Eastern European dumplings are not just meat. Vareniki — the softer, larger cousin of pelmeni — come in a full range of vegetarian fillings: Potato, Cabbage, Mushroom, Cheese & Spinach, Sweet Cherry, and Strawberry. All six are meat-free. Several are also vegan — Potato, Cabbage, Mushroom, Sweet Cherry, and Strawberry contain no dairy in the filling. Build your bowl, choose your toppings, and you have a completely meat-free — or fully plant-based — meal.
Are vareniki vegetarian?
Most of them, yes. Vareniki as a tradition has always accommodated vegetables and fruit as fillings — partly for dietary variety, partly for economy, and partly because vegetables in Eastern European cooking are genuinely excellent when treated with care.
At Varenik & Pelmen, our entire vareniki lineup is vegetarian. Every single filling. No meat anywhere in the range. That’s not a concession to modern dietary trends — it’s true to the tradition. Potato and cabbage vareniki predate any modern concept of vegetarian eating; they’ve been on Eastern European tables for generations because they’re genuinely delicious, not because they’re the meat-free option.
So if you’re vegetarian and you’ve been avoiding dumpling bars because you assumed everything was pork — come back. You’re more welcome here than you might think.
Best veg fillings
Potato
The most popular filling on our menu, full stop — not the most popular vegetarian filling, the most popular overall. Potato vareniki are what people come back for. Creamy mashed potato filling, slightly salted, sometimes with fried onion incorporated, giving a warm, rich, satisfying centre.
If someone tells you a potato dumpling sounds boring, they haven’t had a good one. This is the one to start with.
Cabbage
Underappreciated and worth discovering. Braised cabbage as a filling has a gentle, earthy sweetness that works beautifully inside the neutral dough. It’s lighter than potato, slightly more complex in flavour, and pairs particularly well with fried onions as a topping.
Mushroom
A favourite among the more adventurous. Mushroom vareniki are deeply savoury — earthy, umami-rich, and satisfying in the way that good mushroom cooking always is. The filling concentrates the flavour, so what you get is more intense than a mushroom side dish.
These are the ones that convert the sceptics.
Cheese & Spinach
A slightly more contemporary combination but completely at home in this tradition. The cheese brings creaminess and mild sharpness; the spinach balances it with a little bitterness and keeps the filling from being too heavy. It’s rich without being cloying.
Note: Cheese & Spinach contains dairy. Not suitable for vegan diets.
Sweet Cherry
The gateway to sweet vareniki. Sharp, fruity, intensely cherry — wrapped in warm dough and served with sour cream, sweet cherry vareniki sit somewhere between a dumpling and a dessert. The combination of sweet-tart cherry and cool sour cream is one of the great Eastern European flavour pairings.
Strawberry
Lighter and more delicate than cherry. The strawberry filling is subtly sweet, fragrant, and beautiful in season. Served warm, it’s a genuinely lovely thing — and another one that surprises people who’d only ever thought of dumplings as a savoury food.
Vegan-friendly options
Here’s where it gets slightly more precise, because the dough and toppings matter for a fully vegan bowl.
The dough contains egg. The standard vareniki dough is flour, egg, water, and salt. This means the dough itself is not vegan.
The fillings — for Potato, Cabbage, Mushroom, Sweet Cherry, and Strawberry — contain no dairy. Cheese & Spinach obviously contains dairy cheese.
The toppings are where you have the most control:
– Sour cream — dairy, not vegan
– Crispy bacon — pork, not vegan
– Fresh herbs — plant-based, vegan
– Sautéed mushrooms — plant-based, vegan (check on cooking fat if you’re strict)
– Fried onions — plant-based, vegan (check on cooking fat if you’re strict)
– Berry jam — plant-based, vegan
So: if you’re vegan and comfortable with egg in the dough, you can build a solid bowl around Potato, Cabbage, Mushroom, Sweet Cherry, or Strawberry vareniki, topped with berry jam, fresh herbs, or sautéed mushrooms and fried onions.
If you want a warm, satisfying vegan combination: Mushroom or Potato vareniki with fried onions, sautéed mushrooms, and fresh herbs. Skip the sour cream; go for berry jam if you’re having sweet options. It’s a genuinely good bowl.
Sweet dumplings count too
It needs saying. Sweet Cherry and Strawberry vareniki are not a consolation prize or a side note. They’re a whole tradition.
Warm fruit parcels topped with sour cream — or, for the fully plant-based bowl, with berry jam — are one of the least-known pleasures of Eastern European food culture. They occupy the same space as a crumble or a fruit pie, but in dumpling form.
A bowl of sweet vareniki at the end of a savoury meal, or a mixed bowl that runs sweet-and-savoury across the same plate, is one of the things that makes this food tradition genuinely interesting. Don’t skip it.
Build a veg bowl
Our self-serve model makes building a veg-only bowl completely straightforward. You control what goes in your bowl. There’s no set menu to navigate, no need to ask for substitutions, no risk of accidentally getting something you don’t eat.
Here’s a template for a great vegetarian bowl:
Generous: Potato + Mushroom vareniki, sour cream, fried onions, fresh herbs
Light: Cabbage vareniki, sour cream, fresh herbs
Rich: Mushroom + Cheese & Spinach vareniki, sour cream, sautéed mushrooms
Sweet finish: Sweet Cherry or Strawberry vareniki, sour cream (or berry jam for vegan)
Vegan: Potato or Mushroom vareniki, fried onions, sautéed mushrooms, berry jam, fresh herbs — skip sour cream
Take what you want. Pay for what you take at £5/100g. All toppings included. Average bowl £10–12.
Visit us at eatpelmeni.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are vareniki vegetarian?
At Varenik & Pelmen, all our vareniki fillings are vegetarian — Potato, Cabbage, Mushroom, Sweet Cherry, Strawberry, and Cheese & Spinach. None contain meat. Several (all except Cheese & Spinach) also contain no dairy in the filling itself, though the standard dough does contain egg.
Are there vegan dumplings?
Our Potato, Cabbage, Mushroom, Sweet Cherry, and Strawberry vareniki are dairy-free in the filling. The dough contains egg, so strictly egg-free vegan diets are not accommodated in the standard dough. For toppings, fresh herbs, berry jam, sautéed mushrooms, and fried onions are plant-based. Skip the sour cream and crispy bacon to keep your bowl plant-based.
Which dumplings have no meat?
All our vareniki — Potato, Cabbage, Mushroom, Sweet Cherry, Strawberry, and Cheese & Spinach — are meat-free. Our pelmeni range (Pork & Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey, Lamb & Beef) all contain meat. For a meat-free bowl, choose from the vareniki lineup.
Can you make a fully veg bowl?
Absolutely. Choose from any of our six vareniki fillings, stack the plant-based toppings — fresh herbs, berry jam, sautéed mushrooms, fried onions — and you have a fully vegetarian meal. For a vegan bowl (dairy-free), avoid the sour cream and Cheese & Spinach filling, and check with us about cooking fats for the sautéed toppings. Everything else is plant-based. Always worth checking eatpelmeni.com/allergens for the most current ingredient information.