Butter-Braised Cabbage Vareniki
Recipe courtesy of Liza Zeneski for Food Network Kitchen

Butter-Braised Cabbage Vareniki

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  • Level: Intermediate
  • Total: 3 hr 45 min (includes chilling and resting times)
  • Active: 2 hr
  • Yield: 6 to 8 servings (50 to 60 vareniki)
There’s real comfort in the slow sweetness of braised cabbage. Here, it’s cooked gently with butter, onions and carrots until everything softens and melds together, then finished with a touch of mustard for brightness. The result is a deeply savory filling — tender, buttery and just a little tangy, made with simple ingredients but tasting truly special. Wrapped in tender dough and served with a spoonful of sour cream, these vareniki taste like warmth itself. The recipe makes fifty to sixty dumplings, so it’s perfect for a family cooking project — everyone can help roll, fill and seal. And if you make more than you can eat, they freeze beautifully to bring that same warmth to the table another day.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make the dough: Mix the flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment until combined. Add the seltzer water, milk, sour cream and egg and knead on medium speed until the dough comes together and is elastic, about 10 minutes. (Alternatively, knead by hand.) Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  2. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots and onions, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Cook until the onions begin to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add 4 tablespoons of butter and when melted, add the cabbage and another pinch of salt. Cook until the cabbage begins to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the broth, turn the heat to low and continue to cook until the vegetables are cooked through and no liquid remains, another 15 minutes. Mix in the mustard to combine and remove from the heat. Transfer the filling to a shallow container and let cool completely.
  3. Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Place a small bowl of water nearby. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Split the dough in half and cover half with a kitchen towel or wrap back in plastic. Roll out the other half to a thickness of 1/16th inch. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut out circles. Combine the scraps and re-roll; repeat the process until no scraps remain. This is a very elastic dough that may shrink as it sits, so stretch each circle back to 3 inches before filling. Fill each circle with 1 tablespoon of the filling. Wet your finger and run it around the edges. Seal the dumplings into half-moon shapes and use a fork to crimp the edges. Continue with the remaining dough and filling. You will end up with about 50 dumplings. Divide the dumplings between the baking sheets in 1 layer and cover with a kitchen towel. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to rest. (You can also freeze the vareniki at this point. They will last 5 to 6 months frozen.)
  4. Bring 2 large pots of salted water to a boil. (Alternatively, cook the vareniki in 1 pot in 2 batches.) Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small pot. Add the vareniki to the boiling water and cook until floating and the dough is cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the pot with a spider or a slotted spoon, add to a platter and toss with the melted better. Sprinkle with chives. Serve with a healthy portion of sour cream.

Cook’s Note

When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods.) The dough can be made 1 day in advance. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate.