Pierogi Party

I'm married to a wonderful man who is half German and half Polish. His mom makes delicious pierogis from scratch and one time when we were back in Missouri visiting them, she showed me how to make them.  It was such a fun experience to see how they're made and I loved the idea that I was learning a classic and authentic recipe from her.  When we got back to Florida I did make a batch with my husband but sadly, that was the first and last time I had made pierogi from scratch.

It wasn't that it was overly complicated but it IS time consuming.  I need a lazy Sunday to attempt that again.  It is one of my goals to make them on my own again soon but during this busy weekday I had a box of store bought frozen pierogis in the freezer and that was my jumping off point for this dinner.

Here's what I did for this super quick and easy weeknight dinner.  It was basically four main ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of frozen pierogi
• 1 package baby portobello mushrooms, wiped clean and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• Spinach (I use the bagged, pre-washed spinach...time saver!)
• Sour cream - optional
• Parsley - optional
• S&P
• EVOO

Instructions:

• In a large pan, sautee the frozen pierogi over medium high heat in a little EVOO, about 8 minutes per side until they get some nice brown color on them.  PRO TIP: There are instructions on the box they came in so you can read that too. ;-)
• In a separate pan, sautee your mushrooms over medium high heat in a little EVOO until they are brown, then add your onions and season with S&P.  Cook for about 5-8 minutes.
• Put some spinach on a plate, put the hot pierogis on top (this will wilt the spinach a bit) then top pierogis with your onion and mushroom mixture.
• You can add a dollop of sour cream to your onion and mushroom mixture at the very end to make it a little creamy.  Sour cream is a traditional topping for pierogis and tastes DELISH!
• I had some parsley on hand I wanted to use up so I added some of that to the end as well.

Onion and mushrooms browning away!

Getting some brown color starting to show up on the pierogis

That's it!  So easy it barely needs a recipe and it's certainly easy enough to pull together on a weeknight.  Don't be afraid to take some help from the store.  Frozen pierogis turn into a nutritious (vegetarian) dinner when served with added veggies like the spinach, mushrooms and onion.

If I knew how to say "cheers" in Polish I would type that here.  I'll ask my mother-in-law and get back to you!