Guest Post: Vegetarian Empanadas

by Stephanie

These were a team effort by me and Ricky Dweck. While he makes empanadas all the time, it was my first time, and his first time making vegetarian ones; usually there is chicken involved, but since we were serving these with pizza, we had to skip it.

These are very satisfying and delicious, and we made things easier by using store-bought empanada dough. It takes some time to dice up all of the vegetables and crimp all of the edges, so make a lot at a time and freeze what you’re not eating – they freeze very well.

Really, Ricky did all of the cooking. He prepared the filling, and I just helped him out by curling the edges.

Ingredients:
4 red peppers, minced
1 large yellow onion, minced
1 package of baby bella mushrooms, diced
1 package of button mushrooms, diced
1 can of black beans, washed
1 can of corn, washed
1 can of crushed tomatillo  (or you can use crushed tomatoes)
Hot sauce, salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste
3 12-count packages of empanada dough
1 egg, for egg wash
  1. Sauté peppers and onions in olive oil until translucent.
  2. Add mushrooms
  3. Add salt and pepper and bring to a boil to help release as much water as possible (you don’t want it to be soupy).
  4. Add beans and corn.
  5. Add tomatillos
  6. Add hot sauce to taste.
  7. Once the filling is finished, place a generous spoonful in the center of the dough and fold in half.
  8. Crimp the edges and  line up on a greased cookie sheet.
  9. Brush the tops with egg wash and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are a nice golden brown color.

Serve with green chili or chipotle mayo (or any other type of dipping sauce).

Obviously you can be creative with the vegetables inside and what you choose to dip these in. Experiment with your own empanadas and let us know how they turn out!