Seed Oil Free Easy Empanadas
Flaky, golden, and stuffed with a boldly spiced beef filling, these baked empanadas are the kind of hand-held comfort food that disappears fast at any table. The buttery dough comes together with just flour, cold butter, egg, and a splash of white vinegar — no industrial oils, no shortcuts, nothing you'd need to second-guess. That matters more than it sounds, because so many store-bought pastry doughs and packaged empanada shells quietly rely on refined vegetable or seed oils as their fat base. Here, cold unsalted butter does all the work, giving the crust that satisfying snap and rich flavor that seed oils simply can't replicate. The filling is equally straightforward: ground beef browned in its own fat, sweet bell pepper, onion, garlic, warm spices, briny green olives, and chopped hard-boiled egg for a classic, hearty bite. Everything bakes at 400°F until deeply golden, so you get a crisp, egg-washed shell without a drop of frying oil involved. These are genuinely crowd-pleasing and surprisingly easy to pull off on a weeknight or weekend batch-cook session.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
For the dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- ½ cup cold water
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
For the filling
- 1 lb ground beef (80/20)
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ⅓ cup green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and roughly chopped
For assembly
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Instructions
- 1
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add the cold butter cubes and use your fingertips to work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining. In a small bowl, stir together the cold water, beaten egg, and white vinegar, then pour over the flour mixture. Stir with a fork until the dough just comes together — it should be shaggy but hold when pressed. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knead 3–4 times until smooth, then flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- 2
While the dough chills, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned throughout with no pink remaining, about 6–8 minutes. Drain off excess fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan.
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