Sweet Potato Empanadas

We received four huge sweet potatoes in our produce box this week and I was stumped as to what to do with them. I am trying to make every effort not to cook what is easiest or most comfortable for me, thus sweet potato casserole was out of the question (Jonathan really wanted this)! A recent trip to Dos Perros in Durham brought to mind homemade sweet potato empanadas. Not a single cookbook I own has a recipe for this, so I had to research the interwebs for one. This is how I stumbled upon Naturally Ella.  I read through Naturally Ella's blog entry on making sweet potato empanadas and felt confident that I could try my hand at it too! I was also stoked that Naturally Ella provided several recipes that included sweet potatoes. Armed with a sweet potato empanada recipe, as well as several more recipes featuring sweet potatoes, I was anxious, nervous, and excited to get started cooking!

The dough took me awhile to get together. I used my hands, since I did not have a pastry blender (happy Ella told me I could do this, since I really do not need another kitchen gadget). I left my dough in the fridge for well over an hour, as I had a couple errands to run (I can't spend my whole weekend cooking)! I made enough dough for twelve empanadas since Naturally Ella said the dough was okay to freeze (I will let you know how this turns out later this week when I make the remaining empanadas).

The hardest part was chopping the sweet potatoes into small cubes.  My sweet potatoes were so large it took me while to get them to the right size. I loved the colors of the sweet potatoes against the red bell pepper and onions. 

Prior to Cooking

Cooked

I forgot the black beans! I didn't even realize it until after we had eaten the empanadas. However, unlike Naturally Ella, I did not forget the cheese. Since I was curious what the empanadas would be like without cheese, I made half with feta and half with no cheese at all- both were great!

Rolling the Dough to Make a 6" Empanada

Filling the Empanada

I have never done an egg washing before, because I have never made anything resembling a pastry. My only complaint is that it seems impossible to use all the egg wash, which made me feel very wasteful. Per Jonathan’s interwebs research, it seems as though you can keep the egg wash for a couple of days. Since I only made half the empanadas, I refrigerated the egg wash and will try to use it when I make the remaining empanadas this week. At least I will feel half as wasteful if the egg wash keeps. 

Egg Wash and Paprika Sprinkle

I was very excited about my final product- it looked and tasted awesome. Sorry Dos Perros, but my sweet potato empanadas are way better! 

Baked and Read to Eat

Jonathan and I love Jack's Special Salsa, but thinking this may be too tangy for the empanadas we went with Garden Fresh Gourmet's Sweet Onion Salsa. I think this was a great choice, as it complimented the chipotle flavor and toned down the spice.

Afterthoughts:

I highly recommend this recipe to those of you who are growing, buying, or have on hand sweet potatoes. I am thinking that these empanadas may even replace my sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving this year. Next time I will remember to add the black beans for added color, fiber, and protein, even though they were delicious without!