These Ukrainian Cherry Dumplings Taste Like My Childhood

Cherry vareniki (half-moon-shaped dumplings) in Ukraine are typically made with sour cherries, known as vishnya. They are nostalgic for many from the region — including my family — and were famously novelist Nikolai Gogol’s favorite food.

My family immigrated from Soviet Ukraine to Seattle, and after almost a decade of building a new life in America, my parents were able to buy their first home. It had an enormous garden, with an established cherry tree. Soon after moving, when I was a very small child, my grandparents came to visit us from out of town. That summer, the cherry tree was loaded with fruit. I vividly remember picking glossy, red cherries off the tree with my grandmother and brother by my side. There was more fruit than could be eaten fresh, and my grandmother decided to use some of the harvest to make a large batch of cherry vareniki. We sat outside and ate bowls of the dumplings – pillowy and bursting with tart, sweet fruit. 

Vareniki are similar to pierogi or pelmeni; the dough is tender and soft, and the filling is only lightly sweetened so that the flavor of the fruit shines. This dish straddles the line between sweet and savory; topped with smetana (sour cream), one can eat cherry vareniki either as a main course or as a dessert. When using sour cherries, I eat my vareniki as a savory dish; you can get sour cherries fresh for a few weeks each year, otherwise I pick them up frozen or preserved from Eastern European or Russian markets. When I fill the vareniki with Bing or Rainier cherries, I enjoy these dumplings as a sweet treat.

I love to serve cherry vareniki with a simple cherry sauce made from the extra filling, topped with big dollops of sour cream to balance out the sweetness. Like any kind of homemade dumpling or ravioli, vareniki take some effort to make, but are unquestionably worth the work. They’re ideal to make with a group of friends. This recipe makes about 50 vareniki, but you can double or even triple the recipe as needed. 

Notes:

• Vareniki freeze extraordinarily well, offering a way to preserve the best of fleeting cherry season for future bowls of sweet dumplings. Freeze uncooked in a single layer, then transfer them to a bag or airtight container for three months.