
3. Mash. Mash the potatoes with half the fried onion, the pepper and salt to taste. Keep the other half of the onion for serving, and let the filling cool before you use it.⁹

Filling two: farmer’s cheese, for Cheese Week

• 400g (14 oz) farmer’s cheese (syr)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1–2 tablespoons sugar or honey, to taste

To serve: 50g (3½ tablespoons) butter, sour cream or honey.

How to make the cheese filling

1. Mix the filling. Stir the farmer’s cheese with the sugar or honey and the egg yolk until combined.¹¹ For a savory filling, season with salt instead of sugar.¹⁴
2. Fill and serve. Use 1–2 teaspoons of filling per varenyk, boil as below and serve hot with butter and sour cream, or honey.¹¹

For Cheese Week you can also bake them the Cherkasy way: boil the varenyky, layer them in clay pots or a baking dish with butter and sour cream, and bake.⁷ One published version uses about 50g of butter and 100–125g of sour cream per pot, covered, for 20 minutes at 180°C (350°F).¹³

Filling three: sour cherry

• 400g (14 oz) pitted sour cherries, fresh, or frozen and thawed
• 50g (¼ cup) sugar
• 1 tablespoon (8g) cornstarch

To serve: sour cream, the drained cherry juice, simmered with a little sugar.

How to make the cherry filling

1. Sugar the cherries. Toss the cherries with the sugar and leave them for about 30 minutes.¹⁵
2. Drain. Tip the cherries into a sieve and keep the juice for the sauce.¹⁶ Toss the drained cherries with the cornstarch.^16,2
3. Fill sparingly. Two or three cherries per varenyk are enough.¹⁶

Shaping and boiling

1. Roll. Roll the dough on a floured surface to about 1–2mm thick.^12,18 Cut circles with a glass or a 7–8cm (3-inch) cutter.^9,16 Gather the scraps into a ball and roll them out again.¹¹
2. Fill and seal. Put the filling in the middle of each circle, about a heaped teaspoon of potato, fold the circle in half and pinch the edges together with your fingertips.⁹ Check that there are no gaps, so the filling can’t escape in the pot.¹⁷ A braided edge is optional.¹²
3. Boil. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the varenyky in batches.^9,10 Once they float, give potato varenyky about 3–4 more minutes and cheese or cherry ones about 2–3; these are estimates within the published times.^5,11,16
4. Toss and serve. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and toss with a little oil or butter so they don’t stick together.^18,10 Top potato varenyky with the reserved fried onion and serve with sour cream.^9,3 Serve cherry varenyky with sour cream and the cherry juice simmered into a sauce.¹⁵

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Lenten Varenyky for Sviat Vechir

Published lenten recipes keep the same method but leave out egg and dairy. The dough is often made with hot water and oil, and the filling is cabbage cooked in oil: sauerkraut or fresh cabbage with onion, and in some recipes dried mushrooms soaked and simmered with it.^18,19,5,20 The mushroom recipes use about 60–100g of dried mushrooms for 500–800g of sauerkraut.^19,20 The amounts below sit inside those ranges; the number of varenyky and the serving size are Heritage Healthy Kitchen’s estimates.

For the hot-water dough

• 400g (3⅓ cups) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 200ml (generous ¾ cup) water, just off the boil (at least 80°C / 176°F)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil

For the sauerkraut and mushroom filling

• 50g (1¾ oz) dried forest mushrooms, such as porcini
• 500g (about 1 lb) sauerkraut
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 allspice berries
• Ground black pepper and salt, to taste

To serve

• 1 onion, finely diced and fried golden in 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 2 tablespoons sunflower or linseed oil, for tossing

How to make lenten varenyky

1. Soak the mushrooms. Rinse the dried mushrooms and soak them in water for several hours or overnight.^20,19 Lift them out, keep the soaking water and chop the mushrooms finely.²⁰
2. Cook the filling. Fry the onion in the oil until golden, add the mushrooms for a couple of minutes, then the sauerkraut, the soaking water, bay leaf, allspice and pepper.^19,20 If the sauerkraut is very sour, rinse it first.¹⁹ Cover and simmer about an hour, stirring now and then, until soft, then cook off any remaining liquid.^19,20 Remove the bay leaf and allspice, season with salt and let the filling cool.
3. Make the dough. Mix the flour and salt, pour in the hot water and stir with a spoon; the water has to be at least 80°C or the flour won’t scald. Add the oil, and knead by hand once the dough is cool enough to touch.² Wrap and rest 20–30 minutes.¹⁸
4. Shape. Roll the dough about 2mm thick, cut circles with a glass and fill each with a teaspoon of filling, then seal.^18,19
5. Boil. Cook in salted boiling water for 3–4 minutes after they float.⁵
6. Serve. Toss with oil so they don’t stick and top with onion fried in oil; no sour cream for this supper.^18,5

Potato varenyky belong on this table too: the Hutsul order includes them.⁴ The potato filling above is already made with oil, so make it with the egg-free dough and serve with fried onion instead of sour cream.

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Kitchen Tips

The usual failure is a varenyk that opens in the pot. Drain fruit well, and with frozen or jarred berries stir in a little semolina or starch to take up the juice; the sourer the fruit, the more sugar it needs.² Then pinch the whole edge and check for gaps before the varenyk goes in.¹⁷

Hot-water dough is the easier one to work. It doesn’t need extra flour while you knead, it doesn’t stick to the board when you roll it, and the varenyky don’t stick together as they cook. Made without egg, it can also be used on fasting days.²

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Nutritional Information

Per serving, one quarter of the batch (about 8 varenyky, an estimate), without sour cream:

Potato and fried onion

• Calories: approximately 540–660 kcal
• Protein: 11–14g
• Total fat: 16–20g, of which saturated about 2g
• Carbohydrates: 88–107g
• Fiber: 6–7g
• Sodium: 535–655mg

Farmer’s cheese, with butter

• Calories: approximately 545–670 kcal
• Protein: 19–23g
• Total fat: 21–26g, of which saturated 8–10g
• Carbohydrates: 69–85g
• Fiber: 2–3g
• Sodium: 550–670mg

Sour cherry

• Calories: approximately 445–545 kcal
• Protein: 9–11g
• Total fat: 7–9g, of which saturated about 1g
• Carbohydrates: 86–105g
• Fiber: about 4g
• Sodium: 265–325mg

Lenten sauerkraut and mushroom (one fifth of the batch, about 8 varenyky)

• Calories: approximately 500–610 kcal
• Protein: 10–12g
• Total fat: 20–25g, of which saturated 2–3g
• Carbohydrates: 71–86g
• Fiber: 7–8g
• Sodium: 810–990mg

A tablespoon of sour cream adds about 30 kcal and 3g of fat.

Nutritional values are estimates based on standard ingredient databases (USDA FoodData Central). They vary with the cheese, the sauerkraut, the size of the varenyky and how much oil or butter goes on at the table.

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Storage and Freezing

Cooked varenyky keep in the refrigerator for 3–4 days in a covered container.²¹ Reheat them in a pan with a little butter or oil until golden.^2,10

Raw varenyky freeze well. Lay them on a floured tray, freeze until solid, then move them to a bag.³ Published recipes give from two to six months in the freezer.^10,3 Boil them straight from frozen; they need a little longer in the pot than fresh ones.³

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between varenyky and pierogi?
Very little. Both are half-moon dumplings made from a nearly identical dough, and pierogi tend to be a little larger.³

Can I make the dough without eggs?
Yes. Many published recipes use only flour, water, salt and oil.^9,11 Others add an egg.^3,10 For fasting days, the hot-water dough in the lenten recipe needs no egg at all.²

Why are the Christmas Eve varenyky served without sour cream?
The holy supper on Christmas Eve is a meal of twelve dishes with no meat and no milk.⁴ Lenten varenyky for it are served with oil and fried onion instead.⁵

Which varenyky are made for Cheese Week?
Cheese ones. In the past, during the week before Great Lent, every house had varenyky, most often with cheese, and in Cherkasy region they were also baked with butter and sour cream.⁷ The cheese recipe above includes the baked version.

How do I keep cherry varenyky from bursting?
Drain the cherries well, toss them with a little cornstarch, and put only two or three in each varenyk.^16,2 Then pinch the edges firmly all the way round so there are no gaps.¹⁷

Can I freeze varenyky?
Yes, raw. Freeze them on a floured tray, then bag them, and boil them straight from frozen, a little longer than fresh ones.³

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Looking for a Lighter Version?

A lighter take on the same dumplings is in our companion article, Healthy Varenyky.

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Further Reading & Sources

The recipe is a compilation based on the published recipes listed here; these links are provided for readers who want to explore further.

1. S. Stechishin. Traditional foods. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Varenyky as the favorite flour dish, their fillings and toppings.
2. Liudmyla Panasiuk. (18 February 2026). Varenyky na pari, v okropi, v dukhovtsi ta morozyltsi: retsepty tista ta nachynok [Varenyky steamed, boiled, baked and frozen: dough and filling recipes]. Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia. Older flours and fillings, regional names, varenyky in the ritual year, hot-water lenten dough, tips on fruit fillings and leftovers.
3. Alexandra Shytsman. (19 December 2018, updated 8 April 2025). Ukrainian Varenyky with Potato Filling and Fried Onions. The New Baguette. Published recipe; varenyky and pierogi; freezing.
4. Petro Odarchenko. Christmas. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (updated 2005). The holy supper of twelve meatless and milkless dishes; the Hutsul order with potato varenyky.
5. Bohdana Pavliuk. (17 December 2025). 12 strav na Sviatvechir: shcho i chomu maie buty na sviatkovomu stoli [Twelve dishes for Christmas Eve: what should be on the table and why]. Explainer. Lenten varenyky at the Christmas Eve supper, served with oil and fried onion; published recipe.
6. Alisa Ihitian. (13 January 2024). Shchedryi vechir: istoriia sviata [Generous Evening: the history of the feast]. Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. Varenyky with sour cream on the Malanka table.
7. Liudmyla Panasiuk. (3 March 2019, updated 24 February 2025). Masnytsia, a ne “Maslyana”, i varenyky zamist blyniv [Masnytsia, not “Maslyana”, and varenyky instead of pancakes]. Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia. Cheese-filled varenyky in Cheese Week; baked varenyky in Cherkasy region (ethnographer Halyna Oliinyk).
8. Mykola Mushynka. Kupalo festival. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. The Kupalo supper of eggs, varenyky and liquor.
9. Yevhen Klopotenko. (24 October 2023). Klasychni varenyky z kartopleiu [Classic potato varenyky]. klopotenko.com. Published recipe.
10. Debra Cummings. (8 March 2024, modified 27 April 2024). Ukrainian Varenyky. Fine Foods Blog. Published recipe; storage.
11. Yevhen Klopotenko. (14 February 2024). Solodki varenyky z syrom [Sweet cheese varenyky]. klopotenko.com. Published recipe.
12. Yevhen Klopotenko. (26 February 2021). Varenyky z domashnim syrom i makom [Varenyky with farmer’s cheese and poppy seed]. klopotenko.com. Published recipe.
13. Yevhen Klopotenko. (10 April 2023). Varenyky z syrom u horshchykakh [Cheese varenyky baked in pots]. klopotenko.com. Published recipe.
14. Larisa Frumkin. (5 April 2022). Varenyky. Saveur. Published recipe (farmer’s cheese filling).
15. Sonya Sanford. (14 June 2023). These Ukrainian Cherry Dumplings Taste Like My Childhood. The Nosher, My Jewish Learning. Published recipe (cherry filling and sauce).
16. Maggie Turansky. (13 November 2025). Ukrainian Sour Cherry Dumplings (Vareniki). No Frills Kitchen. Published recipe (sour cherry filling).
17. Yevhen Klopotenko. (11 November 2022). Varenyky z vyshniamy na pari [Steamed sour cherry varenyky]. klopotenko.com. Published recipe; used for the cherry filling and sealing only (the dough is a steamed kefir dough).
18. Yevhen Klopotenko. (21 February 2024). Pisni varenyky z kvashenoiu kapustoiu [Lenten sauerkraut varenyky]. klopotenko.com. Published recipe.
19. Yanusia. (13 December 2022). Varenyky z kapustoiu ta hrybamy [Varenyky with sauerkraut and mushrooms]. yanusia.com (the author signs with a first name only). Published recipe.
20. Viktoriia Vakiv. (6 January 2024). Varenyky z kvashenoiu kapustoiu ta hrybamy [Varenyky with sauerkraut and mushrooms]. Lux FM (recipe credited to kuchnialidla.pl). Used for the filling only; the dough there contains egg and butter.
21. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. (last updated 31 July 2020). Leftovers and Food Safety. Refrigerator storage.

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Disclaimer

The information in this article is provided for educational and informational purposes only. Heritage Healthy Kitchen makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of any content on this site. Nutritional values are estimates only and will vary depending on the specific ingredients, brands, and measurements used. This content is not intended as dietary, medical, or professional nutritional advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider regarding any dietary needs or health conditions. Heritage Healthy Kitchen is not responsible for any outcomes resulting from the use of recipes or information published on this site.

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