Making these meat dumplings Pelmeni is a bit time consuming BUT much easier than you might think! Filled with a savoury beef and pork mix and served in a variety of ways but always with sour cream this recipe will become a family favourite!
If you have too much filling leftover, you can mix it with rice and stuff bell peppers with it or make Porcupine Meatballs.
I am grinning from ear to ear just looking at these little beauties! Making Siberian Pelmeni and sharing them with you have been on my list ever since I started blogging years ago!
I cannot even begin to tell you what an emotional attachment every Russian has to these meat dumplings!
Russian Pelmeni
If you ever ask me what defines Russian food pelmeni would be without a doubt at the top of my list. If you ever ask me what I like to eat when I am sad or happy pelmeni would be way up there as well.
If you ever ask me what Russian food I would like to teach my children these meat dumplings will be my most earnest answer.
After all, that is what my mom taught me when I was barely my daughter’s age! And not the sloppy ones, she taught me how to make them “properly”. Pelmeni with pretty fluted edges! The embellishments are not at all necessary but they make me happy.
Traditions associated with Russian dumplings
Pelmeni making is an incredibly social affair, you NEVER make them alone!
Traditionally all women of the extended family would gather to make pelmeni! They would make loads and loads and then freeze the lot, which would last them through a long Russian winter.
So it’s no wonder I Skyped my mom and got her to keep me company as I cranked out about 130 of those glorious meat dumplings!! There are many ways to make them.
How do you make them?
The traditional way is handmade but there is also a special mold you can use that speeds up the process quite a bit! I will attempt to walk you through the handmade method but will also show you images of what mold made pelmeni look like.
The principle of making these meat filled dumplings is very simple and not too dissimilar to Chinese dumplings or even Italian ravioli or tortellini.
Essentially pelmeni dumplings are thinly rolled pasta rounds filled with a raw ground meat mixture, flavoured with salt and pepper, then formed into dumplings. They are then boiled or frozen for later.
Great news is that no special equipment is necessary. No pasta machine or anything else. Just a rolling pin and your hands. No rolling pin? Use a wine bottle!
The image below shows the most common pelmeni shape. A half moon shaped dumpling with the ends pinched together.
Russia is an incredibly large country, so inevitably the size and the vastness of the landscape will play a part in how recipes develop but also diverge from each other.
The most common filling for pelmeni is meat and the most common shape is the one I mentioned above. However, in various parts of the country pelmeni could be stuffed with mushrooms, buckwheat, etc and folded differently.
The part of Russia my grandmother came from the dumplings were made larger and were shaped similar to Vareniki/Pierogi.
If you become serious about dumpling making, you might want to purchase a special mold available on Amazon, which makes the whole process much quicker.
It also leaves you with perfect uniform dumplings pictured below.
What is in Pelmeni?
If you are a pasta lover, you will be all over these meat dumplings as they are essentially meat filled pasta but not just any meat, it’s so juicy you better watch out or it will drip all over your chin when you bite into one!
The most common meat found in pelmeni is a combination of minced beef and pork with onion, garlic, salt and pepper.
Pelmeni come in different shapes and sizes and I’ve shown you the most common ones.
They do take a bit of time but they are well worth it. It’s truly incredible to see what gorgeous flavour can come out of the simplest ingredients!
Can I make a soup with dumplings?
Traditionally pelmeni are served in a broth with added melted butter or sour cream or both! My mother always added fresh dill or parsley if she had them.
However, you can also make a soup using pelmeni as if they were tortellini or wontons! I like making a standard Chicken and Dumpling Soup but using the pelmeni instead!
How do you eat Pelmeni?
Pelmeni recipe is pretty standard but it varies greatly in how people eat them.
I like mine buttered, sprinkled with fresh dill and black pepper and then dipped in sour cream. Brad likes his pelmeni with dijon mustard and sour cream.
Some people have them with a bit of vinegar and I am getting reports from family in Russia that lately even soy sauce has become a favourite!
I hope I’ve convinced you to venture out into the delicious world of meat dumpling making. I promise you will not regret it!! Or try potato, bacon and caramelised onion dumplings Vareniki.
This recipe was originally published in 01/2016. Updated and republished in 04.2020
Ingredients
For the dough
- 330g/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg large
- 225ml/1 cup cold water
For the meat filling
- 1 lbs extra-lean ground beef
- 1 lbs extra-lean ground pork
- 2 onions medium
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley
- 1/2 bunch dill
- 2 tsp salt
- pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp butter
- sour cream
- fresh dill or parsley
Instructions
- In a food processor pulse flour and salt. With the motor running add the egg through the tube and then cold water. Let the processor do its work for a minute until the dough forms around the blade.
- Transfer the dough into a bowl, cover with a tea towel and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile make the meat filling by combining beef, pork, salt and pepper. Then in a food processor blend onions, garlic, parsley, dill and water and add to the meat mixture.
- Use your hands to combine well, then pinch a small amount off and form a meatball. Fry the meatball and taste it for the right combination of salt and spices in your filling. Adjust spices if necessary.
- Divide the dough into quarters and form your quarters into balls.
- Take one dough ball and roll it out on a well floured surface in a thin sheet approximately 1/16" in thickness. Keep the rest of the dough covered to avoid drying out.
- Cut out circles with a 2" to 3" cookie or scone cutter. Put a teaspoon of meat filling into each dough circle, slightly off-centre, fold the dough over to form a half-moon shape and pinch the edges shut with your fingertips. If you want a more attractive look go over the edge one more time and this time pinch the edges together using your two fingers and a thumb and twist them to form a ruffled edge.
- Repeat with the remaining dough circles until you run out of dough and meat.
- Set aside a needed amount of pelmeni for dinner and freeze the rest in a well floured and air-tight container to prevent sticking.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add salt and 2 bay leaves, drop pelmeni into rapidly boiling water and stir to prevent them sticking to the bottom, once they float to the top, cook for 10 more minutes.
- Drain pelmeni and pour meted butter over them, gently stir or toss to coat.
- Serve with sour cream and chopped fresh dill or parsley.
- * Do not thaw frozen pelmeni before cooking. They should be boiled from frozen for 5-7 minutes after they float to the top of the pot.
Notes
Pelmeni is the Russian Fast Food, but also the Comfort Food. Well worth the effort. My family loves them! Usually with sour cream, sometimes with vinegar, sometimes both. Haven’t tried them with soy sauce yet, until next time
I absolutely agree that pelmeni is the Russian answer to fast and frozen food but so delicious though!
These dumplings look incredible!! 🙂
So happy to find this unique and delicious recipe- thank you!
Great to hear it, Lori!
These are so delicious! homemade dumplings are so much better than restaurants.
We were never allowed any meat or dairy for Russian Orthodox Christmas Eve. It was hard to get Baba to go for cheese in the pierogi. Your lucky to have meat 🙂
My grandmother followed some of the Orthodox traditions as well but my parents weren’t religious, so no restrictions. 🙂
These were delicious but I ended up running out of dough halfway through the filling! Seems like it wasn’t rolled thin enough – any tips on thickness? The recipe mentioned 1/16th of an inch and mine were right around there I think and still too think. Should they be nearly translucent? Any other way you know when they’re thin enough?
I am happy you enjoyed them, Mishka. The dough sheets should thin but not transparent. If yours were 1/16th of an inch, that is definitely thin enough. The problem might be that you are not stuffing them as much as I do. I like mine quite plump but everyone has their own preferences. You will get into a good rhythm once you make them a few times and find your perfect dough to meat ratio.
I made pelmeni for an appetizer for a Russian dinner. Can I cook them ahead and reheat at the party?
Yep, that will work.
This was my first time making pelmeni from scratch, and it was a success. American husband approved. The dough recipe is perfect. I used a pelmeni maker mold to shape them. $5 on amazon, and I was really surprised how well it worked. For the meat filling, I decided to make it with organic chicken thighs. The water suggested in the recipe made the filling too wet and the pelmeni making process more difficult. I will omit the water next time, or scale back to 1 tbsp. I may also consider skipping the dill and parsley in the filling. I used fresh herbs from my garden, but my mom always made pelmeni filling with onions, salt, pepper, no spices. In the future I’ll try it ‘mama’s way’. Thank you for a great recipe!
I am happy to hear your effort was successful, Julie. Just a side note, ground chicken has a very different texture from beef and pork, so adding water to it would indeed make it messy and difficult to work with. The filling recipe was intended for beef and pork mixture. 🙂
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Love these. Lately I have been cooking them in a chicken broth flavored with either Indian or Thai red curry paste.
Pelmeni in a flavourful broth is how I prefer eating them too! I’ve never tried pelmeni with Indian or Thai flavours but it’s a brilliant idea, Eric! I also have been making a soy, ginger, garlic and chilli sauce and serving it with these dumplings. My kids love it!
I loved the Vareniki recipe and looking forward to making some Pelmeni with this delicious sounding filling! Does the meat mixture need cooking before it is added to the dough? I am not a seasoned cook and still get a little nervous with meat. I also don’t have a food processer to blend the onions etc. will finely chopped work? Or with a stick blender?
Big fan of your blog, thanks for all these inspirational recipes!
Emily
Hi Emily, you don’t need to cook the mixture first. The meat gets cooked when you boil the pelmeni and since they are just tiny meatballs, it happens very quickly. You can grate the onion on a vegetable/cheese grater if you don’t have a food processor. That’s what my mum always did. Thank you for following Vikalinka!! 🙂
Love these ! I just made a batch however I literally ran out of dough about half way into my filling 😖 am I not rolling it thin enough ?
Hi Oxana, it may be that you are not rolling the dough thin enough or simply not stuffing them to their full capacity. 😉 I like mine really plump. Having said that it takes a couple of times to figure out your own meat to dough ratio. Some people like them more stuffed, some prefer less.
The best pelmeni recipes I have tried so far. By the way, Ukraine is not an Orthodox country. Do a little history research.
I am glad you liked the recipe, Vera. I am not claiming Ukraine to be Orthodox as it is pretty secular as far as beliefs go. The only reason I mentioned it is because Russian and Ukrainian Christmas is on January 7th, hence the whole point of this post and it’s due to the countries following the Orthodox religious calendar. Ukraine is also 65% Orthodox according to the stats.
i read your recipes & i nearly cry, they remind me of so many good times while growing up. both my brother & i used to eat them with our parents, have them cooked by mum before they went out, while we were babysat, we used to have them at relatives parties sometimes & at weddings, christenings & sometimes funerals.
i havent had them since way before we left sydney & im missing them heaps. it makes me sad now coz mum cant see properly to make them & ive got no one to share a good time of making them.
i guess this is a most loved memory il always have – thanx julia xxx
I hope those are happy tears, Vera!! Food always evokes such strong feelings and memories, doesn’t it! My mom is also not here, so I invite friends and share my food with them. They LOVE it!!
Usually I serve Pelmini with Russian sour cream (smetlana) and horseradish. I buy both at a nearby European market.
I always fix extra so I can fry them in butter the next day. I don’t flip them until they begin to get crispy on the bottom, like potstickers. I serve those with soy sauce.
But tonight I tossed them with pesto and sliced sun-dried tomatoes — a new favorite.
I’m also planning to try them with a sharp cheddar sauce or maybe chili with no beans and lots of grated pepper jack cheese.
Who knew the humble dumplings were so versatile
These are all such good options, Kent. I was just cooking pelmeni last night for my kids and as I was melting some butter into them I thought they could definitely be dressed up in more creative ways. I love the pesto idea, will try!
I had bought pelmeni and had them in the freezer. I forgot to take something out for dinner, so I boiled the pelmeni, some noodles and made a brown gravy with sour cream included. It made a tasty main dish for my husband and I. I will try the appetizer ideas also, but they saved me from not having an idea besides soup and sandwiches. Thanks! Sarah.
Pelmeni is a great last minute dinner. We all love them here! We actually took our daughter to a pelmeni restaurant for her birthday a couple of weeks ago in St Petersburg, where they served various dumplings of the world. So fun!
I was lucky enough to date a guy from Ukraine for a few years, he taught me loads of stuff to cook, one of my faces of course was pelmeni, one of the things I took in the breakup was the mold, haha! I just made borscht the other day, been almost 20 years since we dated and I’m still making recipes from back in the day with some refresher reads like this recipe of course!!
You took a pelmeni mold!!! This made me laugh, Jamie! I am happy you are still making the recipes you learned 20 years ago. That relationship was clearly not wasted!
I made them using wonton wrap and they fell apart in bound water. What do you suggest? I used eggs whites for edges.
I would suggest using the dough in the recipe, Bonita. 🙂 Wonton wrappers are far too thin for the robust filling of the pelmeni. I don’t have much experience with wonton wrappers, so I can’t really give other suggestions. I think I tried the same trick ages ago but was disappointed with the results.
Hello Julia,
I don’t have the food processor, do you think I can get same results using kitchen aid?
Thank you 🙂
I am sure you can, Nadiya! I haven’t tried it myself but I know other bloggers have. Enjoy!
Omg wow yo these look really way good and so very yummmm my mouth is totally watering right now gurl if I were to make these sometime would these freeze well beautiful presentation with the pelmeni darlin have not had pelmeni in ages they were very good for store bought had them @ these very kind hearted Jewish people for Friday night Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner and the next day for lunch for kosher they were sooooo fresh and tasty the Russian supermarket bye sells a bunch of kosher pelmeni and sm always so tempted to buy but I’m like nah wanna make my own and after seeing your lovely yummy recipe it’s a total must
there’s really no need to boil them for 10-15 min, 3-5 is enough
also the traditional shape is the one with the ends clamped together.
Thirdly, where would Russians get dill and parsley in the winter… so I make/ eat them
without the greens.
Cheers 🙂
Thank you for your comments, however while 3-5 minutes are enough for Italian ravioli pelmeni do take longer to cook due to thicker dough, especially larger ones made at home and rolled by hand, 10-15 minutes of cooking time is necessary to cook them from frozen. As far as traditional shape goes, it varies from region to region, the one you mention is what is commonly seen in shops, while homecooks employ creativity when making their own, which is what I wrote about in my blog post. I grew up in Russia and do speak from my personal experience.
I hang my dill or parsley in the basement to dry.I can use it whenever i need it when cooking.
These look just delicious and I would love to make a batch with my family helping me and freeze them for the winter, what a lovely idea. I’ve never heard of them before as I’m not familiar with many Russian dishes, but I will certainly try them out one day.
This is such a beautiful and delicious recipe. It was lovely to cook a Russian dish. I am so happy I found it, thank you!
Thank you for stopping by, Olivia!
I looove pelmeni dumplings, preferably with sour cream! My husband made some a few years ago, along with cheese vareneki, for an evening of vodka tasting with friends. Time to ask him to repeat it, with your folding tips this time!
Kavey, I am so impressed that no only did you hear of pelmeni but also tried them! They are relatively unknown outside of Russia. I hope you and your husband get to make them again, they are so worth the work!
Never heard of them until now, but they look like a lot of fun to make and darn tasty to eat!
Janie x
PS I love the fact that you skyped your mum so you could make them together. So cute 🙂
Thank you, Janie! They are in fact pretty darn tasty! I had to call my mum I just couldn’t bare making them for a couple of hours without a proper chat like we used to have when I was little! 😉
Can I do beef only for the meat filling?
Absolutely Lena, you can even use chicken if you like!
These look so beautiful and delicious! My mom always made hers round by hand and that’s how I’ve stuck to making them. Only these days I don’t have time to make them and our russian supermarket makes them fresh so that’s been my go to. Maybe one day 🙂
Thank you Julia for featuring my Julienne recipe. Your pelmeni look so authentic and mouthwatering.
Hi! Thank you for your recipe. My Grandmum always made these for her family, but differently. She was from Ukraine. She taught me how to make them her way. She would hang sour milk in a calico bag for a few days until it was sour & seperated the curds & whey. She made her own pastry & placed a teaspoon of the sour cheese into each little round pastry. She turned them into haves and secured the edges tight. She cooked them in boiling water, & served them with lots of butter. They were wonderful. I make mine, but use baker’s cheese or neufachel, or cheese I buy from The Russian shop. I am the only one in our family that makes these, & everyone is always wanting some. I have tried the mince ones as well. They are all great!!!!
What a lovely memory of your grandma, Jill! I buy mine as well quite often, I love having a stash in the freezer for the nights when I am too tired to cook but nothing compares to homemade ones!
I could totally eat pelmeshki every.single.day! There’s something about a big bowl of hearty dumplings that’s SO comforting!
My aunt is here visiting and cooking russian food everyday. Today is pelemani. We had piroshki yesterday
This is the first time I’ve seen pelmeni, Julia! I am sure mine would nowhere near as perfect as yours but I would love to try them. x
I’ve never heard of pelmeni, but that look great. I’m sure folding them is a real art, so they don’t burst open.
It’s so refreshing to see something that isn’t just covered in lashings of tomato sauce too!
Hahaha tomato sauce on pelmeni would be sacrilege!!! Thank you, Angela!
Wow! I have never heard of pelmeni, but I absolutely know I would love them! What fun when you are able to share traditional dishes like this 🙂
Thank you, Jennifer! I am sad most people outside of Russia dont’t know much about Russian food or worse yet, assume it’s bland and boring because it is far from the truth! I hope my blog will help to remedy that problem. 🙂
What a fantastic tradition. I’m glad you found time to make them this year (even if it was with your mom over Skype) and bring them to us. The look absolutely divine. I bet that filling is amazing.
Thank you, Lynn! I am always delaying making them but when I finally set some time I aside I always remember how relaxing and soothing it actually is! There is something seriously therapeutic about making each dumpling by hand.
I would have loved to taste these – and my husband is salivating looking at the photos right now! So pretty and so much work… I have now been told I must make them or pierogi. Can you just come over and show us how?
I would love to, for real. We need to have a dumpling making party! We can make all kinds-meat, potato, mushrooms. 😉
I miss my grandma’s dumplings she made it down one of the best of course when I used to live in Russia
Grandma’s dumplings are always the best, Misha! Always!! I miss everything my grandma used to cook. 🙂