Pelmeni have been in demand for decades. And although it is now easy to find ready-made and frozen pelmeni on supermarket shelves, which only need to be cooked at home, many fans of healthy eating and housewives are not at all satisfied with the composition of these semi-finished products.
And so they follow the tradition of making dumplings at home, kneading the dough and preparing the minced meat themselves. But is it possible to make some changes to the traditional recipe for homemade dumplings, thereby making them healthier? Yes, it is.
For example, replace regular white flour for dumpling dough with rice flour. It tastes just as good, and it will be more useful. Or try adding a little rye flour to your usual wheat flour.
The second question is: what filling should I put in the dumplings?
If you want to prepare this dish with dietary meat such as chicken or turkey, it is better to use the meat from the thigh part instead of the bird's breast (it is quite dry).
Yes, this meat contains fat, but nutritionists have long been saying that animal fats must be included in the diet, even if it is dietary. And the minced meat will become juicier and tastier thanks to the fat, which will also affect the taste of the already cooked dumplings.
The third point - if you want to get a hearty dish rich in easily digestible protein, then you can easily use fish as a filling for pelmeni. Whether you buy a fillet already cleaned of bones or take a whole carcass to separate the pulp from it later - it does not matter much.
Dumplings with salmon, trout, carp or pike perch mince are delicious. An interesting and slightly sweetish taste can be obtained by adding leeks to the fish mince instead of the usual onions.
The fourth point - during fasting days, you don't have to give up your favorite dish. Just change the recipe for the dumpling dough, excluding eggs from it, and prepare a Lenten filling. What can serve as a filling? Potatoes, buckwheat with mushrooms, pumpkin, a mixture of pine nuts and cauliflower. Such dumplings can easily be made in advance and added to the diet during fasting.
Point number five - any kind of pelmeni will taste better if served with a suitable sauce that adds additional flavor. Since we are talking about making pelmeni a healthier dish, it is better to exclude fatty sour cream and industrial mayonnaise from the list of suitable sauces right away. What will work then?
For example, a mixture of soy sauce, honey and sesame seed oil is appropriate for serving fish dumplings. It is acceptable to dilute the soy sauce with a little water to remove excess saltiness. A sauce made from blended tofu, lemon juice and salt will be good for lean dumplings. Tomato paste can also be used as a basis for dumpling sauce, adding a little honey, water, dried garlic and rice vinegar.
And the sixth point - even pelmeni that meet all the canons of healthy eating can harm your figure and digestive system if you get carried away with eating them. Calculate the number of pelmeni that you can eat in one sitting, but at the same time not get a feeling of heaviness and discomfort in the stomach. And remember that pelmeni with any filling should not be present in the menu too often: it is permissible to enjoy them once a week or 10 days.
