Beef and Dill Stuffed Crepes (or blini or blinchiki) are delicious, filling, and healthy. They are a great lunch or dinner if served with salad. Traditional Russian recipe that can be made in advance and frozen for a quick meal.
I always have a few Beef and Dill Stuffed Crepes in the freezer. Not because I am great at meal prep. My mom spends a whole day making a big batch of these morsels a few times a year, freezes them in small batches and brings them over. When I was working in the office and had no leftovers for lunch, I’d bring two of these with me and some kind of vegetable for a delicious lunch. Now that I am home with the baby, I also often don’t have time to make food, so I quickly heat these Beef and Dill Stuffed Crepes on the stove for lunch.
This is not a quick recipe but it’s really worth it. Soft and savoury meat studded with vibrant dill and sweet caramelized onion is wrapped in golden buttery crepes. Delicious! In my family, we traditionally eat them with sour cream but lately I’ve been eating them with plain yogurt. Have you tried real 10% fat yogurt by the way? I buy it for Baby but I sneak a spoonful here and there. It tastes almost like ice cream it’s so good.
Russian crepes or blinchiki can be stuffed with almost anything. Savoury fillings traditionally include various boiled and shredded meats such as beef or chicken, sautéed mushrooms and onions, smoked fish or row, but they also can be stuffed with stewed cabbage, egg salad, tuna salad, and poached fish. Sweet fillings for russian blini vary from many different kinds of jams and jellys, sweetened condensed milk, cottage cheese, stewed apples, and just sour cream with sugar. Have you tried my delicious Matcha Crepes for a fun twist on a Russian tradition?
I make Beef and Dill Stuffed Crepes with my mom’s recipe which is my favourite. I usually make a whole batch of those crepes and we eat half of them for breakfast (or two breakfasts) and then I stuff the other half and we enjoy them over the next few days. The beef and dill filling is actually really easy to make. You just boil beef until it’s super soft, process it finely in a food processor, add sautéed onion, chopped dill, and mix. Wrap cool crepes around the filling and lightly pan fry so that the crepes get crispy, this ensures that they won’t unwrap.
Beef and Dill Stuffed Crepes
Ingredients
- 1/2 recipe Traditional Russian Crepes
- 1 pound lean beef cut (any big chunk of beef that is not too fatty)
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil (divided)
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped (about 1 cup chopped)
- 1/2 cup chopped dill (or more)
- salt, pepper to taste
Instructions
- Boil the beef for about 1 hour or until it's really soft and falling apart. I usually don't add any seasonings to the water but you could add salt and pepper if desired.
- While the beef is boiling, fry the finely chopped onions on 1 tablespoon of oil on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. I like the onions to be quite brown and caramelized.
- Once the beef is boiled, cool it slightly and process in the food processor until it's very finely shredded.
- Add the fried onions and chopped dill to the beef and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Optionally, add a couple of tablespoons of beef cooking liquid to the mixture to make it less dry.
- Spoon the mixture into the center of each crepe and fold the edges around it to make a parcel.
- Brush a big, preferably non-stick, pan with a little bit of leftover oil and add a few stuffed crepes to the pan seam side down. Pan-fry for a few minutes until the edges get golden. Flip and pan dry for another minute or so on the other side. Repeat with the rest of the crepes.
Notes
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