I always had weakness for savory pies, especially empanadas. I used to get these savory pies from this cute little shop in town. They had about dozen different types of empanadas and all of the empanadas with different fillings were so delicious. The shop went out of business so now I make my own version using a puff pastry dough that I stuff with yummy mixture of meat, spices and herbs.
Empanada Filling
There are many versions of empanadas in Latin America, and you can find these pies stuffed with:
- Chicken
- Ground Turkey
- Ground Beef
- Ham
- Cheese
- Potatoes
- Fruit
I like my empanadas to contain ground pork, boiled eggs, olives, plump raisins, spices and herbs. I just love the combination of savory, sweet, salty and spicy flavors.
Some people don’t like raisins in their empanadas but I think they give you wonderful sweetness to savory, salty flavored filling. Best way to enjoy the raisins in your pie is to rehydrate it first with hot water. This way, you’ll have plump, juicy sweet fruit, instead of clumps of hard, dried out fruit which won’t do much for your filling.

Making the filling for empanadas is quite easy and you can even make it ahead of time. Just sauté onions, cumin seeds and Fresno chilies first then add ground pork and cook the pork until it’s lightly browned. Next, add chopped parsley, olives and raisins and don’t forget to add ground nutmeg. Nutmeg adds lot of flavor to ground meat that filling doesn’t taste quite right without it. I actually use ground nutmeg for savory dishes lot more than I do for sweets.
Last thing to add to your ground meat mixture is chopped boiled eggs. It’s best to add the eggs after the meat mixture has cooled down, so it doesn’t turn into a dry, chalky mess.
Puff Pastry
Traditional empanadas are made with simple pie dough, but instead of making the dough from scratch, I’m relying on my go to (favorite) puff pastry from Trader Joe’s! I adore the taste and texture of delicate buttery, flaky puff pastry and it’s perfect with the savory-sweet filling .
Assemble & Bake
I want my empanadas to be a good hefty size, so I cut the dough into 5 inch squares. Don’t be afraid to stuff your pie with your filling! I placed two large spoonful of filling on the middle. You don’t want some sad pie with lots of dough and hardly any filling. When you bite into an empanada, you want to enjoy the delicious filling with every bite.
After you place your filling, just fold over the dough to make a triangle and crimp the edges with a fork.
Brush on some egg wash, and bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes and you will get buttery, meat filled golden empanadas! These are so good the only down side to them is that you can’t just eat one empanada.
Puff Pastry Empanadas
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 3 eggs to make boiled eggs
- ½ cup pitted kalamata olives, rough chopped
- ¾ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tsp fresno chili, minced (optional)
- 2 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ cup raisins
- salt to taste
- 3 sheets frozen puff pastry, defrosted
- 2 eggs for egg wash
Instructions
- Take puff pastry out of freezer and keep in fridge until ready to use.
- Add water to small pot and bring to a boil. Add eggs into pot and boil for 8 minutes. When done, cool eggs in cold water, then peel off shells. Rough chop boiled eggs and set it aside.
- Place raisins in a small bowl and pour enough boiling water to cover the raisins. Leave raisins in water for 2-3 minutes, then drain and set it aside.
- Heat large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. When olive oil starts to sizzle, add onions, cumin seeds, and fresno chilis. Combine ingredients together and sauté onions until soft.
- Add ground pork to the onion mixture and break down large pieces with spatula or wooden spoon and cook until pork pieces are lightly browned. Sprinkle salt to ground pork and stir in nutmeg, parsley, olives and raisins. Once ingredients are combined, turn off heat and let the pork mixture cool. When pork mixture has cooled down, stir in boiled eggs.
- Turn oven to 400°. Take puff pastry sheet and roll out dough on a floured surface. Roll pastry dough large enough to cut out 5 inch x 5 inch squares. 1 pastry sheet should be able to produce five squares.
- Place two spoonful of filling on the middle of each square. Fold dough to make a triangle and crimp edges with fork to seal triangle. Line the pastry on baking sheet with parchment paper, brush with egg wash and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
anxious to try this empanada recipe.
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