Make empanadas and elevate your leftovers

I love leftovers. Specifically, I love turning 'em into another different and delicious meal. And stuffing leftovers into an empanada is a winning strategy. Plus, if you've got extra (leftover leftovers!), they freeze up great for a quick weeknight meal!

If you're lucky enough to have a good Latin or Afro-Caribbean grocery store, you'll find empanada wrappers in the freezer section. You're looking for discs of dough, usually in 10-packs, 4-6 inches across, separated by little plastic sheets. They might be labelled "for baking" or "for frying". In my experience, the baking ones cook up flaky like a puff pastry, and the frying ones are made of a sturdier dough that's good for baking too. Try whatever you can find, they're all pretty good!

(And if you want to make your own dough, go for it! But since I learned about frozen wrappers, I haven't bothered to make my own. Here's a recipe!)

Honestly, it seems a little silly to write this up. Just buy wrappers, stuff 'em with whatever leftovers you've got (beef stew with root vegetables and green chile pork are frequent flyers in my kitchen) and cook per the package instructions.

But for bean empanadas, you'll want to make refried beans first! Good thing I just wrote up that recipe, eh? I made this batch with black beans, which are super tasty cooked simply, but I doctored mine up a bit. Make 'em however you like!

Ingredients

• 1/2 batch beans (what kind? see below) with broth
• 1/2 onion
• 2 carrots
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoom Mexican oregano (is it the same as regular oregano? see below)
• Soy sauce (optional)
• 1 package (~10) frozen, pre-made empanada wrappers
• Stretchy cheese, like Oaxacan, monterey jack or mozzarella (optional)

Tools

• A sheet pan (or two) for thawing the dough and baking the empanadas
• A bowl of water (optional)
• A measuring cup (optional)

Steps

First, cook a pot of beans

What kind of beans? I cooked up a pot of black beans last week and this recipe uses the leftovers. I really like refried black beans, but use whatever you've got in the fridge! Pintos would be an obvious choice, but if you like your refried beans extra creamy (like, milkshake-creamy) try mayocobas.

Thaw your wrappers

I usually just move my wrappers from the freezer to the fridge, a full day ahead of time if you remember, but a half day should do the trick. Put 'em on a sheet pan if you want to accelerate the process. (An aluminum sheet pan, in the fridge, is a great help for safely defrosting anything really. I always use one when defrosting meat.) It's okay if they're still a little frozen in the middle, they'll soften up as you peel and fill them.

Make refried beans

I'm not gonna rewrite everything for this post. Just follow my refried bean recipe, adding carrots alongside the onions and garlic. When the veg is soft, add the paprika, cumin and Mexican oregano, and sauté a bit longer. Add the veg to the beans and cook and mash until everything's thickened up.

What's up with Mexican oregano? It's a delicious herb you should be able to find in the Mexican section of your grocery store. It'll most likely be in a bag hanging on a rack — not packed into a little jar with the usual spices. It's unrelated to Greek/Italian/regular oregano, but if it's all you've got on-hand, that would be be delicious too. Or skip it!

When they're done, taste. Since we're stuffing the beans into empanadas, we'll want them to be a bit more flavorful and salty than usual. If they need more salt, try stirring in a little soy sauce. It really amplifies the beany flavors!

Let the beans cool down, and refrigerate until they're cold and you're ready to make empanadas!

Stuff, crimp and bake your empanadas

From here on out, the recipe will depend on your wrappers. You'll want to preheat the oven to 350F, or whatever temp is on the package. Going one empanada at a time, scoop enough filling so that you've got ample room to pinch a good, thick seal.

I like to use a measuring cup for filling, so after I've futzed around with quantity of stuffing in the first couple, I can move quickly for the rest. Your goal is to fill it nicely, but not have any beans leaking into your seams.

If you want to add cheese, here's your chance! I made this match without, but if I had some Oaxacan cheese on hand, I definitely would have added a little hunk inside each empanada.

To make sure my seam is nicely sealed, I keep a little bowl of water next to my board, so I can dip my finger in and wipe half inch wide strip of water around the edges. But if your wrapper is already pretty sticky, you might not need to do that.

Now, the tricky part: crimping! If you don't want a hassle, just use the tines of a fork to crimp the seams closed. But if you want it to be pretty, they're not hard to pinch closed. Here's a pretty good video that's helped me learn how. (Your first few might be a little messy! That's okay! Once they're baked, they get a lot prettier.)

Finally, since I used huge (7-8") wrappers, I cut a few slits into each empanada to let steam escape. (Not pictured below, because I didn't think about it until after I started baking them!) If you're using smaller (4-6") wrappers, you probably don't need to take this step.

Once you've filled the sheet pan, toss 'em in the oven and cook until they're golden brown. (For the extra fancy treatment, brush them with a little egg wash before baking, though I never bother.) If you've got more filling and wrappers, get started on the rest!

What's next?

I really like empanadas served with a little salsa and/or a simple green salad for dinner. If you've got leftovers (I usually do), let them cool completely and toss them into a bag for the freezer. They're great reheated in the toaster oven!

Hope you're enjoying Bean Tips! I've got a long list of recipes to write up, but if you've got any requests, let me know!