Verenike

Verenike (pronounced ver-en-i-ka) are cottage cheese filled fried dumplings, that are served with or without a ham gravy topping at the Relief Sale.  

Between 15,000 and 20,000 of these crowd favorites are made each year for the Relief Sale and served at Feeding the Multitude in Cottonwood Court as well as in the Domestic Arts Building. Prepared sausage and frozen verenike are also available for purchase at the verenike booth in Domestic Arts. 

Verenika (there are many different spellings of this type of Russian Mennonite food)... came into the Mennonite diet from their time in Ukraine. Their Russian neighbors used many different fillings for these dumpling but the one that caught on with the Low German Mennonites was cottage cheese.