This humble, Eastern European dish is made up of flour dumplings and an easy ground “meat” gravy. If you want to get super traditional, serve it with sliced tomatoes and peas!
Vegan Kluski
As some of you may know, half of my family is Polish, so certain Polish/Eastern European food is special to me. One dish in particular is Golabki, which I’ve veganized before for Rika’s beautiful blog Vegan Miam. So, when Rika asked if I could do a guest blog for her this month, we both agreed that another vegan Polish recipe was in order!
Let me give you a little background on this recipe: Kluski is really just a simple noodle/dumpling that is boiled and then traditionally served with a meat sauce; for a low-cost, filling meal. When my family and I would visit my grandparents in Michigan, this dish was made for us by my grandmother almost every trip. She would always serve it with a side of sliced tomatoes and maybe some corn or peas. Really colorful meal, right?
Well, one of the last times that I saw my grandmother, it was actually for my grandfather’s funeral. She was suffering from dementia, almost to full-blown Alzheimer’s at that point, she had macular degeneration (terrible vision) and couldn’t hear too well. It was nice to spend time with her, even though there were some rough moments. During that visit, I followed her around in the kitchen, helping her make Kluski for everyone and jotting down a recipe so that I could recreate it later on (this was a few months before I went vegan).
As you can see, I took some photos of her doing her thing, and I’ve always kept those memories near to my heart when I think about her. Clearly, it was time to find that scribbled mess of a recipe and veganize it for everyone! It was much easier to do than I had originally thought and the final product was seriously dead-on. I even had my parents try it to verify authenticity and they both are really excited about how the Vegan Kluski turned out.
To be honest, after getting the thumbs up from everyone and while I was taking the photos, it all felt a little bittersweet. I was stoked that I had recreated this recipe successfully, but it also made me miss my grandparents immensely. My dad now owns their property, so I’ll be happy if I get to go out to Michigan this year and go to their old house to get a little nostalgic while being amongst beautiful scenery.
Rika’s blog is now defunct so you can find the recipe below!
Vegan Kluski
This humble, Eastern European dish is made up of flour dumplings and an easy ground "meat" gravy. If you want to get super traditional, serve it with sliced tomatoes and peas!
Ingredients
VEGAN MEAT SAUCE
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter or refined coconut oil
- 1 cup yellow onion, diced
- 8 ounces vegan beef crumbles (Beyond Meat) or crumbled tempeh
- 2 teaspoons or 2 cubes vegetable bouillon
- 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4-1 cup reserved kluski boiling water
- Salt & pepper, to taste
KLUSKI
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- ½ cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons egg replacer powder or arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Warm the vegan butter in a large pan over medium heat. Once hot, place the onions and vegan beef crumbles into the pan and sauté until the onions are clear. In the meantime, get a large pot of water boiling with roughly 2-3 quarts of water.
- Place the flour and the salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the ½ cup of warm water, egg replacer powder and nutritional yeast together; then fold into the dry flour mixture. Knead the dough until it is well-mixed and slightly wet. If your dough is too dry, add water to it a tablespoon at a time and fold it in. You want to be able to easily and roughly cut 1-tablespoon-sized clumps from it with the edge of a spoon.
- Once the onions are cooked, reduce heat to low and stir in the flour and bouillon. Keep over heat until the kluski is done.
- Using a spoon, cut into the edge of the kluski dough, against the side of the bowl and make 1-1½ tablespoon-sized clumps. Then, drop each kluski into the boiling water. Do this until all of the dough is gone. If the water is at a rolling boil, none of the kluski should stick together, but stir occasionally to make sure this doesn’t happen. Boil the noodles for 4-5 minutes, or until they are opaque and float easily.
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer the noodles to the beef mixture, then pour ¾ cup of the boiling water into the pan. Stir together and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will create a gravy-like sauce (as pictured). Taste the mixture and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.
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