Dora Empanadas

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I called these Dora Empanadas as embarrassingly, the recipe comes from an old Dora the Explorer cooking book which kiddo had when she was a toddler.  We've had the book for years but have never made anything from it.  Flipping through the other day, kiddo convinced me to make these vegetarian empanadas for her lunch box.  It was a good idea. These were filled with veggies, travelled well and would be an ongoing lunch box staple as well as a picnic option for us.

I tweaked the Dora recipe a bit, namely I put the veggies in a food processor so that they are nice and fine.  And I sauteed the veggies in a little oil for flavour rather than just boiling them.

Ingredients for 24 empanadas

• Store bought short crust pastry
• 1 cup of broccoli florets
• quarter cup of carrots
• half cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• a little bit of olive oil for sauteeing.  

Method:

• Pre heat fan forced oven to 160 degrees C.  
• Blitz the broccoli and carrot in the food processor
• On a medium heat, heat a little oil in a pan and sautee the vegetables until al dente
• In a large bowl, mix the cooked veggies with the cheese and season to taste
• Cut out 24 circles (I used a large tumbler glass as a template) in the short crust pastry.  
• Place a little bit of the filling in each circle of pastry, fold over into a half moon shape, seal the edge.  Use a fork to crimp the edges and to poke a few holes into the body of the empanada to let steam escape later.  
• Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until pastry is cooked and achieves a toasty brown colour.  

Nom away.  The Dora the Explorer cookbook suggested serving this with salsa.  So I did.

Cheerio.