Full Recipe
Author
Food Network Kitchen | 2025-11-11
Description
There's something deeply comforting about a plate of homemade vareniki — soft dumplings stuffed with savory or sweet fillings that hail from Ukraine and Russia. Typically served with a generous spoonful of sour cream, this hearty version is filled with a potato-and-mushroom mixture that's bound to bring everyone to the table. The seltzer water in the dough makes it elastic and smooth — it almost feels alive under your hands. The dumplings are finished with crispy bacon-like salo bites (shkvarki in Russian) and sweet onions slowly caramelized in the rendered salo fat. You can find salo at most Russian or Ukrainian stores, but you can skip it for a vegetarian version or swap in regular breakfast bacon. But I urge you to try vareniki with salo at least once. My grandfather used to say, “A home is not a home without salo in the fridge. Salo in the fridge — all is well.
