My new years resolution this year was to eat less meat. 23 days later and I've only had meat once! Meatless-ness is much easier than I'd imagined. The thought of never having a bloody rare hunk of beef tenderloin again saddens me, so I'm not claiming to be a forever vegetarian. In the meantime I'm feeling pretty good from all these vegetables, and am getting more and more creative in the kitchen.
I found a recipe for empanadas on pinterest, made some tweeks to it, and tested it last night. Mission: success. Rolling out the dough is the hardest part of this. This dough is not a friendly dough to work with- it's solid and requires serious bicep strength to roll. I promise that the end result is so much better from making the dough from scratch. As a time saver, you can make the dough and the filling the day before and refrigerate. In fact, you could probably even make the empenadas the night before (prior to lapping on the egg wash) and keep them in the fridge until ready to bake.
While eating these, I thought of at least a dozen other ideas for fillings. You could really fill them with anything. Some ideas I had were curried chickpeas; olives, sundried tomatoes & feta; broccoli & cheddar; etc.
Any pastry dough is bound to have lots of butter, so this isn't low-fat by any means. However, I substituted whole wheat flour and 2% yogurt into the dough, and used Earth Balance to replace some of the butter. The result is something indulgent that you won't feel totally guilty after devouring.
Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onions, and Goat Cheese Empanadas
Dough:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white AP flour
1 1/3 sticks butter, (or vegan substitute aka Earth Balance or equivalent)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 egg, beaten
3 Tbs 2% plain Greek yogurt (I like Fage brand)
1. Mix flours, butter, salt, and garlic powder in a bowl. Pinch butter with your fingers until mixture resembles a course meal (this will take about 5 minutes or more).
2. Whisk together egg and yogurt in a bowl. Add to flour-butter mixture and mix thoroughly. If the mixture is too dry to come together, add more yogurt, or a teaspoon of cold water (I used a touch of cold water).
3. Form dough into a ball, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Filling:
1 small butternut squash
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cloves of pressed garlic
1 white onion, roughly diced
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp sage
1 tsp parsely
1 tsp thyme
5 oz goat cheese
egg wash (1 egg and a splash of water)
sesame seeds
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds. Rub with olive oil, salt, and cinnamon. Roast for 50 minutes or until soft. Remove from oven and let cool.
2. Meanwhile, saute onions and garlic in olive oil over low heat for 30 minutes, or until soft and caramelized. Add balsamic vinegar, reduce.
3. Scoop out the flesh of the squash and mash in a mixing bowl along with caremelized onions, chipolte, sage, parsely, thyme. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill.
Assembly
1. Reduce oven temp. to 350 degrees. Roll out the pastry dough on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into approximately 5 inch circles (I used a 5.5 inch upside-down ramekin to trace).
2. Fill with 1 Tbs butternut filling and a little less than 1/2 oz. goat cheese.
3. Fold dough in half, pinch to seal, and crimp with a fork.
4. Brush empaneda with egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes or until golden.
Assembled and ready to go in the oven
Ready to eat. Served with honey-roasted brussels sprouts (toss halved brussels with olive oil, honey, salt, pepper. Roast on baking sheet for 20 minutes at 350 degrees).
