Vegan Empanadas

4.80 from 10 votes

These vegan empanadas are the perfect copycat recipe without using any animal products. The perfect dough, delicious filling, and super easy instructions to make them exquisite every single time.

Prep Time40

Cook Time25

Total Time1 5

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: empanadas

Calories: 182kcal

Author: Andrew Bernard

Ingredients

For the Dough

3 ¾ cups flour
12 tablespoon cold vegan butter,
1 tablespoon vegan sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1 - 1 ¼ cups water

For the Filling

1 tablespoon oil (vegetable or olive)
½ sweet onion, chopped
14-16 oz frozen vegan meatless crumbles
1 red bell pepper, chopped
½ poblano pepper (sub anaheim pepper), chopped
1 ½ teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon vegan sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tsp black pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½-1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional for spice)
½ teaspoon annatto (optional for coloring)
2-4 tablespoon vegetable stock, if needed
¼ cup pitted green olives, diced
6-8 stalks green onions, chopped small

To Prepare

olive oil or unsweetened non-dairy milk

Instructions

For the Dough (Make First)

In a large (8+ cup) food processor*, add flour, sugar and salt. Pulse together.
Add COLD vegan butter, in tablespoons. Pulse until you get a sand like texture.
Add 1 cup of water and pulse until a dough starts to form. Pour a tablespoon more water at a time until you have a consistent dough that you can form into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and put into the fridge. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.

For Filling

Add oil in pan and heat over medium heat.
Add onions in and saute for 3-4 minutes until translucent.
Add vegan meat crumbles, red bell pepper and poblano peppers. Stir together.
Add spices (paprika through annatto). Stir and cook 4-5 minutes.
Add vegetable stock as needed to not dry out the vegan meat mixture and keep moist - let cook for about 5-6.
Add diced green olives and stir together. Cook until heated through, about a minute, remove from heat.
Add the green onions. Stir together and let cool.

To Prepare Empanadas

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking dish with parchment paper.
Once filling is cooled, either
(1) Weigh the dough and divide into 20 equal balls of dough and then use a tortilla press to flatten them.
Or
(2) Roll out dough to be approximately ¼” and use a large (3-4”) biscuit cutter to cut out pieces of dough.
*For any dough you aren’t using immediately (within 2-3 minutes) place remaining dough back into the fridge to keep the butter cold in the dough.
Place 2-3 tablespoon of filling on one side, leaving an edge.
Fold one side of the dough over to the other and make the ends meet each other. Press the edges together carefully. Finish by pressing the edges down with a fork to seal or pinching pleats along the edge. Place on baking sheet, repeat with remaining dough and filling.
Before placing into the oven, lightly brush empanadas with oil (for a more golden brown color) or non-dairy milk for a lighter color.
Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

Notes

*You can also do this in a bowl as well. See post for details.

Nutrition