I checked out a nice hefty stack of vegetarian cookbooks from our fabulous downtown public library a couple of weeks ago, and I've tried several recipes, all good, no duds.
Here's one completely worth sharing, with my variations so I'm not just plagiarizing. You can seriously come up with 8 delish empanadas in the time it takes your oven to pre-heat. Unlike the cookbook that swore I could have stuffed tomatoes and white bean salad on the table using only one bowl and it could all be finished in the time it took me to boil pasta. That was bullshit. Delicious, delicious bullshit. This is just delicious. And quick.
Rice and Bean Empanadas:
Buy, Find or Improvise:
>One can black beans (you'll use 1/2 cup)
>One can refried beans (pinto or black, you choose-- you'll use 1/2 cup)
>Some rice (I buy the Uncle Ben's brown rice in the 90-second microwave bag-- you'll use about 1/2 to 3/4 cup cooked)
>About 1/2 to 1 cup shredded cheese, depending on your cheese needs (mine are high)
>Some frozen corn if you have it
>Green Salsa, regular salsa, or guacamole (and don't forget sour cream) to top
>2 refrigerated Pie Crusts-- find in the dairy section next to the biscuits.
>Use or don't use: Carrot shreds or any other vegetable or jalapeno pepper or chiles or what-have-you that sounds good in Empanadas. Be cautioned not to use big chunks of anything, we're making smooshy blobs of filling and the elbows of red pepper slices don't need to be sticking out.
To Make:
Drain and rinse the black beans.
Make the rice.
Mix refried beans, black beans, rice, cheese, and frozen corn and other stuff you may or not be adding. You'll have leftovers of this mix at the end, combine 'em in a keeper container of your choosing and your husband will take the leftovers to work with tortillas and make burritos for his li'l lunch, or you will eat them later in the week, or your toddler will eat them for lunch, or something.
Roll out your pie crusts-- you'll probably use both of them. Cut them into quarters. I bought round ones, but it doesn't matter.
Spoon your mix onto half of each pie crust piece, fold over and crimp the edges.
Cut two little slits on the top of each empanada.
Bake about 20 ish minutes in a 400 degree oven.
This should make 8 empanadas-- we had 2 each for dinner (Bird had one), and the other three for lunch the next day. Hooray for Mileage!
1 comment:
Hey! Made these last night and Rocketman loved 'em. The only thing I added was a little chopped up onion and they were terrific. The only downside was that I got the song "Girl from Ipanema" stuck in my head and sang it as the "Girl from Empanada" the entire night. RM got a little weary of that. HA! Thanks for sharing - always can use vegetarian meal ideas.
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