Print

Lentil and Spinach Empanadas

Print Recipe

Vegan empanadas with lentil and spinach recipe – Argentinian Inspired

Ingredients

Scale

Filling

  • One yellow onion, roughly diced
  • One head of garlic, roughly minced
  • 10 ounces of frozen chopped spinach
  • 1 14 oz can of cooked lentils
  • Kosher salt to taste
  • Fresh ground black peppercorn to taste (optional but I love it!)

Dough:

  • 6 cups or 720 grams of  all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/4  cups or 9 ounces vegetable oil (see notes when scaling up)
  • 1 cup or 8 ounces cold water – I use tap water since our tap water is good

Instructions

  1. Open the can of cooked lentils and drain the liquid into a small bowl. This lentil brine will be used to brush onto the empanadas for shine. Set aside.
  2. Rinse the lentils and set aside.
  3. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and cover with olive oil when hot. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and onions. Cook at this heat for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden and the edges of the garlic bits start turning brown.
  4. Add the spinach and cover the pan to steam for 6-8 minutes. Uncover the pan and cook on medium for another 3-4 minutes or until all the spinach is no longer solid from fridge. Salt to taste.
  5. Add lentils and cook for just one more minute since the canned lentils are already cooked. We’re just mixing it at this point. Salt to taste.
  6. Turn off heat and let sit to cool and then store, covered, in fridge until needed.
  7. To make dough, combine flour, salt, vegetable oil and cold water in a bowl and mix thoroughly until you get a springy and smooth dough. I use a mixer and have it on medium for about 6-8 minutes.
  8. When done, cover the mixing bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes.
  9. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  10. Remove both the dough and filling from the fridge. The dough will be slightly greasy but you will not need to flour your surface because of this.
  11. Start rolling out your dough by taking ping pong ball or golf ball-sized dough from the bowl and shaping it into a round ball ball. Flatten it with the side of your fist and roll it out to make a wrapper. It should be about 5 inches diameter and doesn’t need to be a perfect circle. The dough should not be super thin or thick but it should be slightly thicker in the middle.
  12. When you have your empanada wrapper ready, take a tablespoon of the filling and put in the center. Shape it slightly into a log. Fold over one size of the empanada over the other side so you have somewhat of a half moon. Seal by pressing down on the edges of the flaps where there is no filling. Then fold the flap over to and take the ends of the now combined flaps and combine them to fully secure.
  13. When done, put on a silicone mat or parchment paper-lined tray. Continue assembling empanadas until they can all go on the tray without touching.
  14. When the tray is full of empanadas, brush each empanada on the tops and sides with the lentil brine. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a golden brown.
  15. Serve with chimichurri sauce.

Equipment

Notes

  • When scaling up: The empanada dough portion of the recipe scales differently due to the oil. If you scale up, reduce the scaled adjustment of the oil by 25%.
  • Make sure to salt to taste.
  • Assembled but raw empanadas are good in the freezer for 2-3 months.
  • I don’t have any advice on reheating because I don’t eat leftover empanadas. But this looks like a good guide.

Find it online: https://bakeroise.com/lentil-and-spinach-empanadas/