Purple or Green: St. Patty’s Day Pierogies!

The sun may be shining, but I’m feeling the winter blahs. Maybe it’s the slim Greenbelt pickings in the produce aisle. Perhaps I’m just squashed out. But is there a silver lining, you ask? Well, as Irish poet Alfred Percival Graves reminded me, there is: “When after the Winter alarmin’, the Spring steps in so charmin’, so fresh and arch, in the middle of March, wid her hand St. Patrick’s arm on.”  St. Patrick’s Day is coming! So last Wednesday, I put on my thinking cap and phoned up a wicked friend of mine to try something crazy: St. Patty’s Green and Purple Pierogies. Were we nuts? Maybe. But with a bit of Irish luck, our pierogies were given a surprisingly delightful jolt, just in time for my favourite holiday.  

I have to warn you, making pierogies from scratch is definitely a time investment. From start to finish, including making dough, creating tri-coloured filling, and stuffing the pierogies, it took us almost three hours! But the warm and fuzzy feeling associated with making something so tasty from scratch was well worth my time.  This recipe can be sourced almost entirely locally. There is also flexibility if you would like to mix the potato filling with one of your own favourite Greenbelt ingredients. Tip: Try freezing some of your favourite Greenbelt greens when they’re in season, for use in off seasons (e.g. spinach).

Green and Purple Pierogies

Dough:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup water
1 egg
A dash of nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Fillings:
1.5 lb potatoes
2 red onions, sliced
Salt to taste
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 small beets
1 cup greens (spinach, collard greens, etc.)
1/2 cup goat cheese

Dough

1.    Pour flour into a large mixing bowl.

2.    Make a dent in the middle of the flour with your finger.

3.    In the dent, add egg, water, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then stir.

4.    Once stirring gets tough, use your hands to form a medium-sized ball of dough.

5.    Set aside.

Filling

1.    Peel and slice potatoes into small squares (so that they cook faster), then place them in boiling hot water. Slice the beets and cook them in boiling water in a separate pot. Do the same with your greens.

2.    While the potatoes are cooking, slice 1 onion and sauté it until browned

3.    When the potatoes are soft and cooked, drain water from the pot. Return the pot to stove, and mash the potatoes with a masher. While mashing, add salt, pepper, olive oil, and sautéed onion.

4.    In the food processer, process beets. Clean out processor, then process your greens.

5.    Use two bowls: put half potato mix in one bowl, and half in another. In one bowl mix in beets. In the second bowl mix in greens. If you would like, you can set aside some of the potatoes as plain stuffing.  

Filling your pierogies

1.    To make your life easier, cut your dough in half so that you are working with less dough at one time.

2.    Roll out the dough onto a well-floured surface.  

3.    Use a round cup to cut small dough circles.

4.    Hold a dough circle in the palm of your hand, and use a spoon to add a small amount of filling to the center of the circle. If you would like, add a sprinkle of cheese on top of the filling. Fold the dough in half, and pinch the edges together to form a crescent shape. You can use a fork to push the dough together to create a tighter seal and a nice looking ridge around the edge of the pierogi.

Cooking your pierogies

1.    Drop pierogies into a large pot full of salted, boiling water, and cook for about 5 minutes. 

2.    While the pierogies are boiling, slice your second onion and sauté it in a separate pan. 

3.    When pierogies rise to the surface, they are ready! Drain the water from the pot. 

4.    In batches, add the pierogies to the pan with onions, and cook them until they are slightly browned on the side.