How to Gather Ingredients for Empanadas

Empanadas are an extremely versatile Latin American dish and can be easily adapted to accommodate any menu plan or taste. By varying the ingredients from the more traditional recipes, you can create appetizers, desserts or hearty main dishes for even the pickiest eaters in your family. Your creativity should be the only limit on the types of ingredients you wish to gather for empanadas.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Prepare the dough for the empanadas. You can make the dough from scratch using a simple combination of flour, sugar, baking powder, shortening and salt or find ready-made empanada disks in the frozen food section of most grocery stores. A Latin food specialty store will have a better variety.
2. Collect ingredients for a traditional filling. This might include a tomato sauce (feel free to use store bought), diced green peppers, red peppers and onions, olive oil, tobacco, salt and pepper to taste, cumin, capers, garlic and olives.
3. Vary the ingredients for more diversity. Empanadas can be adapted to accommodate almost any menu plan. Fill them with an exotic fruit like guava and cream cheese for a delicious dessert or fill with fruit preserves for an everyday treat. Make a hearty appetizer by filling with any type of meat, poultry or seafood.
4. Accommodate the vegetarians in your party. There are many delicious vegetarian empanada recipes available. Be sure to look for vegetarian prepared dough or make your own if that is not available in your area.
5. Lay out the ingredients in logical order. Create an assembly line and involve the whole family in the preparation process.