Empanadas are great as appetizers, sides, tapas or even as an entrée served with some salad. And now we’ve come up with a way to make them sans meat, while preserving its authentic flavors—and dare we say it, perhaps our vegetarian version may taste even better than the original: as they’re quite scrumptiously addictive, but so much healthier and better for the environment and of course kinder to animals.
To keep the taste true to its original form, we’ve used the same authentic ingredients from the original recipe, but we’ve used veggie meat instead of beef, pork or even chicken. And instead of frying them, we’ve baked them. Try this recipe and you and everyone else will be so impressed with how delicious they come out, not to mention how much healthier.Â
Yields about 24-26 empanadas
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter cold and cut into very small cubesÂ
1 table spoon of cold water
1 table spoon of white vinegar
2 tablespoon of Olive Oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
4 medium cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup of golden raisins, coarsely chopped
1/3 of green pitted olives, coarsely chopped
12 ounce (1 packet) of Morning Star Griller Recipe CrumblesÂ
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
3/4 Â cup of cilantro, finely chopped
1 cup of shredded jack cheese
1 teaspoon of ground chili powder
1 tablespoon of milk (low fat or not)
Cook onion in the olive oil until translucent adding the garlic mid-way. Then add the Morning Star Crumbles, the raisins, and the olives. Mix well. Sprinkle in the tablespoon of ground cumin,  adding a little more olive oil if it starts to get dry when stirring. Then sprinkle some salt and black pepper to taste. Add the chili powder. Lastly add the cilantro. Once well incorporated, let cool for about 15 minutes. (You can roll and cut out the dough during this cooling period. See below.) Once completely cooled, add the egg, mix well to bind the stuffing. And then you’re ready to assemble!Â
Take your empanada dough and roll it out to about 1/8 of an inch, pretty thin. Use a round 4 inch dough cutter or 4 inch bowl to cut them out in rounds for the  empanada pastry.
Then mix the 2 egg yokes and the table spoon of milk in a small bowl for sealing and brushing the pastry.
Sprinkle a little of the jack cheese before adding a healthy portion of the stuffing in the middle of the circle dough, then top it with some more jack cheese, brush the edges of the circle with your egg wash. Then fold it in half to seal the pastry before crimping both sides of the edges with a fork. Repeat until finished.
Bake at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before ready to enjoy.Â
