Sweet potato, mushroom and spinach empanadas with cumin and cilantro

If I had realized how easy it was to make empanadas I would have been making them for years now. The crust is so flaky and buttery and the inside is slightly smoky with both savory and sweet notes from the potatoes, spinach, herbs and seasonings. Making the dough and forming the empanadas is so simple! I make mine spicy by adding cayenne pepper but that is of course optional. Another great optional ingredient is shredded cheese if you want to add some creaminess. These are awesome for parties. I recommend serving them with your favorite salsa and/or guacamole. It is a really unique variation to traditional empanadas.

RECIPE TUNES (because everything is always better with music)
Forget to Forget by Shy Martin  • Burn the House Down by AJR  • Heaven Only Knows by Bob Moses

INGREDIENTS

For the Dough

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs (one for the dough and another separately beaten for brushing on the empanadas).
• 1 stick of unsalted butter chilled and cut into smaller cubed pieces
• 1/4 cup ice-cold (or just very cold) water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Filling

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1/2 small/medium onion diced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 8 oz package of mushrooms of your choice chopped up (Photo reference in recipe below to see how much to chop.)
• 2 cups/1 bag of spinach chopped (Photo reference in recipe below to see how much to chop.)
• 2 large pinches of kosher salt and pepper (I keep a small bowl of kosher salt and pepper that are mixed together on my counter.)
• 1/4 cup olive oil (or oil of your preference) PLUS a little extra oil to coat the pan before cooking onions

OPTIONAL

• 1/2-1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• Shredded cheese (Mexican blend recommended but any you like is fine.)

LET’S COOK!

First Let’s Make Your Dough

1. Mix flour and salt in a food processor.
2. Add the cut up chilled butter, one egg and cold water to the flour mixture.
3. Mix/pulse your food processor until your mixture resembles coarse crumbs and starts looking like it is all binding together.
4. Remove the mixture and shape it into a ball.
5. Wrap the dough with plastic and place it in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes.

Now to make the filling 

1. You first need to shred the sweet potato. You can either use your food processor attachment (as seen in pic below) that quickly shreds things or if you do not have a food processor with an attachment you can also use a grater with the larger sized shredding side (also seen in pic below). I shred mine with the skin on but if you prefer without that is up to you. Photo below of what it looks like when it is shredded.
   
2. Now that the sweet potato is shredded place it into a large bowl and add in chopped mushrooms, 1/4 cup olive oil, cumin and 1-2 pinches of kosher salt and pepper to season.
   
3. Mix it up well and set it aside.
4. If you have not already done so, chop up the cilantro and the spinach and set them aside to add shortly. (Pics here to show you approximately how much I use of each and what it looks like chopped.)
   
5. Coat a large, deep pan with olive oil and cook the chopped onions until they become translucent and start to brown.
6. Add in the sweet potato-mushroom mixture and mix with your onions. Cook this on medium to high heat, covering and stirring now and again for about 10 minutes until the potatoes start to get some brown edges and taste cooked through. (They will be soft inside but some edges may be a little crispy: YUM.) See below for reference what it looks like.
   
7. If you like spicy food add cayenne pepper and stir.
8. Mix in the cilantro and spinach and cook just long enough for the spinach to wilt. (Only takes a minute or two.)
   
9. Set aside the mixture in a bowl and let it cool. You will fill your empanadas soon.
   
10. When you are ready to fill and bake the empanadas lightly flour a surface to roll out the dough on. Roll it to a fairly thin sheet. (I did half of the dough at a time.) As you can see below, it doesn’t need to be rolled perfectly. You will cut out some circles and then need to re-roll the dough a few times to use it all.
    
11. Using either a round cutter or as in my case a small bowl, cut out empanada circles. You can set them aside to fill once you are done cutting them all.
    
12. Beat one egg and have a brush ready to use as an egg wash.
13. Put a small scoop of the filling in the center of your dough and then brush the edges of the empanada disc with the beaten egg to help better seal them. (As seen in pics below.)
    
14. If you wanted shredded cheese to add sprinkle a little bit on top of the filling now.
15. Fold the empanada discs and seal the edges with a your fingers and then press the edges with a fork to seal it all as seen below.
    
16. Brush the top of the empanadas with the rest of the beaten egg.
    
17. Chill the empanadas for about 20 minutes. (I put them in Tupperware as seen here.)
    
18. Pre-heat the oven to 400º F and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.
19. I recommend serving these with guacamole and salsa. MMMMMM, SO YUMMY!

ENJOY!

INGREDIENT VISUALS