SWEET POTATO PEROGIES

So I guess I finally became a chef! I never would have imagined that I could make perogies. That's a dish for only the professionals right? Well I thought so. I was wrong. Anyone can do it, as long as you have the time.

I was very determined to try to make perogies. That's how much I need them back in my life. I thought that if there was anything I was going to mess up on, this was it. No one wants to fail at anything...but PEROGIES? Yikes! But I did it! First I made the dough, then I kneaded it, then came the rolling and the stuffing, then I had to boil them and then fry them, and then finally EAT THEM! My husband ate 10 of them before I even sat down. I guess someone liked them!

It's hard finding food, like perogies, when you only eat healthy food. Udi's has a great line of gluten-free products but I've never seen perogies before. I actually saw gluten-free perogies at a store but they had tons of sugar and dairy. Just because it says "gluten-free" or "vegan" doesn't mean it's healthy at all. I guess if I wanted them I had to make my own. I googled gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan perogies and came across tons of awesome recipes, but the one I liked most was from Green Vegan Living.com. I modified it a bit because the original recipe was too dry and the perogies cracked a lot. So I added oat flour and more water to the recipe. I made my own filling too. Check it out below.

Sweet Potato Perogies

Haha! I’ve done it! Gluten-free perogies that rock our world! Sooo delicious. These ones are filled with a soft flavourful sweet potato filling and they are awesome.

Makes 20 perogies

Filling

· 1 sweet potato, cubed

· 1 tsp. coconut oil, melted

· 1 tsp. garlic powder

· 1 tsp. onion powder

· a dash of Mrs. Dash seasoning or sea salt and pepper

Dry

· 3/4 cup brown rice

· 1/4 cup oat flour

· 2/3 cup potato starch

· 1/4 tsp. celtic sea salt, ground

· 1 tsp. baking powder

· 1 tsp. xanthan gum

Wet

· 1/2 cup warm filtered water

· 1 flax egg - 1 Tbsp. ground flax + 3 Tbsp. filtered water

· 1 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted

· 2 tsp. warm filtered water for later

1. Filling - Cut sweet potato into cubes and fry with coconut oil on medium/low heat, covered, for 20 minutes until soft. Stir often. Add to a bowl. Add garlic and onion powders and seasoning. Mash. Set aside.

2. While the potatoes are cooking, make the flax egg by combining the ground flax with the water. Place in the fridge to let set for 10 minutes. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Slowly add wet ingredients while stirring. Don’t forget about the flax egg. After all the wet ingredients are added the dough will look very dry. Now knead the dry dough together for 2 minutes. This is where you can add 1 tsp. of warm water, slowly. Knead again. 1 tsp goes a long way. I used 2 tsp. in total.

3. Once you have a solid round ball of dough split into two. Wrap one side in saran wrap, tight, to keep air out. If doubling recipe, you will wrap three balls in saran wrap and work with one, equaling four balls.

4. Lay a large piece of saran wrap on to your working surface. Use one ball of dough and place it in the middle of your saran wrap surface.

5. Lay another equal sized piece of saran wrap on top of the ball of dough. Press the dough down with your hand so it's flat and easier to roll. Now roll the dough with a rolling pin on top of the saran wrap. Turn the dough 90° and roll again. The saran wrap trick is amazing.

6. Once you have rolled your dough around 2mm thin, use the top of a jar or a round cookie cutter to cut out perogie discs. The circle should be 3 ½ inches in diameter.

7. Fill a medium pot with water and set it on the stove.

8. Take 1 tsp. of sweet potato filling and add to the center of the disc of dough. Dip your finger in warm water and dab the perimeter of the circle. Fold the dough in half and bind the edges together by pinching. Dip your fingers in the warm water again and smooth out the edges of the perogie. (If the dough cracks add water to your finger and smooth out the crack.) Place the perogie on a plate and cover with saran wrap. Continue cutting, filling and closing perogies. Roll the dough again and cut out more discs.

9. Bring the pot of water to a boil.

10. Once the one side of dough is done add the plate of perogies to the pot of boiling water. Turn the pot down to a medium/low heat. Stir so the perogies don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Once the perogies are floating they are done. Gently add perogies to a colander and strain.

11. Now from here you can either freeze the perogies, fry them in coconut oil or eat them as is. Garnish with green onion, caramelized onions (onions sautéed in maple syrup), salsa and ground celtic sea salt.

* Notes *

Do the dishes as often as you can to have a clean working area. It's so much easier to work in a clean kitchen.

Don’t let the dough sit out uncovered. The discs will dry out within 10 minutes and it is almost impossible to pinch closed.

Make sure water is warm for closing perogies.

Don’t dry perogies on paper towel, I learnt the hard way.

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While looking through these pictures I just wanted to let you know that I doubled the recipe to freeze the extras. So when you see extra balls of dough, that is why.