Spinach & Cheese Empanadas

Host your very own empanadas night and prepare our delicious Spinach and Cheese Empanadas! This traditional Latin American dish is a great meal to prepare when entertaining friends and family, making for a wonderful addition to any appetiser spread. The spinach and cheese filling is what ultimately makes or breaks this recipe!

The Toughened Nonstick Pro Saucepan is the best piece of cookware to prepare the béchamel sauce, complementing the spinach filling to perfection. Ideally, the filling should be refrigerated overnight! The beauty of this recipe is the flexibility it offers chefs as the filling options are truly endless.

Our Spinach and Cheese Empanadas may take time to prepare, but are well worth the effort, delivering the ultimate bite-sized snack for the whole family to enjoy. This recipe takes just under an hour to come together, once the filling has rested overnight, and can serve up to four portions at a time. Here are all the ingredients you need and the steps to follow before tackling this classic recipe!

Dough
Make sure the butter is cold (fridge temperature).

Mix the flour and salt together.

Cut the butter into 1 cm cubes and mix into the flour by hand or in a food processor until the butter is in lentil-sized pieces.

Add the water and work the dough quickly until it is well integrated and smooth.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 3 hours.

Filling
Defrost the spinach and squeeze out the excess water.

Prepare a béchamel sauce: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft. Add the garlic and flour and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add milk and bring to a boil. Let cool to room temperature.

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate overnight.

Assembly
On a floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin to ¼ centimeter thickness.

Cut out 5-inch wide circles from the dough. You can re-roll the leftover dough once by pressing it together and rolling it again on a floured surface.

Place about ½ cup of filling in each shell. Fold over and crimp with a fork, or check out our Instagram for a “repulgue” tutorial (the classic crimping of Argentinian empanadas).

Place the empanadas on an ovenproof baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Brush them with the beaten egg.

Freeze overnight. Once frozen, they can be stored in a freezer bag for up to 2 months.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the tray with the frozen empanadas in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of Beba