From Scratch Veggie Empanadas

Flaky, savory, HEALTHY vegetable patties that are sure to be a hit with all who try them!

Wanna spice up your lunch a little bit?

When I learned how to eat in a way that didn’t contribute to disease, I followed a nutritional plan that was full of recipes, but I was often too lazy to make most of them. I pretty much found EASIEST recipes to make, and stuck with them. But, this resulted in me eating the same stuff over and over again.

Variety is the spice of life! In this lifestyle, you’ve got to switch things up in the kitchen, or you’ll get bored. I love when I try recipes, and my food turns out amazing!

This is one of those foods.

I give you, these absolutely scrumptious Hearty Veggie Empanadas!

Even though a little bit of work went into creating this dish, lemme assure you: it was well worth it! In learning to eat healthier for the sake of my bowels, skin, and overall health, I knew I had to leave the enriched, bleached, all purpose white flour alone. So, I’ve really been rocking with spelt flour for the past couple of years. And while I do love spelt flour, it’s just really, really dense for some recipes.

I’ve really been missing a lighter and flaky flour that the enriched, bleached, all purpose flour gave me. Unfortunately, that flour was no longer an option for me, and the whole grain spelt flour was too thick, so, what’s a girl to do when faced with this conundrum?

Listen to her friend and incorporate organic, unbleached, white spelt flour into her cooking, that’s what! White spelt flour came through for me with flying colors. With spelt flour, there’s no clogging up the digestive track and giving candida and/or parasites their favorable food choice. I can enjoy these empanadas guilt-free because I know they’re not hurting my body, causing me to break out, or wreaking havoc on my hormones. Plus, these empanadas are just so good and flavorful! If you’ve never tried white spelt flour before, do yourself a favor and please do! I wasn’t able to locate any in my local grocery stores, so I ordered mine here.

You simply must try these empanadas!

From Scratch Veggie Empanadas

Makes 10-11 Empanadas

Ingredients

Pastry

• 2 cups of white spelt flour
• 2 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt
• 1/2 cup of ice water
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil

Filling

Whatever you want! I used:

• 1 small potato (peeled and cubed)
• 1 palm full of organic cherry tomatoes, chopped
• 1 purple onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp of chopped jalapeno
• 3 or 4 organic mini peppers, chopped
• 3/4 cup ackee (drained) *optional*
• 3/4 cup coconut milk or nut milk of choice
• 1/2 tsp. Pink Himalayan sea salt
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp sea salt or however much your taste buds require
• black pepper to taste (maybe about 1/2 tsp)

Supplies

To make this process a lot easier, I love to use these little pastry dough presses. They’re very cheap, and very handy in the kitchen. They’re not needed for this recipe, though. If you don’t have one, don’t worry. I’ll show you what to do to prepare your empanadas.

To prepare the pastry:

Ensure the 1/2 cup of coconut oil is solid and water is ice-cold. (I measured out 1/2 cup coconut oil while the coconut oil was liquid, and put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes or so until solid).

Place the flour into a large bowl. Add in the onion powder and sea salt. Stir well. Chop the solid coconut oil into small cubes and place it into the bowl. Using your hands, or a hand held pastry blender began to blend the flour and coconut oil for 2 minutes. It should look like and have the consistency of wet sand once it’s blended.
Then, pour your ice-water in gradually (you may require less or more water depending on the variety of spelt flour) and knead the dough to form a ball. Set aside, or wrap the dough ball in cling film and place into the fridge while you prepare the filling of your pastry.  

To prepare the filling:

Heat grapeseed oil in a pan and place in the chopped onion, garlic. Sauté until soft and place in the diced sweet peppers, chopped mushrooms, cubed potato, and your spices. Continue to stir and pour in the coconut/nut milk. Reduce heat and simmer stirring occasionally until potato has softened and sauce has thickened up. Turn heat off and place rinsed ackee into the pan. Gently fold the ackee in, adjust seasoning if necessary and cover pan with lid. Allow the filling to cool.

Putting it all together:

Time to reach for your pastry dough. Get your pastry dough, or if you placed it in the fridge, remove it from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F. 
Divide the ball of pastry dough into 10 sections with a sharp knife. Take 1 small dough section (keeping the remaining covered with the cling film) and knead out any hardened coconut oil pieces.

If you have a pastry dough press:
Roll the small section into a ball with your hand and lightly dust your clean work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll out the dough flat until you are able to cut out a circle shape with the bottom of a 14cm pastry dough press. That is, place the pastry dough press on top of the flattened dough and press down and circle the press around the dough. Get the rounded, cut out dough and place it on the top of the pastry press, over the ridges. The dough will be the exact size of the pastry dough press.

If you don’t have a pastry dough press:

No worries. Just roll out the small section of dough flat until you are able to cut out a circle shape with a 14cm cutter or bowl.

Now, cut out the pastry removing the edges and fill one half of the pastry (avoid filling close to the edge!) with 1 tbsp of filling. Brush the edges with water and if you have a pastry press, just fold the press close with care. If you don’t have a pastry press, fold over the pastry to close it (I sometimes use a spatula to help lift and fold over the pastry). Secure edges by pressing down with your finger and then use a folk to seal. You now have an uncooked empanada!

Now, place empanada very carefully on a lined, large flat baking tray and repeat process until you have used up all the dough. One tray may suffice, by you could need 2 baking trays. Gently brush the top of the empanadas with nut milk, or coconut oil and place into the oven for 18-20 minutes until they have a golden tint. Remove empanadas and allow them to cool for 10 minutes on the tray.

Transfer them to a cooling rack or enjoy right away!!