Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Cepelinai
Zeppelin-shaped potato dumplings stuffed with meat, served with bacon-onion sauce and sour cream.
Lithuanian · advanced · serves 4
prep 50 min · cook 40 min
~1040 cal · 47g protein · 90g carbs · 54g fat · 11g fiber · 7g sugars · 25g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Cepelinai take their name from the zeppelin airships they resemble, and they are Lithuania's national dish: large, oval potato dumplings, plump and glossy, wrapped around a savoury filling. The dough is a mix of grated raw potato and boiled mashed potato, which gives them their distinctive dense, chewy, almost translucent texture.
At the centre is usually spiced minced pork, though curd cheese or mushrooms appear too, and the whole dumpling is gently boiled until it turns smooth and glassy. Making them well is a point of pride and no small effort: wringing the grated raw potato dry is the laborious secret to getting the dough to hold.
They are served under a generous sauce of onion and bacon crisped in their own fat, with a spoon of sour cream alongside. Hearty to the point of heaviness, cepelinai are cold-weather food and celebration food at once, and Lithuanians are fiercely, affectionately loyal to them.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, egg- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 lb potatoes (mix of raw grated and boiled mashed)
1 lb ground pork
6 oz bacon (for sauce)
1 onion (for sauce)
1 cup sour cream, to serve
3 tbsp potato starch
1 tbsp lemon juice or a pinch of citric acid (keeps the potato pale)
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Squeeze the grated raw potato very dry, then mix it with the mashed potato, potato starch, and the lemon juice into a workable dough.
✎ Chef’s note
Wring the grated potato as dry as you can in a cloth. Excess water makes the dough loose, and the dumplings fall apart in the pot. The lemon or citric acid keeps the raw potato from oxidising grey.
2
Season the pork (or mushrooms and lentils) with onion, salt, and pepper for the filling.
3
With wet hands, shape the potato dough around the filling into large zeppelin-shaped ovals.
4
Boil gently in salted water for 25 to 30 minutes, until glossy and cooked through.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the water at a gentle simmer, not a rolling boil, so the delicate dumplings hold together.
5
Top with the crisped bacon-and-onion (or mushroom) sauce and a spoon of sour cream.
Vilnius tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Vilnius. Cepelinai are named for their shape, a zeppelin of grated potato moulded around minced pork, boiled and then served under pork crackling and sour cream. Rye bread, forest mushrooms and cured pork carry the rest of the year, when nothing cold is wanted at all.
🗺️
Lithuania. Cepelinai are named for their shape: fat grated-potato dumplings pinched into blimps around a pork filling, boiled and served under bacon and soured cream. They are widely called the national dish and they are heavy in a way that makes sense of the climate. Rye, mushrooms gathered from the forest and cured pork fill in the rest of the year.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Lithuania
Šaltibarščiai (Cold Beet Soup)A shocking-pink chilled soup of beets, kefir, cucumber, and dill, Lithuania’s summer in a bowl, with hot potatoes on the side.
Kugelis (Baked Potato Pudding)A dense baked pudding of finely grated raw potato bound with egg, milk, onion and smoked bacon, browned on top and served with sour cream.
Varškės Blynai (Curd Cheese Pancakes)Little pan-fried pancakes of fresh curd cheese, crisp and golden outside and tender inside, served with sour cream and jam.
Browse all Lithuania recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Uncooked parcels freeze well and cook from frozen. Cooked ones keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and steam or pan-warm to serve.
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Cepelinai?
Zeppelin-shaped potato dumplings stuffed with meat, served with bacon-onion sauce and sour cream.
Where does Cepelinai come from?
Cepelinai is a Lithuanian dish from Vilnius, Lithuania.
Can Cepelinai be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Cepelinai recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Cepelinai safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Cepelinai take to make?
About 90 minutes total (50 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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