Kale with Vegan Sausage and Perogies

I'm fortunate to have recently moved to a lovely Polish neighborhood. The local commercial strip has a generous smattering of Polish bakeries (Yum!), restaurants, and, of course, lots of meat shops. However, being vegetarian generally means that if I feel like having a Polish-inspired dinner, I will need to make it myself.

So, feeling inspired last week for a Polish dinner, I stepped up my search and finally found a good, local source of Tofurkey products in a small fruit market in the 'hood. I picked up the vegan Tofurkey Polish-style sausage and began to visualize my Polish dinner coming together! The next stop was the local Polish bakery for some "home-made" fresh-frozen perogies. The ones with sauerkraut filling are vegan. My local Polish bakery also carries big jars of fresh sauerkraut, so I added one to my basket. On to the veggie market for some curly-leaf kale and my vegan, Polish-inspired meal was ready to prepare:

1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
pinch nutmeg
pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup red wine
1 bunch kale, stems removed and coarsely chopped

Plus:
Polish-style vegan sausages
Vegan perogies, fresh or frozen
Prepared sauerkraut

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions and soften, about 3-5 minutes. Then add garlic, nutmeg, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. Heat 1 minute, stirring, and add red wine and kale. Stir to coat the kale with wine, cover the pan with a lid and simmer on low heat for about 3 minutes or until kale has just wilted. Remove from heat and place the kale in a serving dish. The onions will be reddish from the red wine, so if you find that distracting or weird (my husband was weirded-out by the red onions), you can omit them or cook them separately, then sprinkle the onion over the perogies.

Meanwhile, slice the vegan sausage and cook according to package directions. When cooked, remove from heat and place in the serving dish with the kale.

Using the same pan, scoop out your desired amount of sauerkraut and just heat through. Place the sauerkraut in a separate serving dish.

Also meanwhile (yes, this is a multi-pan dinner!), cook the perogies as desired. Some people like to boil their perogies, but I like to pan-fry mine in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned...yummy!

Enjoy your Polish dinner of Kale with vegan sausage, sauerkraut, and perogies! I served this to a non-vegetarian family member of German origin and her good friend from Germany last year to favorable reviews!