You can call them empanadas, or calzones, or samosas, or pierogi, or turnovers, or whatever you like – these are thin sheets of dough stuffed with your favorite stuffing and baked to their golden-brown perfection. The dough details can vary slightly from culture to culture, cuisine to cuisine, and recipe to recipe. But in general, the dough is made with flour and lots of butter or shortening cut into the flour to generate the flaky texture. It’s not what I’d call healthy, but as something to serve as a holiday appetizer or for a special occasion these yummy treats work well. On this occasion I bought the dough already pre-made and ready to go. If you would like to make your own this recipe should work.

The filling can be anything you like. On this occasion I went for samosa-like vegetable filling made from sautéed potatoes and mixed vegetables. Few months ago I shared how those store bought bags of mixed vegetables have been baffling me forever, so I’ve been looking for ways to use them, like the meatless meatballs I made then. Here, I used that same frozen vegetable mix for these empanadas and in combination with sautéed onions and potatoes these veggies worked really well.

If you are starting from a store-bought empanada wrappers you will need to roll them out just slightly, fill them up, cover them over and make a pretty edge using a fork. Baking does not take that long, and you don’t need to worry about cooking the filling since that’s already cooked through. So, the point of the oven is to let the pastry bake until it’s nice and crunchy. I suppose you could fry these as well, but with all that fat in your dough frying these seems like a major overkill.

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Vegetable Empanadas

What you’ll need:

1 yellow onion, diced

2 potatoes, peeled, washed and diced

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

10 empanada wrappers

1 cup water, divided into 1/4 cup increments

Cooking spray

What you’ll do:

1. Preheat the oven to
2. Place a large pan over medium high heat. Spray the bottom with cooking spray, and sauté the finely diced onion for 5 minutes, or until soft and slightly browned.
3. Push the onions to the side to make room for the spices. Add the spices and let them bloom for 1-2 minutes, then mix with the onions.
4. Add the diced potatoes, mix well, and sauté for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water as you go, in 1/4 cup increments to help the potatoes cook.
5. Next, when the potatoes are almost done, add the frozen vegetables and mix well. Cook for another 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through.
6. Let the