‘Beef’ and plantain empanadas

Empanadas are a traditional street food in Central and South America and the Caribbean, so they are made for on-the-go eating. You can also down a couple of ‘em with a salad and easily call it dinner. We like to keep a stash in the freezer for a quick meal (or a last-minute party app), but we don’t always have time to make them completely from scratch. So we lean on some shortcuts and premade ingredients, including frozen puff pastry, to get these pockets of goodness into the oven STAT. 

This empanada filling is a plant-based version of a family recipe, which consists of a seasoned ground beef mixture (picadillo), sweet plantains, and Parmesan cheese. The filling is untraditional, but it’s still full of nostalgic flavors drawn from a Puerto Rican casserole called piñon.

Here we’re using the newest version of Beyond Meat and simmering it in a homemade sofrito and spices. The rest is easy: Store-bought fried plantains get chopped up, and nutritional yeast brings the umami in place of Parmesan. We don’t love the prefab empanada disks, so we're opting for frozen puff pastry for a flakier baked shell. Pepperidge Farm’s is totally plant-based, but we prefer Dufour brand when we can find it, because it doesn’t have any added sugar. To save even more time and make less of a mess, buy frozen sweet plantains, like these from Goya. Since they are already fried, you can chop them up and add them right to the skillet. 

A pound of Beyond meat makes enough filling for a dozen empanadas—which is a perfect amount to start a freezer stash—so we’ve included instructions for freezing and reheating as well.

‘Beef’ and Plantain Empanadas

Yield: 12 empanadas

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 pound plant-based ground meat, such as Beyond or Impossible 
• ½ cup sofrito (homemade or store-bought like Goya)
• ½ cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces frozen sweet fried plantains, diced
• ⅓ cup nutritional yeast
• Flour, for the counter
• 4 sheets (2 packages) puff pastry, thawed
• 1 beaten egg (for egg wash)

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the plant-based meat and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes. Stir in sofrito, ketchup, paprika, cumin, oregano, and salt. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes. Stir in plantains and nutritional yeast and cook until warmed through. Remove from heat and cool while you prepare the dough.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or baking mats.
3. Lightly flour a work surface. Working with one puff pastry sheet at a time, roll it out slightly and use a 4-inch cookie cutter or bowl to cut out 6 circles. (Save the scraps to make some sweet treats! More on that below.) Place about 1 heaping tablespoon of filling in the middle of each round. Brush the edge with egg wash, then fold the dough over into a half-moon shape. Press lightly to seal, and use a fork to crimp the edge. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
4. Cut a small slit on the top of each empanada and brush the tops with egg wash. 
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Freezing Instructions:

1. Prepare empanadas through the end of Step 4 above. Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet and put in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer bag. Frozen empanadas last 3 months
2. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 425 degrees and proceed directly to Step 5 above. You might have to add a minute or two in the cook time. 

Notes and Substitutions:

• Instead of the individual spices, you can use 2 teaspoons of Sazón seasoning. If doing this, omit the salt. 
• Use your puff pastry scraps to make churro bites! Cut the scraps into bite-sized pieces, brush them with melted plant-based butter, and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. 
• If you want to try making your own empanada dough, try this recipe. To make it dairy-free swap plant butter for the regular butter.