Vegan Perogies

Hello!

Hope you guys are all doing good.

Its been a great day in my life - I saw A earlier today and we hung out. Mom and dad smoked some salmon to give as gifts so they gave me a good-sized chunk for her. Dad and I vacuum-sealed all of it so it'll freeze better. Pretty darn tasty! I came home and made a double recipe of my tomato soup for Rebecca and her fiance Ben. It was so awesome to meet him! He's a really great guy and I'm so happy they've found each other. The soup was a hit. I have one bowl left that will make a great snack either tonight or tomorrow. While they were here I put them to work peeling and chopping potatoes for tomorrow's perogy-a-thon! Michelle and her friend are coming over at 1:30 and we'll make perogies til the cows come home. I'm making two batches - one vegan, one regular. The vegan one is onion and vegan-cream cheese (plus vegan mozzerella). The other is baccon and cheddar. Mmmm!

I just finished perfecting the vegan filling. Claire came over tonight for a movie and ice cream but I made a batch of dough so we tried out the vegan filling... it needed a little zip so I grated and friend some onion as well as some minced garlic and added them to the potatoes with a little salt. Michelle is bringing over her vegan Mozzarella so we'll add a bit of that to the perogies and then we'll be good to go!

I tasted the regular filling and its pretty yummy. I'll add some salt tomorrow before we start rolling the dough. All the dough is vegan. Michelle and I are both allergic to egg so I got Claire to pick up some tofu on her way over. I wisked the life out of it with a little water to make a paste and it has held up really great. You couldn't tell the difference when we made our tester perogies - they taste just like regular pergoy dough. Mmmm!

Surprisingly, making everything was less work then I thought it was going to be. It helped that Rebecca and Ben helped me peel and chop 14 pounds of potatoes!!! I guess I'm so used to spending oodles of time in the kitchen that this just didn't seem like hard work. It also was great that I could make the dough in my kitchen aid mixer... it kneaded it for me. (I'm spoiled, I know! Thanks mom and dad!). So really, some Ukrainian woman is cursing me for taking the easy road and for ruining her recipe with tofu!

Here's the recipe:

Vegan Perogies

Dough:
In your handy-dandy kitchen aid mixer, put 1 cup water, 3 cups flour, 2 tbsp oil, blended tofu (2 large tbsps tofu plus 1 tbsp water), and 1 tsp salt. Mix until well blended. Take it out, make a nice ball and let stand 10 minutes before working with it.

Filling:
6lbs potato, peeled, chopped and boiled til they fall apart
2 onions, peeled, grated and fried with 2 cloves minced garlic in 1 tbsp oil til golden-ish colour
1/2 of a small tofutti cream cheese container (about five tbsp)
5 large tbsp vegan margarine
3 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper (to taste)
1 cup vegan mozzarella cheese (optional)

Mix it all together with an electric mixer til really mushy.

Find a circular shape that you like (a glass, can or jar) use it to make your circles. Put about 1 tsp of filling (or more depending on the size of your circle). Pinch close or use a fork.

We're going to try using actual perogy makers... I was given a dozen or so of different sizes. Pic of one: http://www.polandbymail.com/item.asp?n=435820&pcc=%23FFFFFF&tc=%237E7E7E&tfc=%23FFFFFF&t=Pierogi+Dumplings+Molds+Set+of+3&showbig=1

Well. I think that's it for now. I've got an eye doctor appt tomorrow and then Michelle and her friend are coming over. I'm SO excited except that I have dishes coming out my ears! Will do those in the morning.

Moving Forward with Joy!