A Recipe for Spinach and Cheese Empanadas
|
This empanada recipe changes things up by adding sauteed spinach, with garlic, as well as cheese, of course. You can pick a cheese combination you prefer, but parmesan, cheddar, or mozzarella are delicious with this.
Here are the ingredients you will need: - empanada shells (24, from the store or made from scratch) - all-purpose flour (half cup) - large eggs (2) - grated jack, cheddar, or mozzarella cheese (1 cup) - grated parmesan cheese (2 tablespoons) - milk (1 cup) - unsalted butter (3 tablespoons) - olive oil (3 tablespoons) - onion (quarter cup, chopped) - garlic (1 clove, minced) - baby spinach (6 ounces) - kosher salt - ground black pepper |
|
Get your ingredients, properly measured, together. If you've made the empanada shells from scratch, make sure you've refrigerated it for at least a few hours before using. Now you're going to preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
In a skillet, you're going to heat up your olive oil to low heat and saute the garlic and onion so that the onions become nice and golden, which should take somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes.
Now you're going to increase the heat to medium as you add the spinach. Let everything cook as you stir for about 2 minutes, until the spinach is softened. Take off the heat, let everything cool, and season with papper and salt.
Get a saucepan and put your flour in it. Now start adding the milk slowly and whisk with the flour until everything is combined and smooth. Next add the butter and put the saucepan on a medium/low heat setting. Let everything cook as you continuously stir. You want to take the pan off the heat just as it comes to a boil (the mixture should have thickened by then).
While off the heat, crack your eggs and add them in, whisking everything. Put back on the heat and stir until it thickens and returns to a boil. The mixture is going to be paste-like.
Take off the heat again and add your cheeses, and season with pepper, salt, and whatever else you'd like to use. Now chop up your spinach/onion mixture and add it to this mixture, stirring to mix everything together.
Split your empanada dough into two balls and roll out one of them to about a quarter inch thickness. Now cut approximately 5 inch circles out of the dough (you can use a bowl, for example, or a large cookie cutter). Collect the dough scraps leftover from the cutting and combine them into a ball. Take the other half of the empanada dough and roll it out as well. Hopefully you'll end up with 20 to 25 dough circles for your empanadas.
Take one or two tablespoons of your filling mixture and add to the middle of your dough circles. At the edges, you'll want to brush with water so that the edges stick together as you fold the circle of dough in half, with the filling contained inside it, and form the empanada.
Press the edges together, then fold the edges toward the middle a half-inch at a time so that you create the rope-like texture around the edge of the empanada that you would expect.
Your oven should be preheated to 400 degrees, so add the empanadas and bake for about 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the empanadas have browned nicely.
In a skillet, you're going to heat up your olive oil to low heat and saute the garlic and onion so that the onions become nice and golden, which should take somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes.
Now you're going to increase the heat to medium as you add the spinach. Let everything cook as you stir for about 2 minutes, until the spinach is softened. Take off the heat, let everything cool, and season with papper and salt.
Get a saucepan and put your flour in it. Now start adding the milk slowly and whisk with the flour until everything is combined and smooth. Next add the butter and put the saucepan on a medium/low heat setting. Let everything cook as you continuously stir. You want to take the pan off the heat just as it comes to a boil (the mixture should have thickened by then).
While off the heat, crack your eggs and add them in, whisking everything. Put back on the heat and stir until it thickens and returns to a boil. The mixture is going to be paste-like.
Take off the heat again and add your cheeses, and season with pepper, salt, and whatever else you'd like to use. Now chop up your spinach/onion mixture and add it to this mixture, stirring to mix everything together.
Split your empanada dough into two balls and roll out one of them to about a quarter inch thickness. Now cut approximately 5 inch circles out of the dough (you can use a bowl, for example, or a large cookie cutter). Collect the dough scraps leftover from the cutting and combine them into a ball. Take the other half of the empanada dough and roll it out as well. Hopefully you'll end up with 20 to 25 dough circles for your empanadas.
Take one or two tablespoons of your filling mixture and add to the middle of your dough circles. At the edges, you'll want to brush with water so that the edges stick together as you fold the circle of dough in half, with the filling contained inside it, and form the empanada.
Press the edges together, then fold the edges toward the middle a half-inch at a time so that you create the rope-like texture around the edge of the empanada that you would expect.
Your oven should be preheated to 400 degrees, so add the empanadas and bake for about 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the empanadas have browned nicely.