This meal, yet simple, is quick and easy and tasty.  It’s a traditional Polish dish that I’m sure many of you have heard of before.  I’m not Polish, but I LOVE perogies enough to be.  I’ve promised myself that one day I am going to make perogies from scratch for my blog, I have the recipe sitting in my binder, but have yet to get around to doing it.  Anyway, that was a little off topic, but since we’re talking about Polish food I thought everyone might like to know that someday there WILL be a perogie recipe on here.

Kluski noodles are something I remember my mom making every once in awhile for dinner or buying at sport’s games in high school from the concession stand.  It was literally like 5 ingredients, but so addicting.  I will warn you, this is one of those dishes that requires a lot of salt for seasoning or you can experiment with other seasonings to your liking, but this dish can lean towards the bland side, so don’t be afraid of the salt shaker… otherwise you may write this dish off as not so tasty when in fact if you add the salt it will end up being very addicting, like french fries.. well maybe not QUITE THAT addicting, but close.

P.S. for those of you who don’t know what “Kluski” noodles are, it is basically just a homemade Polish egg noodle.  The noodles are thicker than the curly egg noodles in the store and when cooked they are soft and thick, kind of more like a dumpling, but cut in strips. Most grocery stores carry them, but sometimes they are hard to find.  I substituted Kluski noodles with a similar noodle i bought from Wal-Mart called “country noodle”, but it was the same texture, so it worked exactly the same.

INGREDIENTS:

makes about 8 -10 servings

8 oz. Kluski noodles
1 head of cabbage noodles
1 lb. ground beef (Optional)
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 stick butter
1 large clove garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper
Paprika

Boil water for your noodles. Meanwhile, Saute the ground beef, crushed garlic, and chopped onion over medium heat until browned and onion is soft.

Add noodles to boiling water and cook according to package directions. Transfer cooked ground beef to a bowl and drizzle the same pot with 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Turn the heat down to medium-low.

Next, rinse the cabbage head and chop into big chunks of cabbage (see below). S

1. place cabbage head onto a large cutting board.

2. Cut the cabbage head in half with a large sharp knife and lay flat side down on the cutting board.

3. Cut the cabbage half in strips lengthwise.

4. Rotate by placing your entire palm over top of the cabbage strips and rotate with your wrist 90 degrees so the strops are now horizontal. Cut strips lengthwise again to form chunks of cabbage. Repeat with second half of cabbage

Scrape all cabbage into the pot of oil and saute until tender. Remove noodles when done and drain in a colander.

The cabbage should look something like this when it is ready.

Once cabbage is soft, add in the cooked noodles and the ground beef. Stir together until well combined and heated through. You want the flavors to adhere to the noodles. Season generously with paprika, salt and black pepper. Feel free to try other spices as well (sometimes I like to use Cajun spice). I recommend letting it sit for awhile before serving.