I’m always looking for interesting flavour combinations that add a bit of variety. These empanadas combine paprika, cumin, green olives and raisins. The lentils used in this vegan version works perfectly and adds a great earthy flavour. The crust is light and crispy, without going overboard on fat. I just love little hand pies – everything tastes better in a crust.
Making the vegan empanada dough
The dough is fairly most, so make sure you have plenty of flour on your surface as you work to prevent sticking. Most traditional recipes use egg, hence I opted to include some mung bean egg. I will do a more detailed recipe for making mung bean egg in the future, but in short, you soak a cup of yellow split mung beans overnight in water, and blend this up with half a cup of plant milk until smooth. This will make a lot, but I’ve been using this in many recipes. You can also make a scramble with this mix.
I’ve use a 50/50 mix of wholewheat and white flour. You can go all white or all whole wheat, but you will have to adjust the liquid appropriately – whole wheat flour is thirstier.
The dough is reasonably forgiving of re-working, so roll out the offcuts to make more circles. Or, sometimes I just cut squares and avoid waste altogether.
Argentinian lentil empanadas
Equipment
- Large cookie press
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup white bread flour
- 180 g coconut milk
- 1/4 cup mung bean egg see notes, or use extra coconut milk
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the filling
- 150 g dry brown lentils about 3/4 cup
- 1 onion
- 1 stick celery
- 1 carrot grated
- 1 large red or yellow bell pepper
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1 tbs miso paste
- 1 tbs wine or sherry vinegar
- 1/4 cup stoned sliced olives
- 50 g raisins (about 1/4 cup
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180°C/356°F.
- Get the lentils cooking in salted water or stock. This should take about 20 minutes
- First, make the dough. Combine all the ingredients and stir until just combined. Give the dough a very quick knead. Don’t overwork the dough. The dough will be somewhat soft, but should not be sticky. Cover the dough with plastic (or put in in a sealed container, and let it rest in the fridge while you work on the filling
- Dice the onion, slice the celery, grate the carrot, and dice the sweet pepper. Mix all these veg and saute until soft. When the onions are sweet and translucent, add the garlic. Garlic gets too bitter if it browns too much IMO. Your lentils should be nearly done by now. If not, pause at this stage until they are done.
- When the garlic has been in for a minute or two, add the cumin, paprika, and oregano. Let the spices cook for 30 seconds or so, then add the drained lentils. Now add the miso, raisins, and olives, vinegar, and a splash water (about a quarter cup, depending on how moist your lentils were. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cook for 5-10 minutes. You want the mixture to be fairly dry.
- Take your filling of the heat. Ideally, let it cool for a while.
- Roll out the dough, until it is about 5mm thick. Punch out circles of about 10cm. This is bigger than most cookie cutters – I use my nutribullter cup. Put a heaped tablespoon filling in the center of the circle, fold over, and seal with a fork
- Brush the pies with a little soy milk. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown