Meat Pierogi

Name: Meat Pierogi
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: Plain flour; 1 medium egg; Water; Turkey thigh mince; Onion; Chicken stock; Salt; Black pepper; Fat-free Greek yoghurt

458 kcal a serving, against 576 for the traditional version. That is 118 kcal off, or 20%, with 29g of protein. Serves 4. 1 hour 40 minutes, including resting dough.

What the traditional version is

Soft wheat dumplings filled with a mix of fatty pork shoulder, finely chopped fried onions, salt and pepper. The filling is juicy, savoury and rich, held together by pork fat. Once boiled, the pierogi might be pan-fried in a little butter and served with soured cream or fried onions.

What changed, and what each change costs

Pork shoulder for lean turkey thigh

Pork shoulder's half fat, which is why it tastes so good but doesn't help if you're trying to eat leaner. Skinless turkey thigh is about as low-fat as you can get while still pretending it's a proper meat filling. Turkey breast would get you even further, but let's not pretend it tastes of anything.

What it costs you. Juiciness takes the biggest hit here. Turkey has to work harder to taste like anything, and you lose that slightly sticky, porky feeling that makes a pieróg worth eating. If you overcook it or skimp on seasoning, it'll be dry. There's no way round it.

Double the onion, skip the butter in the filling

Onion brings moisture, sweetness and a bit of binding to an otherwise dry filling. The original sweats them in butter - swap to a longer, slower dry fry or use a splash of stock to keep things moving. It's not quite as decadent, but onion does heavier lifting than you'd think.

What it costs you. You miss the buttery aroma and richness round the meat, but the onion steps up on sweetness. Nobody's calling it luxury, but you're getting more substance and a bit less regret.

Serve with fat-free yoghurt instead of soured cream

Soured cream is classic, but it's all fat for very little in return. Fat-free Greek yoghurt does the tang for a tenth of the calories. You can always add a twist of lemon if you want it sharper.

What it costs you. It's not as silky and if you care deeply about dairy mouthfeel, this will annoy you. But it makes pierogi feel less like a nap in waiting and more like lunch.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Plain flour
1 medium egg
Water
Turkey thigh mince
Onion
Chicken stock
Salt
Black pepper
Fat-free Greek yoghurt

How it starts

Make the dough first: tip 300g plain flour into a bowl, add the egg, salt, and slowly work in 125g water.
While the dough rests, cook the filling.
Add the turkey mince to the pan, break it up and cook gently until it's just cooked through, about 10 minutes.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Polish.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	576	458
Protein	25.1g	29g
Fat	24.7g	8.9g
Saturated fat	10g	2.4g
Carbohydrate	61.1g	64.1g
Protein per 100 kcal	4.4g	6.3g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Polish prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. eggs, gluten, milk.

The method is in the book

I'd be lying if I said these match the traditional for richness - they don't, and you'll notice the difference. The porky juiciness is gone, and these are leaner, drier and less decadent. But you get a proper dose of meat and a big hit of onion, which does more good than harm. Add enough seasoning and a generous swirl of yoghurt and you've got something that tastes honest and still Polish enough to pass. If you hand these to your gran, she'll probably sigh and ask if you're eating enough, but for a Tuesday, not Christmas, they get the job done.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Polish, along with 53 more. Buy the paperback