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Pasta, rice and grains

Varenyky with curd cheese

Ukrainian boiled dumplings filled with salted or sweetened curd cheese, served with sour cream and butter.

Varenyky are Ukrainian half-moon dumplings, boiled and served with butter and sour cream. One of the most common fillings is syr, fresh curd cheese, either salted with dill or sweetened with sugar and egg. Sweet cheese varenyky are often served with sour cream and sugar, or with berries in summer.

What goes in

Curd cheese (syr): 37%37%Flour: 32%32%Egg: 11%11%Sour cream: 11%11%Butter: 5%Sugar or dill: 5%6parts
  • Curd cheese (syr)737%, Dry and crumbly.
  • Flour632%, For the dough.
  • Egg211%, In dough and filling.
  • Sour cream211%, To serve.
  • Butter15%, Melted over.
  • Sugar or dill15%, Sweet or savoury.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Knead Knead a soft dough of flour, water or kefir, egg and salt, and rest it.
  2. Step 2: Knead Mix curd cheese with egg and either sugar or salt and dill.
  3. Step 3: Layer Roll the dough thin and cut into circles.
  4. Step 4: Fill Fill each circle, fold into a half moon and seal the edge well.
  5. Step 5: Simmer Boil in salted water until they float, then a little longer.
  6. Step 6: Serve Toss with butter and serve with sour cream.
  7. Curd cheese (syr): 37%37%Flour: 32%32%Egg: 11%11%Sour cream: 11%11%Butter: 5%Sugar or dill: 5%
    Finished Varenyky with curd cheese, by share.

A national dumpling

Varenyky are among the best known Ukrainian foods, with fillings of potato, cabbage, cherries, mushrooms or curd cheese. They are part of Holy Supper on Christmas Eve, one of the twelve meatless dishes, and are made in large batches by families together. The name comes from varyty, to boil. Similar dumplings are made in Poland, Slovakia and Russia.

Sweet or salted

For the savoury version, curd cheese is mixed with egg, salt and sometimes dill or green onion. For the sweet version, sugar and vanilla go in, and in some regions raisins. The cheese should be dry and well drained, or the filling will leak. Cooks seal the edges firmly, often with a decorative pinched rim, so the dumplings hold together in the boiling water.

Where it is used

Christmas Eve Holy SupperFamily meal

The cheeses in it

TvorogUkrainian syr, the fresh curd filling.

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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