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Photo of stack of Vegetarian Empanadas with one dipped into a small white bowl of avocado sauce.
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Vegetarian Empanadas Recipe (Vegan Too)

Vegetarian Empanadas are loaded with a colorful array of vegetables, including sweet corn, red and green bell peppers, protein-packed beans, and aromatic spices, all wrapped in an irresistible flaky, golden-brown crust!
Course Appetizers, Main Dishes
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword Empanadas, Vegetarian Empanadas
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Dough Chill Time: 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings 8 (23 empanadas)
Calories 333kcal

Ingredients

Empanada Dough Ingredients

Vegetarian Empanada Filling

  • 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • 3/4 cup (150 g) kidney beans washed and drained
  • 1/4 cup (50 g) red bell pepper diced
  • 1/4 cup (50 g) green bell pepper diced
  • ¼ cup (50 g) sweet corn washed and drained
  • 3 tablespoons tomato purée
  • Sea salt and black pepper to taste
  • Oil to fry I used sunflower oil

Avocado Cashew Dip

Instructions

Make The Empanada Dough

  • To make the empanada dough, follow the How To Make Empanada Dough Instructions in my Potato and Chorizo Empanadas. (See link in the ingredient list above as well as in the notes below.) Another option is to use refrigerated pie crust dough or crescent roll dough.

Make The Filling

  • Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat with oil. Add onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin, kidney beans, bell pepper, sweet corn and tomato purée. Stir all together with a wooden spoon and cook for about 2 minutes. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and allow to cool down completely.

Make The Vegetarian Empanadas

  • Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle some flour also on the dough. Roll to ¼” thick. Use a 3.5” round cookie cutter to cut the shape. Reroll scraps to cut more rounds. You will get 20-23 rounds.
  • Divide the filling equally and place it in the middle of each round. Fold dough in half over the fillings then use a fork to seal edges together.
  • Heat a large pan on medium heat with enough oil to cover the empanadas halfway when frying. The oil must be hot before placing empanadas in it. Place aout 5 empanadas in the pan by leaving a bit of space in between. Fry each side until nicely golden brown. Remove and place on an absorbent kitchen paper to remove excess of oil. Repeat until no more uncooked empanadas left.

Make The Avocado Cashew Dip

  • In a high speed blender, add cashew butter, avocado and lemon juice. Blend to combine. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper. Add more lemon juice if you prefer.
  • Serve empanadas warm with avocado cashew dip.

Video

Notes

To Make Empanada Dough

To Make The Empanada Dough, see the recipe in Potato and Chorizo Empanadas.

Empanada Dough Tips

  • For A Flaky Crust. Since it's easy to overdevelop the wheat gluten in this dough (a similar problem with pie crust), I recommend pulsing part of the flour with the butter to keep the gluten development at bay. If gluten is overdeveloped, you lose that light and flaky element to your cooked dough, which is what it's all about!
  • Refrigerate. Don't skip the refrigeration of your dough! It assists with producing a flaky crust.
  • Unrolling Dough. The chilled dough can sometimes be tricky to roll out. A way around this is to roll the dough out on a piece of parchment paper, then roll it up in the parchment paper. After that's done, wrap the dough tightly in saran wrap to store in the refrigerator for an hour. When you unroll the dough, it may break a little. If it does, just gently press it back together.
  • Shortcut Option. If you don't want to make this empanada dough, feel free to use refrigerated pie crust dough or crescent roll dough. The end result will be somewhat different from mine, but I can guarantee you that it'll still taste great.

Vegetarian Empanada Recipe Tips

  • Cool The Filling. Make sure that your empanada filling is completely cooled before you assemble your empanadas. Otherwise, you could melt the butter in your dough. Furthermore, it's much easier to handle a firm empanada than one that's soft because of being heated by warm filling.
  • Don't Overfill. Be careful not to overfill your empanadas when assembling, as this can result in the dough bursting or cracking open while frying.
    • To prevent this from happening, divide the filling equally between all the empanadas and ensure that you place the filling right in the center in a half-circle mound.
  • Seal The Edges. Double-check that you have sealed the outer edges of your dough when assembling the empanadas for frying. I use a fork to seal the edges, but you could add an egg wash on the inside of the advantages as glue as well.
  • Make Ahead. You can reduce the overall recipe time by making both your empanada dough and filling in advance!

Nutrition

Calories: 333kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Sodium: 108mg | Potassium: 332mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 409IU | Vitamin C: 20mg | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 2mg